The United Nations mediator in the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy, Sir Oliver Jackman, died in his native Barbados , officials said yesterday. He was 76.
Jackman, a well respected jurist and former diplomat, passed away Wednesday of colon cancer.
The director-general of the Guyanese Foreign Ministry, Elisabeth Harper, lamented the death of Jackman, appointed by then-U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 1999 to oversee efforts to resolve Venezuela's claim to the mineral- and timber-rich Essequibo Region, which represents about two-thirds of Guyana's land area of 83,000 square miles.
“Clearly, it is a loss of a brilliant mind and someone we thought highly of,” Harper told Efe.
Aubrey Norton, the foreign affairs spokesman for Guyana 's main opposition party, declined to say whether Jackman's passing would affect the U.N. mediation process.
“It is more difficult when we have one who is seeking to narrow the gap between two countries involved in a border settlement but we hope we could get over this period,” Norton said.
Guyana and Venezuela will have to agree on a new mediator from among a list of candidates to be submitted by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon.
Jackman had succeeded Sir Alister McIntyre of Grenada .
After 20 years in the Barbados diplomatic service, Jackman embarked on a second career as an international jurist and diplomatic troubleshooter.
Serving from 1986-1993 on the Haitian Truth and Justice Commission, he was elected in 1995 to a six-year term on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, a body of the Organization of American States. (EFE)