Government proposes Bronislaw Geremek for senior United Nations post

The government has officially proposed Bronislaw Geremek as a candidate to become the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. As Poland's representative in Geneva, Tomasz Knothe, confirmed yesterday, Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz sent a letter to United Nations General Secretary, Kofi Annan regarding the issue on April 11. Professor Geremek is a historian, specializing in medieval French history. He joined the communist party after completing academic studies, but resigned after the soviet backed invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. In 1980 he became a well-known Solidarity supporter and advisor to Lech Walesa. As a leader of the Democratic Union (UD) he was appointed as Prime Minister in 1991 but was unable to create a government. After the right-wing election victory in 1997, Geremek became Foreign Minister. The final choice of the successor of Mary Robinson, who has excluded herself from the running again for the post, is up to the General Assembly of the United Nations, which will make a decision during an autumn meeting in New York. (Zycie, p. 17