Chilean delegate to UN rights body ignored president in vote on Iraq

SANTIAGO (AFP) Mar 29, 2003
Chile's delegate to the UN's top human rights body ignored President Ricardo Lagos' instruction to vote against calling a special meeting on Iraq, Foreign Minister Soledad Alvear said Saturday.

"What Ambassador (Enrique) Vega did is very serious. When a minister, an undersecretary, a governor, an ambassador -- people the president of the republic trusts -- do not follow decisions the president has made, the result is very clear," Alvear said on returning from Europe.

Vega abstained from the vote in Geneva, when Lagos had told him to vote against holding a meeting on the current humanitarian and human rights situation in Iraq as a result of the US-led war, Alvaer said.

Alvaer was to meet with Vega later Saturday.

Vega, whose sacking is widely expected, returned Saturday from the UN Human Rights Commission meeting without speaking to the press.

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