New UNFICYP spokesperson appointed

Dominican Jose Luis Diaz, a United Nations official with extensive experience in media liaison with the world body, has been appointed as spokesperson of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP).
Diaz comes to Cyprus from Geneva, Switzerland, where he served as spokesperson for United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour and her Office. He has also been based in Cambodia and South Africa, working as part of United Nations peacekeeping and electoral operations. Among his public information activities within the United Nations, he worked as spokesperson of an investigative team established by the Secretary-General in 1997 to look into allegations of massive human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He joined the media operation of the UN human rights office in 1998, working since then with former High Commissioners Mary Robinson and the late Sergio Vieira de Mello, as well as with the present United Nations human rights chief.
Before joining the United Nations as information officer in Geneva in 1990, Mr. Diaz worked in the United States for publications including The Nation magazine and the New York-based Guardian Newsweekly.