Assistant High Commissioner accepts new appointment

UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner Kamel Morjane, 57, has accepted a new appointment as Tunisia's Defence Minister. Mr Morjane, who oversees all UNHCR's operations worldwide, is in Tunis today to be sworn in to the new cabinet. His leaving date from UNHCR, where he has had a long and very distinguished career, has not yet been set but he will take up his post as defence minister in early September.

Mr Morjane, an international lawyer, joined UNHCR in 1977 as a legal officer and rapidly rose through the ranks. During his career he headed up the South-west Asia, North Africa and Middle East bureau, and the Africa bureau, becoming Assistant High Commissioner in October 2001. Mr Morjane's career has also extended outside UNHCR on several occasions. From November 1989-August 1990 he was Chargé de Mission at the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Tunisia, then from late 1996 to February 2000 Tunisia's ambassador to the UN in Geneva and later, for nearly two years, he was Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the UN for the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We wish him every success in his new post and will miss him greatly.