Afghanistan now joined Denmark, which for 16 years of a UN protectorate in Kosovo had two heads of UNMIK. By the decision of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the outgoing UNMIK chief Farid Zarif will be replaced by his compatriot Zahir Tanin, Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in the world organization. The ninth head of the UN Mission in Kosovo should take office on August 31.
Due to the announcement on the “reconstruction” – a new reduction of UNMIK, in order to accommodate the results of the Brussels Agreement, a “spring cleaning” in the house awaits Tanin. Also yet has to be agreed whether his work, as in the case of his predecessor and compatriot, in practice, would be reduced to writing quarterly reports to Ban Ki-moon and interventions that would provide legal cover for “normalization of relations” between Belgrade and Pristina. Official Pristina repeatedly has asked the UN Security Council to abolish UNMIK and for several years back grows an arrogant attitude towards the heads of this mission, while Belgrade sees it as “guarantor of the status of neutrality of international presence and an essential factor of stability in Kosovo and Metohija.”
Zahir Tanin (1956) has a degree from the Medical University in Kabul, but he came to diplomacy through journalism. He began his career in 1980 as a journalist, then Editor-in-Chief of Akhbar-e-Haftah and Sabawoon Magazine in Kabul. At that time he was the vice president of the Association of Journalists of Afghanistan. After two years of service as associate researcher at the Department of International Relations, London School of Economic and Political Science, he worked first as a producer, and then the editor of the World Service BBC. His specialties were Afghanistan and Central Asia, especially the relationship between Afghanistan and Iran.
In 2006 he has taken the office of the Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the United Nations and since then actively participates, as a member of the presidency, the meetings of the General Assembly of this organization. He has been involved in many peace processes. He belongs to the diplomats who advocated for reform of the UN Security Council, warning “major players in the international order” that “extinguishing economic fires in the global village” cannot be an excuse for “neglect of the needs of modernization of institutions of international peace and security.” He has authored or co-authored several books: “The communist regime in Afghanistan” “Afghanistan in the 20th century”, “The Oral History of Afghanistan in the 20th Century”, “Afghanistan on the world stage.”
