16/7/2004
Jan Pronk: Special Representative for the world's conscience

by Mirjam van den Berg

Third time lucky. A proverb that certainly holds true for Dutchman Jan Pronk. In December 1993, he refused the position of vice-Secretary-General of the United Nations. When the Dutch government nominated him for the function of UN High Commissioner for Refugees in October 2000, Secretary-General Kofi Annan preferred another Dutchman, former Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers, who got the post the following year. But in June 2004, the moment was finally there: Jan Pronk was presented to the world as a key representative of the United Nations. 'Special Representative for Sudan' is the title Mr Pronk recently added to his resumé. Hardly surprising for the man once described as the 'Minister of National Conscience' by another former Dutch Prime Minister, Wim Kok.

Jan Pronk's new task is to establish enduring peace in violence-ridden Sudan. Although the country has been in the news mostly for the ethnic conflict in Sudan's western region of Darfur, the south has been the stage of a 20-year long civilian war. The Sudanese government and the resistance movement SPLA reached agreement on a ceasefire not too long ago. A UN mission, under the direct responsibility of Jan Pronk, will monitor the implementation of the peace-agreement.

Johannes Pieter Pronk, born in The Hague in 1940, has ample experience with the problems Africa and other third world countries are facing. A member of the Dutch Labour Party, the 'Partij van de Arbeid', Mr Pronk served three terms as Minister of Development Co-operation in governments of different political composition.

Jan Pronk got the taste of working with the United Nations in 1980, when he took up a five-year post as vice-Secretary-General of UNCTAD, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Mr Pronk chaired international climate conferences in 2000 and 2001 and was a special envoy for the UN during the summit on sustainable development in Johannesburg in 2002. Ever since, he has been Kofi Annan's special advisor on the matter.

However, Mr Pronk developed a particular relationship with, and sense of responsibility for the less fortunate in this world at a much earlier age. During his studies in Economic Science in Rotterdam, he was a volunteer for the Dutch Red Cross. Every year, the Minister-to-be would spend time on the 'Henri Dunant', a ship especially adapted to welcome handicapped people aboard for a holiday. In the 1970s, Mr Pronk played a crucial role in negotiating Suriname's independence. Partly thanks to Mr Pronk's efforts, the former Dutch colony received 1.6 billion euros in development aid.

In his long political career, Jan Pronk has become known as a hard, but above all honest worker, the latter not to the liking of everyone. In his early years as Minister of Development Co-operation, he received fierce criticism on his support of liberation movements in Africa and Cuba.

After the Dutch Institute of War Documentation published a inquiry in April 2002 on the Dutch peace mission in Srebrenica, a mission that ended disastrously with the murder of thousands of citizens within the enclave, Jan Pronk publicly announced he felt he had to resign as Minister of Public Housing, City Planning and Environmental Issues in the second government led by party-member Wim Kok. Within a week, the entire government handed in its notice.

Mr Pronk was also the one that pleaded for official Dutch apologies to the former colony of Indonesia for political misbehaviour, a sensitive issue in Dutch politics, and not appreciated by the political establishment. Mr Pronk's strong condemnation of Indonesian former president Soeharto's dictatorial administration, in 1992, was another controversial point. Notably the criticism on the human rights situation on the Asian archipelago led to the end of development co-operation between the two countries.

Recently, Mr Pronk made Dutch headlines by calling Dutch Minister Verdonk's eviction policy of asylum seekers the 'deportation of human beings', recalling painful memories of the Second World War.

One can say that Mr Pronk has drastically changed the face of Dutch development co-operation with third world countries. Apart from positions on the boards of a dozen committees, councils and commissions, Mr Pronk's efforts brought him an honorary degree of the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. Once a student leader and tour-guide, Mr Pronk has worked his way up to peace-bringer and peace-keeper in Sudan. Not bad for someone who became famous for nodding off during parliamentary meetings, due to constant jet lags.