Sir, - The Irish Foreign Minister Dick Spring is reported to be lobbying hard to secure the post of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for the President, Mrs Mary Robinson. Why Mary Robinson? Surely the position should go to the representative of the Latin American countries Ms Sonia Picado Sotela, Costa Rica's ambassador to the United States, so that she can complete the four year term of the first High Commissioner, Mr Jose Ayala Lasso who vacated the position early to become Foreign Minister of Equador.
A representative from Costa Rica (population 2,500,000 and no full time army) would be an appropriate choice. It was Costa Rica which originally proposed the idea of a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and revived the idea in the 1960s and 1970s.
The report from the EU foreign ministers meeting in Noordwijk in Holland, which suggested that Mexico and Chile might support Mary Robinson, is a little mysterious. It was the representatives of Mexico and Chile who handed in the application of Costa Rica on behalf of the Latin American countries. - Yours, etc.,
Bantry Road,
Dublin 9.