Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan doesn’t look much like a fire-breathing ecowarrior. With an Iranian passport, an American education, a Geneva address and a long career as a U.N. diplomat, he’s not the sort of man one expects to rage about man’s inhumanity, the spooky power of multinational corporations or the toothlessness of many U.N. institutions. But he does.

While the outside may be simple, the rooms inside are crammed with exotic bibelots, orchids, oriental rugs and textiles. But then Prince Sadruddin is the younger son of Sir Sultan Mohamed Shah, Aga Khan III - the Imam, or leader of the Ismaili Shia Muslims. Their family's bloodline can be traced back to the Prophet.

Turgut Ozal is the president of Turkey. Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, a Geneva-based leader of the Ismaili Muslims, a sect scattered from Iran to Pakistan, is the special representative of the secretary general of the United Nations for Humanitarian Affairs relating to issues arising from the Iran-Iraq War. Ozal's statement and the * question-and-answer exchange that follows with Aga Khan took place in Davos, Switzerland, during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

Coordinateur pour les Nations Unies de l'aide humanitaire et économique en Afghanistan depuis mai 1988. Consultant spécial et chargé de mission auprès du Secrétaire général de l'Organisation des Nations Unies depuis 1978. Rapporteur de la Commission des droits de l'Homme des Nations Unies sur les questions des personnes déplacées (1981). Haut Commissaire adjoint (1962-1965) puis Haut Commissaire des Nations Unies pour les réfugiés (1965-1977).

Following the historic agreement signed in Geneva on 14 April 1988 between Afghanistan and Pakistan, on 11 May the UN Secretary General appointed Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan to the position of Co-ordinator for United Nations Humanitarian and Economic Assistance Programmes relating to Afghanistan. Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, who held the post of UN High Commissioner for Refugees from 1966 to the end of 1977, granted this exclusive interview to REFUGEES in September 1988, in which he defined his aims and priorities.

Q: Your Highness, this is a very important Energy Conference. It's the first of its kind in the world, at least the first since 1963, What do you think will be the outcome of this particular Conference?

Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, who was the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from 1965 to 1977, heads the "Groupe de Bellerive," an independent commission studying world problems. While in New York in December 1980 to work with U.N. Secretary Kurt Waldheim on resolving the crisis in Iran, Prince Sadruddin was interviewed by WorldPaper about his views on Iran and about the 1980s.

Commenting on the situation in Iran, Prince Sadruddin said that it was understandable and it could have been foreseen.