Senior official of UN development agency killed in Uzbek plane crash

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today mourned the death of its top official in Uzbekistan, who was among the 37 people killed in the crash of a passenger airliner Tuesday in the capital Tashkent.

UNDP confirmed that Richard Conroy, its Resident Representative and UN Resident Coordinator in Uzbekistan since 2001, was aboard the aircraft that crashed while approaching Tashkent airport.

UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown offered condolences to Mr. Conroy's wife, Anna, and praised him as "an example of integrity, competence and commitment to the UN's highest ideals."

A statement issued by a UN spokesman in New York said Secretary-General Kofi Annan was deeply saddened to learn of Mr. Conroy's death and described the UNDP staffer as a "dedicated and indefatigable international civil servant."

The statement recalled that Mr. Conroy arrived to take up his duties in Uzbekistan two weeks before the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. "It was his steadfast efforts that led to the opening of the Friendship Bridge to Afghanistan, allowing for crucial provisions to flow in from the Uzbek border town of Termez" - the town he was returning from when the accident occurred, spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

"The Secretary-General remembers with gratitude the support and expertise provided by Mr. Conroy during the Secretary-General's visit to Uzbekistan in October 2002," Mr. Eckhard added. "He extends his profound condolences to Mr. Conroy's wife and family."

A citizen of Australia and the United Kingdom, Mr. Conroy, 56, joined UNDP in 1990 and served in China, Sri Lanka and India before assuming his post in Uzbekistan.