Edouard Wattez was born in Paris to doctor and radiologist E. Wattez and his wife Colette Marandet , on 22 Novembre 1941 . The family , whose roots lay in France 's Northern lace industry and Scotland , lived in Paris where Edouard Wattez and his 3 siblings were brought up . He studied for a year at the Sorbonne University in Paris , before enrolling in the Paris Institut de Sciences Politiques ( ' Sciences Po ' ) where he studied Public Law , Economics and Political Science . He also studied International law and Political Economy at Panthéon-Assas University . In 1966 , he served his civil service as a French teacher and Head of Cultural Affairs at the French Embassy in Malawi for two years . He moved back to Paris to take on a position in the Banque Nordique de Commerce , which he left after 3 years , definitely renouncing to a banking career after having found his calling in Third World Development . His first appointment following this professional U-turn was at the United Nations as a United Nations Development Programme ( ‘ UNDP ’ ) Programme Officer & Assistant General Representative for Senegal , Mauritania and Gambia , based in Dakar , Senegal , leading large-scale governance and public administration reforms in the region . Just before departing to Dakar in 1971 , he met his future wife Genevieve Jeanne Massip in New York , the daughter a Colonel Marcel Massip and niece of French journalist Roger Massip and French writer and 1963 Prix Interallié winner Renée Massip . They married in Dakar in 1972 and in 1973 arrived their first and only child , Garance , born on Dakar 's Gorée island . ' '' 1978 – 1987 – the early years in Fiji and New-York ' '' In 1978 , he moves with his family to the Fiji islands to become the United Nations Development Programme deputy representative and then representative for Pacific Operations . In 1982 , he transferred to the United Nations headquarters in New-York as Senior Regional Project Officer of the regional bureau for Asia and the Pacific and then as Senior Officer for Emergency Operations in Africa . ' '' 1987 – 1990 – the Rwanda years ' '' He moved back to Africa , in Kigali ( Rwanda ) in 1987 as UNDP resident representative just prior to the 1990 period of unrest which laid the foundations for the 1994 Rwandan genocide , setting up and implementing the UN 's security plans and coordinating local agencies . ' '' 1990 – 1994 – the Cambodia years ' '' In 1990 , he was put in charge of re-opening the Phnom Penh Office of the UN in Cambodia which had been shut down following the 1975 Khmer Rouge-led civil war and genocide which had led to the shutting down of most multilateral agencies . He stayed there until signing of the October 1991 Paris Peace Accords . As a UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Phnom Penh he fully re-established the UNDP/UN presence in the country as he launched the first very large post-war UNDP Programme of US$ 140 mln , over 5 years . Under the aegis of the UNHCR and with the International Labour Organization , he coordinated the repatriation and resettlement of 450,000 returnees from the Thai border ( CARERE Programme ) . In collaboration with the UNTAC ( UN Transitional Authority for Cambodia ) led by Under Secretary-General Yasushi Akashi and the United Nations Volunteers ( UNV ) , he contributed to organising the first general democratic elections . ' '' 1995 – 1997 – the Jerusalem years ' '' As a Special Representative of the UNDP Administrator in Jerusalem , he was responsible for the Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People ( PAPP ) in the Palestinian territories , based in East Jerusalem . Programmes covered the West Bank and Gaza . In light of the local intricate political situation , UNDP ’s programme of assistance to the Palestinian People served as a channel for several multi-bi programmes , especially for Japanese and Nordic funds
Rwandan genocide
Rwandan genocide
Edouard Wattez