IRI Statement on the Death of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke

Washington, DC – “IRI was saddened to hear of the passing of Ambassador Richard Holbrooke.  During his career, beginning as a Foreign Service officer in Vietnam, to his work in the Balkans and the Dayton Peace Agreement that ended the war in Bosnia, to his service as US Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, he deftly handled some of America’s most challenging foreign policy issues. 

“IRI was honored when he spoke at the Women’s Democracy Network’s Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Award dinner in 2009 and presented the award to Professor Homayra Haqmal of the Movement of Afghan Sisters.  Upon the occasion he said, ‘Every trip I make overseas in the last eight years to any country where IRI and the National Democratic Institute are present I always ask to meet with them independently of the embassies and the young men and women who are working in these places invariably are more knowledgeable and closer to the ground than anyone else.’

“Our thoughts are with Ambassador Holbrooke’s family and friends.”