ACCESSION NUMBER:292999

FILE ID:AEF204

DATE:07/06/93

TITLE:ENVOY TO SOMALIA RANKED BY CLINTON AS AMBASSADOR (07/06/93)

TEXT:*93070604.AEF  SUB:SOMALIA  CO:AMB. GOSENDE NOM.,#RC(FR),JS,HRsp

*AEF204   07/06/93 *

1

ENVOY TO SOMALIA RANKED BY CLINTON AS AMBASSADOR

(FR) (Robert Gosende accorded new title)  (210)

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton has accorded the personal rank of

ambassador to Robert Gosende, the special U.S. envoy for Somalia.



The White House announcement about Ambassador Gosende was made July 2, along

with the nominations of three other persons:  Edward Perkins, former

American ambassador to Liberia and South Africa, as ambassador to

Australia;  Victor Tomseth, a career diplomat since 1966, as ambassador to

Laos; and Toby Gati, senior vice president for policy studies at the United

Nations Association of the United States, as assistant secretary of state

for intelligence and research.



Ambassador Gosende has been the U.S. special envoy for Somalia since the

beginning of 1993; in 1992 he worked in Somalia for several weeks while he

was a diplomat-in-residence at Georgetown University's School of Foreign

Service in Washington.



He began his diplomatic career at the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) in

1967, and his overseas assignments have included South Africa, Poland,

Somalia, and Libya.  At USIA headquarters he has held such high-level

positions as director of the Office of African Affairs and deputy director

of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.



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