Jan Papanek: 100th anniversary: diplomat, delegate, defender of democracy.

It is indeed symbolic that Dr. Jan Papanek - Czechoslovakia's first Permanent Representative to the United Nations, whose 100th birthday is on the list of UNESCO Anniversaries for 1996-1997, was born on 24 October, the day now celebrated as United Nations Day. Among other things, Dr. Papanek is remembered for his courageous stance at the United Nations during the 1948 Communist takeover in his country.

A graduate of Ecole libre des sciences politique and Institute des hautes etudes internationales in Paris, Mr. Papanek started his career at the Czechoslovak Foreign Ministry in 1922, serving several diplomatic posts in Europe and the United States. After Czechoslovakia's March 1939 collapse due to the Nazi Germany intervention, he joined the Czechoslovak foreign resistance led by Eduard Benes, the country's President, and became head of the Czechoslovak Foreign Action, which in 1942 was reorganized, moved from Chicago to New York and renamed the Czechoslovak Information Service.

In 1945, as Secretary of his country's delegation to the San Francisco Conference, Dr. Papanek helped lay the foundation for today's United Nations by participating in the drafting of the UN Charter. The following year, he became Czechoslovakia's Ambassador to the United Nations.

Yet, it was a bittersweet honour, for it represented a political compromise between adversaries at home - President Benes and Foreign Minister Jan Masaryk on one side, and the Communists on the other.

On 25 February 1948 - the day of the Communist coup in his country - Dr. Papanek informed United Nations Secretary-General Trygve Lie that Czechoslovakia's political independence had been violated by the threat of the use of force on the part of the Soviet Union and, since that situation endangered the maintenance of international peace and security, it should be brought to the attention of the Security Council.

On 21 May, when the Council, after protracted debates, invited Mr. Papanek to make a supplementary statement, the valiant ambassador said he had submitted facts concerning the Soviet Union's support of Czechoslovak Communists at the time of the crisis, Soviet pressure on the Czechoslovak delegation at the San Francisco Conference and in the General Assembly, and Soviet troop movements. In conclusion, he suggested a number of prominent witnesses who would be able to give evidence.

However, the draft resolution on the subject submitted by Chile - which would have appointed a "subcommittee of three members ... to receive or to hear such evidence, statements and testimonies, and to report to the Security Council at the earliest possible date" - was vetoed by the Soviet Union. Jan Papanek was withdrawn as Czechoslovakia's ambassador to the United Nations. Nevertheless, with the assistance of Chilean diplomats, he exposed at the 1948 General Assembly in Paris the role of the Soviet Union in the coup.

While Dr. Papanek gained world renown, he realized he could never return to his homeland or serve the government in power. He turned instead to relief efforts for Czechs and Slovaks fleeing to the West. The American Fund for Czechoslovak Refugees, which he headed for the next four decades, aided more than 150,000 people - not only Czechs and Slovaks, but also Bulgarians, Poles and Romanians, as well as refugees from Asia. In addition, Dr. Papanek co-founded and was a long-time board member of the leading exile political body - the Council of Free Czechoslovakia - and served such international humanitarian organizations as CARE, the International League of Human Rights and Amnesty International.

The collapse of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1989 came as a tremendous relief to Dr. Papanek. Unfortunately, his ill health did not allow him to actively participate in his country's turn to democracy - a struggle to which he had devoted his life. He died on 30 November 1991 in Scarsdale, New York, far from his native Slovakia.