Sérgio Vieira de Mello

Leading UNHCR's repatriation work in Cambodia in the early 1990s, Vieira de Mello dealt with rival factions, including the Khmer Rouge, as refugees returned from camps in Thailand. The wider operation brought hundreds of thousands home before the 1993 election. His example exposes an uncomfortable part of access work: contact with abusive armed groups could be necessary, while neither contact nor return guaranteed lasting safety.