Nauru president dies in Washington hospital, spokeswoman says

Associated Press | March 9, 2003

[HAL9000]

MELBOURNE, Australia, Mar 09, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Nauru's President Bernard Dowiyogo, 57, has died in a U.S. hospital, a spokeswoman for the Pacific island nation said Monday.

Dowiyogo died at 7:40 a.m. local time (2040 GMT Sunday) at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington, said spokeswoman Helen Bogden, who is based in Melbourne.

Dowiyogo had undergone an 11-hour heart operation last Tuesday.

Bogden said the U.S. Air Force had agreed to fly Dowiyogo's body back to Nauru later in the week for a funeral service. Dowiyogo is survived by a wife and four children.

A diabetic for 30 years, Dowiyogo had undergone coronary artery bypass surgery in Melbourne in 2001 and required alternate-day dialysis.

His health deteriorated rapidly after his return to the presidency in January. About four weeks ago he underwent an emergency operation in Nauru by an Australian surgeon who happened to be visiting the island.

Situated about halfway between Australia and Hawaii, Nauru has a population of about 12,300 people living on an island of 8 square miles (13 kilometers).

Dowiyogo first became an elected member of Nauru's 18 seat parliament in 1973 and served his first term as president from 1976-1978 after ousting the island's head chief and first president, Hammer DeRoburt, who had won independence for Nauru from Australia in 1968.

Over the next 25 years, Dowiyogo navigated the twists and turns of the unpredictable Nauruan political landscape to serve further terms from 1989-1995, 15 days in 1996, 1989-1999 and 2000-2001, before finally regaining office for the last time in January, 2003.

In 2001, Nauru agreed to accommodate hundreds of asylum seekers from Australia in return for more than Australian $17.4 million a year in aid.

Copyright 2003 Associated Press, All rights reserved

[Defiant]

Did we get his proxy for the Security Council vote?