Czech ambassador dies in Pakistan hotel blast

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-21 19:26

PRAGUE, Czech Republic -- Ivo Zdarek was a month into his new posting as Czech ambassador to Pakistan.

He was staying temporarily in the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad when it was hit by the massive truck-bomb that killed him and at least 52 other people.

The Czech Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site on Sunday that Zdarek, 47, had been inside the hotel at the moment of the blast. It described him as an expert on Chinese studies who arrived in Islamabad only in August after completing his four-year mission as ambassador in Vietnam. He was married with two sons but was staying without his family at the Marriott, a favorite spot for foreigners and the Pakistani elite.

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg called Saturday's attack an attempt to destabilize Pakistan after presidential elections there and welcomed the resolve of the Pakistani government to continue in the fight against terrorism, the state-funded CTK news agency reported.

The Czech Republic is an ally of the US in Afghanistan, and the government plans to increase the number of troops in NATO and US-led missions there to 700 next year.

Born Nov 6, 1960 in the northern Czech town of Trutnov, Zdarek studied diplomacy in Moscow, specializing in Chinese studies and at the Faculty of Law in Prague in the 1980s.

He worked in various diplomatic positions in China and at the Foreign Ministry in Prague.

He moved into the position of deputy consul in at the Czech Consulate General in China's city of Shanghai in 1991, then took charge of the office the following year. Later that year, he moved the Czech Embassy in Beijing as its third secretary.

In 1993, he underwent a diplomatic training program at Hoover Institution's of Stanford University in the United States, the ministry said.

He also served as general consul in Shanghai from 1995-99.

Among his hobbies were history, music and sports, the ministry said.