The Washington Diplomat

Appointments, July 2003

Belarus
Mikhail Khvostov became ambassador of Belarus to the United States on May 23, with concurrent accreditation as nonresident ambassador to Mexico. Ambassador Khvostov previously served in Washington from 1992 to 1993 as first secretary at the Embassy of Belarus, as well as first secretary at the Belarus Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (1991-92). More recently, Ambassador Khvostov served as ambassador to Canada (1997-2000) before becoming an adviser to the president of Belarus, deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs (2000-03). Ambassador Khvostov also served as his nation’s deputy minister of foreign affairs (1994-97) and as director of the State Protocol Department and the Legal and Treaties Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1993-94), in addition to holding various posts within the ministry from 1982 to 1991. The English- and French-speaking ambassador is a graduate of the Minsk State Institute of Foreign Languages and the Belarusian State University. He is married with two children.

Laos
Bounneme Chouanghom assumed the position of first secretary on May 29. Chouanghom previously served as director of the Americas Division at the Europe and Americas Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1996-2003). Prior to that, he was assigned to the Embassy of Laos in Vietnam (1993-96) and the Laos Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York (1980-83). Chouanghom also served as a staff official at the Press Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1983 to 1993.

Mai Sayavongs departed the post of second secretary on May 28 after working at the embassy since 1997. Before his posting in Washington, Sayavongs worked as a member of the Drug Control and Supervision Committee in Laos (1996-97) and the Lao-Myanmar Boundary Demarcation Committee (1991-96). He joined the Department of International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1989.

Sierra Leone
Ibrahim M. Kamara became ambassador of Sierra Leone to the United States on May 8. A former ambassador and high commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba and the Republic of Korea (1999-2003), Ambassador Kamara served as the permanent representative to the Sierra Leone U.N. Permanent Mission in New York (1999-2003), as well as ambassador to Ethiopia and ambassador and high commissioner to Uganda, Kenya, Mozambique, Lesotho, Tanzania, Israel, Madagascar and Zambia (1996-99). During that time, Ambassador Kamara was also Sierra Leone’s permanent representative to the Organization of African Unity and the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa. In addition, Ambassador Kamara served as national chairman of the People’s Democratic Party of Sierra Leone (1994-96), general manager of the OSTENACO mining and trading company in Sierra Leone (1992-95), and a member of Parliament for the Kambia, North-West constituency (1985-92). He also held positions as the minister of social welfare and rural development (1985), the minister of lands, housing and country planning (1979-85), and the minister of lands (1978-79). Ambassador Kamara studied at Fourah Bay College at the University of Sierra Leone, the Modern Tutorial College in London, and the North East London Polytechnic division at the University of East London, earning a bachelor’s degree in land surveying sciences. He is married with four children.