Mr Alatas was one of Indonesia's best known political figures. He was born on November 4, 1932 in Jakarta, and graduated from the Academy for the Indonesian Foreign Service in 1954, and from the Faculty of Law at the University of Indonesia in 1956.

He served as Indonesia's foreign minister from 1988 until 1999, and shot to international prominence during the country's withdrawal from East Timor in 1999.

He was also Indonesian ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva from 1975 to 1978 and New York from 1982 to 1988, according to the Indonesian news agency Antara .

Mr Alatas was appointed as Indonesia's special envoy to Myanmar (Burma) in 2003, a role in which he called for the release of detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. He assumed the role of the UN Secretary-General's Envoy for UN Reform in 2005, and promoted a comprehensive agenda put forward in the report "In larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All."

In recent years, he served as a member of the High-Level Group of the UN Alliance of Civilizations, and as an advisor and special envoy of the President of Indonesia.

He will be missed.