SECRETARY-GENERAL CONTINUES VISIT TO BENIN, ADDRESSES FRANCOPHONE SUMMIT
Press Release
SG/T/2009
SECRETARY-GENERAL CONTINUES VISIT TO BENIN, ADDRESSES FRANCOPHONE SUMMIT
19951204 (Received from the spokeswoman travelling with the Secretary-General.)On Saturday, 2 December, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali delivered an address at the opening ceremony of the Sixth Francophone Summit in Cotonou, Benin. Forty-seven States participated in the Summit. Of those, 20 were represented by heads of State or government, the others by ministers or special envoys. The opening ceremony took place from 11:15 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the Kouhounou Friendship Stadium.
At 9:30 a.m., preceding the opening ceremony, the President of Benin, Nicephore Dieudonne Soglo, received the heads of States and delegations and the Secretary-General at the Palais des Sports. During that period, the Secretary-General had the occasion to encounter several heads of States and government, including the President of France, Jacques Chirac, the President of Chad, Idriss Deby, and the Prime Minister of Belgium, Jean-Luc Dehaene.
At 11:15 a.m. the ceremony opened with the "100 voices" chorus of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) singing the Francophonie hymn. The President of Benin then welcomed the delegations and announced the theme of the conference, "Francophonie: A forum for the exchange of views and North- South solidarity for sustainable human development". He expressed the hope that Francophonie would become a political force that contributed to peace in the world.
The following speakers then addressed the Summit: the Foreign Minister of Mauritius, Randuth Jaddos, who was also President of the Summit; the President of France, Jacques Chirac; the Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chretien; the President of Gabon, Omar Bongo; the President of Senegal, Abdou Diouf; and the Secretary-General of the United Nations (for the Secretary- General's address see Press Release SG/SM/5830 issued 1 December).
At 3 p.m. the Secretary-General received a delegation from Nigeria headed by the former Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Special Envoy of the President of Nigeria, Maitama Soule. The meeting lasted one hour, during which they discussed the situation in Nigeria, particularly following the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others, as well as the process of democratization.
- 2 - Press Release SG/T/2009 4 December 1995
At 8:30 p.m. the Secretary-General attended the official dinner hosted by the President of Benin in honour of the participants in the Francophone Summit.
On Sunday, 3 December, the fourth day of his visit to Benin, the Secretary-General participated in a two-hour debate with the President of France, Jacques Chirac, and the President of Benin, Nicephore Soglo, on French Television.
At noon, the Secretary-General attended, at the Francophone Summit headquarters, a debate on the use of the French language at the United Nations. The Secretary-General elaborated on the use of French as one of the two working languages of the United Nations Secretariat at Headquarters in New York, recalling the adoption by the General Assembly on 2 November, of a resolution on multilingualism.
At 4 p.m. the Secretary-General met the Vice-President of the Permanent Francophone Council and Ambassador of Mauritius to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Shirin Ziffra.
The Secretary-General spent the rest of the day meeting bilaterally with heads of State and government attending the Summit. At 4:50 p.m. he met the President of Cameroon, Paul Biya, with whom he discussed the issues before the next Organization of African Unity (OAU) Summit scheduled for June 1996 in Yaounde, Cameroon. At 5:20 p.m. he met the President of the Central African Republic, Ange-Felix Patasse, with whom he reviewed African affairs and the importance of dialogue and negotiations in the establishment of peace.
At 6 p.m. he met the Prime Minister of Togo, Edem Kodjo. They reviewed the problems of refugees in Africa. At 6:15 p.m. he met the President of Senegal, Abdou Diouf. They conducted a large-scale review of the problems of Africa, including United Nations efforts to resolve the Western Sahara issue. They also discussed the financial crisis of the United Nations.
At 6:30 p.m. the Secretary-General received and congratulated the President of Guinea-Bissau, Joao Bernardo Vieira, for the election of his country by the General Assembly to become a non-permanent member of the Security Council and thanked him for Guinea-Bissau's contribution to peace- keeping operations.
At 6:50 p.m. the Secretary-General met the President of Mali, Alpha Oumar Konare. They conducted a tour d'horizon of African problems with special reference to the efforts of the United Nations and how those were complemented by regional organizations. At 7:30 p.m. he met the Prime Minister of Tunisia, Hamed Karoui. They reviewed international issues, particularly the peace process in the middle East and the former Yugoslavia. At 8:15 p.m. the Secretary-General met the Prime Minister of Rwanda, Pierre Rwigema, with whom he discussed the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR).
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