ORGANIZATION OF ISLAMIC CONFERENCE AND UN ARE NATURAL PARTNERS IN CAUSE OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY

2 October 1997

Press Release
SG/SM/6348

ORGANIZATION OF ISLAMIC CONFERENCE AND UN ARE NATURAL PARTNERS IN CAUSE OF PEACE AND PROSPERITY

19971002 Secretary-General Kofi Annan Tells Annual Coordination Meeting of OIC Foreign Ministers

Following is the statement of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the annual coordination meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), at Headquarters today:

I am very pleased to join you today for this important meeting in our common home, the United Nations. I would like to pay special tribute to His Majesty King Hassan and Mr. Ali Alatas for their leadership of the OIC at this pivotal time in the organization's history. The efforts of Secretary-General Laraki to strengthen your cooperation with the United Nations are deeply appreciated here.

Your presence today -- and the fact that you have made this meeting a United Nations tradition -- is remarkable testimony to the bonds between our two organizations. It reflects our shared heritage of commitment to justice and to peace, to tolerance and to equality. And it complements your active role in the deliberations of the General Assembly.

The OIC has been a bridge and a bastion for almost 30 years: a bridge to the world community and a bastion of principle and advocacy on behalf of Islam and its peoples.

The work and voice of your organization spans the entire globe. It promotes peace and advances the kind of understanding between cultures that is a condition for international cooperation. That is why the partnership between the OIC and the United Nations is so important. That is why it holds such promise for all the peoples of the United Nations.

I have made cooperation with other international organizations a cornerstone of my efforts to advance peace and promote development through the United Nations. The conditions are right; the need is clear; and the potential is vast. Pooling our efforts and coordinating our activities, we can take on far greater challenges.

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We can seek new ways of ending conflicts and pursue new strategies for ending poverty. We can make the most of our aspirations.

The OIC and the United Nations have already joined forces in a number of areas: promoting social and economic development; increasing peace and security; protecting fundamental human rights -- all called for by General Assembly resolutions.

We have forged new bonds in our peacemaking efforts, including in Afghanistan, Somalia and Tajikistan. In many of these efforts, I am pleased to say that we have achieved progress in bringing the parties together and limiting the civilian casualties.

In Tajikistan, we recently witnessed the signing of the Final Peace Accords in Moscow, an agreement to which we jointly made a significant contribution. By coordinating our efforts, we achieved an agreement that now must form the basis of a lasting peace.

In Afghanistan, however, we still have a long way to go. Despite painstaking and persistent efforts by the OIC, the United Nations Special Mission and my Special Envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, fighting continues.

Civilians are under constant and mortal threat. The cities and towns still suffer from heavy bombardments. The work of reconstruction that Afghanistan so desperately needs is made more difficult for every day that the conflict continues.

We must do more to see it end.

That effort involves all parties: the combatants, the United Nations, the OIC and the neighbours and regional actors whose influence can and must make the difference between the persistence of a brutal war and the dawn of peace.

I call on you to renew your efforts, so that Afghanistan can escape this spiral of violence and destruction and begin to live again as a full and prosperous Member of the United Nations.

The OIC and the United Nations are natural partners in the cause of peace and prosperity.

By building consensus and sharing our burdens, we can bring new momentum to the process of democratization and prosperity for all.

I wish you a very fruitful meeting and look forward to joining you in Tehran for the OIC Summit in December.

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