SECRETARY-GENERAL APPEALS TO LEADERS OF NATIONS IN WAR TO SET ASIDE THEIR OWN AMBITIONS
Press Release
SG/SM/6692
OBV/56
SECRETARY-GENERAL APPEALS TO LEADERS OF NATIONS IN WAR TO SET ASIDE THEIR OWN AMBITIONS
19980904 Resist Temptation To Seek Glory Through Conquest, He Says in International Peace Day MessageFollowing is the text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's message on the occasion of International Peace Day, 9 September:
On this 1998 International Day of Peace, too many parts of the world are at war. From the Balkans to Central Africa, innocent men, women and children are the victims of indiscriminate attacks and are left to a life of despair, dispossession and exile. The sanctity of life -- the very basis of human coexistence -- is being violated primarily by political and military leaders who exploit division to advance their own agendas with no regard for the cost in human loss and suffering.
I appeal, therefore, on this Day of Peace, to all the leaders of nations in war to set aside their own ambitions and think of their peoples, to resist the temptation to seek glory through conquest, and to recognize that peaceful statesmanship alone will bring them and their peoples the rewards they deserve. Without legitimate and honourable leadership responsive to the needs and desires of their peoples, no amount of interaction or aid, no amount of development or cooperation, will make the difference between war and peace.
The United Nations was founded in the name of "We, the Peoples", and it is the peoples of the world in whose service we labour. To help them secure their lives and livelihoods, to aid them in their escape from tyranny and oppression, and in so doing to bring nearer the day when the peoples of the world may live in peace, is our cardinal mission.
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