SECRETARY-GENERAL CONVEYS DEEPEST CONDOLENCES TO FAMILIES, FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES OF MONUA PLANE CRASH VICTIMS
Press Release
SG/SM/6903
AFR/133
SECRETARY-GENERAL CONVEYS DEEPEST CONDOLENCES TO FAMILIES, FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES OF MONUA PLANE CRASH VICTIMS
19990224 Following is the text of a message of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the memorial service for the victims of the two United Nations Observer Mission in Angola (MONUA) plane crashes, which was delivered today in Luanda by the Secretary-General's Special Representative to Angola, Issa B.Y. Diallo:It is with profound sadness that I convey my deepest condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the victims of the two plane crashes that struck MONUA on 26 December 1998 and 2 January 1999. My outrage at these events has not subsided, nor have my sympathies with their loved ones, nor has my determination to ensure that their sacrifice will not have been in vain. They were all courageous men and women who fought on the frontline of peace -- to bring help to the needy, to bring comfort to the bereaved, and to bring peace to a people who have suffered for too long from the ravages of war.
The past year has been one of challenge and tragedy for your mission. Only last June, we were greeted with the terrible news of another plane crash, one that took the lives of my former Special Representative, Maître Alioune Blondin Beye, and five MONUA staff and two crew members. You have confronted this and subsequent setbacks with courage and determination, and you have redoubled your efforts to bring peace to the people of Angola, knowing that it would be highest tribute you could pay to the memory of those who have perished.
United Nations staff have long risked -- and sacrificed -- their lives in their efforts to bring peace to Angola. That is why I have called repeatedly on the responsible leaders in Angola to honour those efforts by guaranteeing the safety and security of all United Nations staff. Let me take this occasion to assure all of you that the United Nations will intensify its efforts to revisit the crash sites and recover the remains of our fallen friends and colleagues.
Let me also recall with you the extraordinary accomplishments of their service in Angola: ending a terrible war which took the lives of hundreds of thousands; achieving the Lusaka Protocol; establishing a Government of
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National Unity and Reconciliation; and creating a National Assembly. These are successes of which we will always be deeply proud, and which ought to serve as a foundation for a genuinely lasting peace. It is deeply tragic and troubling, therefore, that Angola's leaders now seem prepared to allow these hard-won achievements to unravel.
My thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families of those whose memory we honour today. Their service has honoured the United Nations.
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