DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL PAYS TRIBUTE ON DEATH OF HUMAYUN CHOUDHURY OF BANGLADESH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL PAYS TRIBUTE ON DEATH OF HUMAYUN CHOUDHURY

OF BANGLADESH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

This is the text of a statement to the General Assembly today by Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette on the death of Humayun Rasheed Choudhury of Bangladesh, President of the forty-first session of the Assembly in 1986.

On behalf of the Secretary-General, myself and all the Secretariat, I join you, Mr. President, in expressing my sincere condolences on the death of Humayun Rasheed Choudhury.  Our thoughts today go to his family and to the Government and people of Bangladesh.

Humayun Choudhury was not only a wonderful envoy for his country and a fine Speaker of his country's Parliament.  He was also a world citizen and a veteran of world diplomacy.  During a long and distinguished career that began before the birth of the State of Bangladesh, he not only witnessed history being made.  He took part in making it happen.  He represented his country with devotion, and served at the United Nations with distinction.  At a challenging time in the life of this Organization, we were privileged to have him as the President of the forty-first session of our General Assembly.

Later in his life, he understood well the paramount challenge facing the international community at the start of the twenty-first century -- the need to put people at the centre of everything we do.  Only two years ago, in a speech to Asian parliamentarians, he summed it up eloquently -- and I quote:  “Our political commitment is certainly important, but even more so is the demand of our citizens for peace, in the heart of the common man, in the villages and the cities.”  On behalf of the United Nations, allow me to join him in that appeal, and give thanks for his contribution in making it heard far and wide.

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