In progress at UNHQ

SG/SM/8253

SECRETARY-GENERAL VISITS MEMORIAL TO UKRAINIAN JEWS KILLED IN 1941 AT BABI YAR; VOWS ALL HIS POWER ‘TO FIGHT THE HATRED AND EVIL THAT SO DISFIGURE OUR WORLD’

03/06/2002
Press Release
SG/SM/8253


SECRETARY-GENERAL VISITS MEMORIAL TO UKRAINIAN JEWS KILLED IN 1941 AT BABI YAR;


VOWS ALL HIS POWER ‘TO FIGHT THE HATRED AND EVIL THAT SO DISFIGURE OUR WORLD’


Following are the remarks of Secretary-General Kofi Annan on 3 June at the monument to Ukrainian Jews killed in 1941 at Babi Yar:


I wanted to visit Babi Yar to express my solidarity with the victims of the anti-Semitism and intolerance, and as a sign of my resolve to do everything in my power to fight the hatred and evil that so disfigure our world. 


The unspeakable acts of murder permitted here half a century ago will always remind us of man’s capacity for evil.


In the last few months, attacks on synagogues in a number of European countries have happened.  These attacks should trouble people everywhere who are concerned about human rights and human dignity.


* *** *

For information media. Not an official record.