Secretary-General Pays Tribute to ‘Service and Sacrifice’ of Slain

 

UN Colleague Alec Collett, at New York Memorial Service

 

(Delayed in transmission.)

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s tribute to Alec Collett, read by Nicholas Haysom, Director, Political, Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Affairs, Executive Office of the Secretary-General, at a memorial service in New York, 21 January:

Alec Collett was abducted in Lebanon on the 25^th of March 1985.  His remains were recovered only last year, 24 years later.  There is now reason to believe that he was senselessly and cold-bloodedly killed sometime after his abduction.  Today we belatedly celebrate his life, respect and honour his service and sacrifice.  We also take this moment to share his family’s loss and to help bring closure to a long period of anguish and uncertainty.

Alec Collett was evidently much loved and admired by his family and friends, and equally held in high esteem as a veteran and professional journalist.  I am here to remember him first and foremost as a United Nations colleague.  Alec Collett had been long associated with the United Nations, even before he served as the director of the United Nations Information Center in Ghana.  At the age of 64, he volunteered to work in a dangerous zone for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East(UNRWA) to highlight the plight of a vulnerable Palestinian refugee population.  The Secretary-General has specifically asked that I convey, however belatedly, his and the Organization’s condolences, to you, Mrs. Collett, and to his family, and to express his sincere and deep regret that he could not be here personally.

Mrs. Collett, the Secretary-General would also like to pay tribute to your own courage and strength.  For all these years, you have continued working tirelessly for the United Nations, upholding the same values your husband died serving.

The reason the Secretary-General could not be here, sadly, is due to the intense demands of dealing with the Haitian crisis.  Yet, it is fitting that this memorial to Alec Collett should take place alongside the Haitian tragedy while many of our colleagues are experiencing the trauma caused by the loss of family members, colleagues and friends.

It is fitting because Alec Collett himself has become the world wide symbol for United Nations staff missing, detained, or disappeared.  The 25^th of March, the date on which Alec was abducted, is now recognized as the day of solidarity with detained and missing United Nations staff members.  On this day, we express our concern for those still missing, our hope that the detained will be released, and our determination that even if only after a quarter of a century, questions will be answered and closure obtained.  It is no accident that the 25^th of March is chosen to mark this annual remembrance.  For Alec Collett was a journalist who respected the highest ideals of truth telling and was universally regarded as a committed colleague and true international civil servant.  It is in acknowledgment of this that ever since 1986 Alec has been the Honorary President of the United Nations Correspondents Association.

We do not regard Alec’s sacrifice as a case of his being “at the wrong place at the wrong time”.  Rather, it was a case of Alec being exactly where he was needed by the United Nations, where he wanted to be, in service of his ideals and those of the United Nations, in working for the larger goal of peace and justice.

Alec’s abduction marked the beginning of the deterioration of the security environment in which our staff now work in many parts of the world.  As we, in New York, work to address this increasing threat to staff safety, we have heard from our field staff the response that they do not expect to work in a risk-free environment.  They do, however, demand that their service and sacrifice be meaningful, and make a real contribution to lasting solutions.

In my country, South Africa, on just such occasions where we pay tribute to a fallen colleague, we say:  “Hamba kahle, Alec, we will pick up your spear,” meaning loosely:  “Go gently, Alec, because we will continue your work until it is done.”

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For information media • not an official record