DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL PRAISES "FALLEN ARCHITECTS OF PEACE" IN REMARKS AT MEMORIAL STAFF DAY CEREMONY

Press Release
DSG/SM/105
OBV/160

DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL PRAISES ‘FALLEN ARCHITECTS OF PEACE’ IN REMARKS AT MEMORIAL STAFF DAY CEREMONY

Following are the remarks of Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette at the Memorial Ceremony on Staff Day in New York, on 25 September:

Every year, on Staff Day, this flag-raising ceremony honours colleagues and loved ones who have given their lives for the United Nations. But our recognition does not end with this ceremony. How could it? How could we ever forget the joy and inspiration brought into our lives by these beloved, irreplaceable colleagues? How could the communities in which they worked ever forget their compassion and dedication? And, most of all, how could their families ever forget their loved ones?

Since Staff Day last year, 65 peacekeepers and civilian staff have lost their lives. We will be hearing their names called one by one in this ceremony. Each one was an individual, who had a life, a job, talents, ideas, friends, family.

Let us remember Mensah Kpognon of Togo, a veteran staff member of the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), murdered in cold blood two weeks ago in Guinea, who leaves behind a wife and four children. Let us remember Garfield Lyle of Guyana, a mechanic with the United Nations Mission in Haiti, who had a terrific smile and who leaves behind a wife and five children. Let us remember Private Leonard William Manning, who fulfilled his boyhood dream of joining the army, only to be killed this past July while on patrol for the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). Let us remember all the many others whom we have lost during the last year.

Danger in the field does not need to lead to death, for it to leave its ghastly mark. Many staff members have been held hostage, assaulted or raped. Others have been detained with their fate unknown, leaving their families to imagine only the worst. I know you share my prayers that Ms. Laurence Djeya, abducted by the same attackers who murdered Mr. Kpognon, will be found safe and sound.

- 2 - Press Release DSG/SM/105 OBV/160 25 September 2000

Known to many or just a few, each of these staff members has had a positive impact on our world. Pain mingles with outrage as we contemplate the wrong that has been done to them.

There is no more basic requirement of the United Nations and its Member States than to provide security for the men and women sent into the field to do the Organization's work, and to bring to justice the perpetrators of violence against United Nations staff. This is a responsibility, first and foremost, for the Member States. During the Millennium Summit earlier this month, both the General Assembly and the Security Council reaffirmed their commitment to staff security. Still, in just one sign of the distance still to be travelled, less than one quarter of the membership is party to the Convention on the Safety of United Nations and Associated Personnel.

We, in the Secretariat, must also do what we can to enhance security. The Secretary-General will soon be putting a number of proposals before the membership to ensure that our people are properly trained, equipped and protected for their mission in dangerous areas. We will also be taking steps to improve the way the United Nations responds in the aftermath of a death. Bereaved families need our help, including emergency financial assistance. Families and staff alike may require counselling and moral support when tragedy strikes. The Staff Unions and Associations are to be commended for devoting steady attention to these concerns, including by organizing the very moving silent marches last Thursday, where United Nations staffers worldwide came together to demand protection and to say that enough lives have been lost.

No matter how our colleagues died, this they shared: they were the living embodiments of an ideal -- an ideal of service, solidarity and peace. Hard at work in the villages, conflict zones and needy areas of the world -- and far from most of us at Headquarters and the United Nations' more comfortable duty stations -- they were united by their bravery in bringing the Charter to life. Now, in death, they are united by having made the ultimate sacrifice for a noble cause. They upheld the ideals symbolized by the United Nations flag; now they are fallen architects of peace. May they rest in peace. And may we not rest until we finish the job they so devotedly began.

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