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21 September 2000
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21 September 2000
Following is the message of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the memorial service for Mensah Kpognon, a staff member of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees who was shot and killed at his residence during an attack on Macenta village in Guinea on 17 September. The message was read out by Vladimir Petrovsky, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva at the memorial service for Mr. Kpognon which took place at 10 a.m. in Room XIX at the Palais des Nations.
ADear friends and colleagues,
Mensah Kpognon gave life to the words "humanitarian imperative". In doing so, he should not have had to give his own life. As Sadako Ogata has said, words fail us at a time like this.
They fail to express our outrage at the senseless violence against a humanitarian worker whose sole purpose was to help people in need.
They fail to express the pain and grief of Mensah's family and friends, in particular, his wife and his four children.
They fail to express the feelings of Mensah's other family - the international humanitarian family; in particular, the men and women of UNHCR, who were still mourning the deaths of three colleagues in West Timor less than two weeks earlier.
They fail to express our anxiety for the speedy and safe release of Sapeu Laurence Djeya, who was abducted when Mensah was murdered.
But words must not fail us in the message we send today to the world and to Member States of the United Nations. This message must be clear and unequivocal: failure to protect the lives of innocent and unarmed humanitarian workers is unacceptable.
The UN and its partners are working urgently to improve measures for staff protection. Any measures, however, will be inadequate if Governments do not commit themselves whole-heartedly, in principle and in practice, to protecting those who venture into danger to relieve the suffering of others.
We must strengthen the protection of all humanitarian staff -- local and international. We must ensure that the 1994 Convention on the safety and security of UN personnel is extended to humanitarian staff. We must translate words into deeds.
The men and women of the humanitarian family are a special segment of the human race. They feel their duty to help innocent people more deeply than they fear for their own safety. They know that failure in that duty would rob millions of people of hope. They give meaning to the words "international community".
Mensah Kpognon was such a person. We all owe it to him, to his family and to his colleagues, to ensure that in future others like him do not have to pay for their conviction with their lives."
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Following is the message of United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the memorial service for Mensah Kpognon, a staff member of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees who was shot and killed at his residence during an attack on Macenta village in Guinea on 17 September. The message was read out by Vladimir Petrovsky, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva at the memorial service for Mr. Kpognon which took place at 10 a.m. in Room XIX at the Palais des Nations.
ADear friends and colleagues,
Mensah Kpognon gave life to the words "humanitarian imperative". In doing so, he should not have had to give his own life. As Sadako Ogata has said, words fail us at a time like this.
They fail to express our outrage at the senseless violence against a humanitarian worker whose sole purpose was to help people in need.
They fail to express the pain and grief of Mensah's family and friends, in particular, his wife and his four children.
They fail to express the feelings of Mensah's other family - the international humanitarian family; in particular, the men and women of UNHCR, who were still mourning the deaths of three colleagues in West Timor less than two weeks earlier.
They fail to express our anxiety for the speedy and safe release of Sapeu Laurence Djeya, who was abducted when Mensah was murdered.
But words must not fail us in the message we send today to the world and to Member States of the United Nations. This message must be clear and unequivocal: failure to protect the lives of innocent and unarmed humanitarian workers is unacceptable.
The UN and its partners are working urgently to improve measures for staff protection. Any measures, however, will be inadequate if Governments do not commit themselves whole-heartedly, in principle and in practice, to protecting those who venture into danger to relieve the suffering of others.
We must strengthen the protection of all humanitarian staff -- local and international. We must ensure that the 1994 Convention on the safety and security of UN personnel is extended to humanitarian staff. We must translate words into deeds.
The men and women of the humanitarian family are a special segment of the human race. They feel their duty to help innocent people more deeply than they fear for their own safety. They know that failure in that duty would rob millions of people of hope. They give meaning to the words "international community".
Mensah Kpognon was such a person. We all owe it to him, to his family and to his colleagues, to ensure that in future others like him do not have to pay for their conviction with their lives."
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