国际英语资讯:UN holds memorial service for late secretary-general Annan_时事

国际英语资讯:UN holds memorial service for late secretary-general Annan

UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 22 -- A wreath-laying ceremony was held at UN Headquarters in New York on Wednesday to mourn the death of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Current Secretary-General Antonio Guterres paid tribute to his predecessor at the ceremony and wrote on a condolence book in memory of Annan.

"We are here to pay tribute to Kofi Annan, one of the best of us, a man who embodied United Nations values and made us all proud to call ourselves his colleagues," Guterres told the ceremony.

国际英语资讯:UN holds memorial service for late secretary-general Annan1

"Kofi Annan's years in office were an exciting time. He put forward new ideas. He brought new people into the United Nations family. He spoke passionately about our mission and our role. He created a renewed sense of possibility both inside and outside our organization about what the UN could do and could be for the world's people."

The world is still reaping the rewards of the Millennium Summit, when Annan brought the world together to agree on the first global targets on poverty and child mortality. His response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic united governments, nongovernmental organizations and the healthcare industry and undoubtedly saved many lives, said Guterres.

Annan faced up to the grave errors made by the United Nations in the 1990s -- in its response to the Rwanda genocide and the Srebrenica killings during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war. The reports he commissioned aimed to make sure such terrible mistakes are never repeated, and set the international community on a new course in its response to mass atrocities, he said.