Ismaili.NET - Heritage F.I.E.L.D.

Secretary-General celebrates life of Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan28 October - Secretary-General Kofi Annan tonight paid tribute to Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan at a memorial ceremony in New York for the prominent international civil servant.

Prince Sadruddin served the United Nations with distinction, most notably as the youngest and longest-serving UN High Commissioner for Refugees (1965-1977), and later as Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. Annan told the memorial service.

Following are the remarks delivered by Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the memorial ceremony for Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan in New York on 28 October:Today, we celebrate the life of a statesman in the truest sense of the word. Cosmopolitan and compassionate, caring and charismatic, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan was one of the world's natural international civil servants.

Le Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan etait un veritable homme d'Etat declare le Secretaire generalOn trouvera ci-après le texte de l'allocution prononcée par le Secrétaire général, Kofi Annan, à la cérémonie d'hommage à la mémoire du Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, le 28 octobre:

Madam Chairman,

The Committee has before it today two seemingly routine matters: my Annual Report, and the periodic consideration of whether UNHCR should be continued. The agenda, appropriately terse, scarcely conceals its irony.

Mr. Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I assumed office as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees at the beginning of this year. One of the first tasks to which I had to turn my attention was the problem faced by European governments with regard to the increased number of refugees and asylum-seekers moving into European States. One aspect of this phenomenon has been the fact that, in recent years, the majority of asylum-seekers entering Europe are from non-European countries far away from the region.