Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations:
Peace must be sought above all because it is a condition for every member of the human family to live a life of dignity and security.
We have entered the third millennium through a gate of fire. If today, after the horror of 11 September, we see better and we see farther, we will realize that humanity is indivisible.
New threats make no distinction between races, nations, or regions. A new insecurity has entered every mind, regardless of wealth or status. A deeper awareness of the bonds that bindus all, in pain and in prosperity, has gripped young and old…because beneath the surface of state and nations, ideas and language, lies the fate of individual human beings in needed. Answering their needs will be the mission of the United Nations in the century to come. Thank you very much.
