..Press Release................................ UNESCAP News Services

Date 16 September 2005
Press Release No: L/40/2005

THE UN SECRETARY-GENERAL
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MESSAGE FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE
21 September 2005

Dear friends around the world,

Peace is the paramount United Nations mission.

It is the basis of our existence. The essence of our identity. The cause that animates everything we do.

September 21, the International Day of Peace, is a day on which we reaffirm our commitment to this quest.

It is an opportunity to consider how to strengthen our system of collective security.

And it is meant to be a day of global cease-fire. I call on all countries and all people to stop all hostilities for the entire day. I also urge all people around the world to observe a minute of silence at 12 noon.

Twenty-four hours is not a long time.

But it is time enough for combatants and political leaders to consider the destruction they are visiting on their people, and on their lands.

It is long enough to look over the barricades, and through the barbed wire, and to see if there is another path.

On this International Day of Peace, let us all honour those who have suffered from violence. Let us hold in our hearts the ideal of peace.

Thank you.

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