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1999 - Addess by Mr henri Konan Bédié |
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| Sponsor of the Prize | |
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Mr
Patron of the Prize, dear Friend and Brother, President Abdou Diouf: With great pleasure and deep feeling, I am taking part for the ninth time in the ceremony to present the Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize, instituted by UNESCO as a tribute to the thought and action of the Wise Man of Yamoussoukro. Excellencies, May I be permitted first of all to greet the Representatives of the President of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, my brother Laurent Gbagbo. I should like to thank him for arranging to be represented at this ceremony by a high-level delegation. My greetings also go to the companions of President Félix Houphouët-Boigny who have come specially from Africa to demonstrate their attachment to the memory of our country's Founding Father. I should also like to greet the members of President Félix Houphouët-Boigny's family, present in this hall. I am deeply grateful to H.E. Mr Joaquim Chissano, President of the Republic of Mozambique, for arranging to be represented at this ceremony by H.E. Dr Lidia Brito, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology. Allow me also to greet the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, Mr Louis Michel, and to thank him for his presence. As Sponsor of the Prize, I should like to express publicly my great gratitude to the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, for all the attention that he has devoted to this Prize since his election to the head of the Organization. During his lifetime, President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, being a far-sighted man and a shrewd politician, entrusted the noble task of Patron of the Prize to my friend and brother present here, President Abdou Diouf, to whom I extend a warm greeting. For ten years, President Abdou Diouf has placed the Prize at the centre of his priorities and has kept an untiring watch over its success and international influence, and l should here like to express my deep gratitude to him. I should also like to express my great gratitude to the distinguished members of the Jury, all of whom are eminent persons known and respected through-out the world. Without their prestige and experience, the Prize, which has been awarded to Nelson Mandela, Frederik De Klerk, Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, His Majesty King ]uan Carlos, and Jimmy Carter, would never have achieved the international impact that it has had. May I also be permitted to pay a glowing tribute to Dr Henry Kissinger, who is not with us today. He has placed his personal prestige and his credibility in the service of the Prize. As he said at our last ceremony, here on this very platform, he has made his membership of this Jury a "personal commitment". It is also a pleasure for me to pay tribute to the personal action, the dedication and skill of the Executive Secretary of the Prize, Mr Alioune Traoré, who, with the support of the Director-General and the Jury, has succeeded in making this Prize one of the great international awards. It is well to remind ourselves that the Prize was, and still is, the expression of the unanimous tribute of the international community to that man of peace, unity and dialogue, President Félix Houphouët-Boigny. The Prize was in fact instituted at UNESCO in 1989 on the initiative of 120 Member States of the Organization spread over the five continents. Today, as we meet at the Place de Fontenoy for this happy event, the situation in Côte d'Ivoire is of concern to us all, given the attachment that we have to the country. It is my wish that the spirit of Félix Houphouët-Boigny may inspire the Ivorian people in its desire for dialogue, love and brotherhood, and that this ceremony, which is a celebration of peace, may be an encouragement to all my brothers and sisters in Côte d'Ivoire and persuade them to unite and extend their hands to one another in dialogue and mutual understanding in order to build a future of peace and prosperity in the country. Dialogue, love, understanding of others and tolerance, the basic tenets of Félix Houphouët-Boigny's philosophy, will indeed enable us to continue and consolidate the work that he undertook. Lastly, I wish very much to pay tribute to the Community of Sant'Egidio which, in the person of its President, Professor Andrea Riccardi, is going to receive the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize this year. In a troubled world, bruised by civil wars and localized wars, the Community of Sant'Egidio day after day strives to bring compassion, comfort and hope to the victims of poverty, violence and sickness. I wish to express appreciation of its action in Côte d'Ivoire, where six communities, including the two principal ones in Marcory and at the University of Cocody, are engaged in literacy work and in improving the living conditions of destitute families and individuals. This is an opportunity to pay tribute to the combat of Sant'Egidio for peace in the world and particularly in Africa. The Community has contributed to the settlement of many conflicts, and in particular those that tore apart the peoples of Mozambique and of Guatemala. The mediation that it has undertaken in Burundi, Algeria, Kosovo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo symbolizes its endeavours on behalf of peace and human fellowship. The Community of Sant'Egidio strives to express in deeds the words of the Gospel: "Love one another". By this lofty view of the duties of people towards their neighbours, it merits the esteem of all those who are labouring to bring about a better world, and it is my personal opinion that the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize could not have been awarded this year to a more deserving winner. Thank you. |
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