Message from the Secretary General of the United Nations
on the Occasion of Cypriot Independence Day

October 1, 2001

On the occasion of the 41st anniversary of the independence of Cyprus, the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has sent to President Clerides the following message:

"It gives me great pleasure to extend to you and to the government and people of Cyprus my warmest congratulations and best wishes on the occasion of the Independence Day.

This year brings great cause for hope of real progress in our shared mission of building a better world for all people. In September 2000, leaders of countries from all over the world gathered in New York for the Millennium Summit. You came together to consider the challenges we all face in the new century, and you set your aims in a Millennium Declaration. You pledged yourselves to free your peoples – from the scourge of war, from abject and dehumanizing poverty, and from the threat of living on a polluted planted with few natural resources left. You undertook to promote democracy and the rule of law; to protect children and other vulnerable people; to work towards halting the spread of AIDS and to meet the special needs of Africa. And you promised to make the United Nations itself more effective, as an instrument for pursuing all those aims.

Those pledges do indeed inspire tremendous hope. As we work together to translate them into action, we are engaged on a mission that binds together the entire international community. It is heartening to know that the United Nations can count on the continued leadership, commitment and support of Cyprus.

Please accept, Your Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration."

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