STATEMENT ON THE PASSING OF NELSON MANDELA
United Nations, New York, 5 December 2013
It
is with great sadness that I learn of the passing of an international
peace icon and one of the greatest moral leaders of our time, Mr. Neslon
Mandela, the former President of South Africa. As the President of the
General Assembly, I would like to pay tribute to President Nelson
Mandela and to convey my sincere condolences to his family and to the
people and Government of South Africa for the loss of a great architect
of the new South Africa and indeed a new Africa.
In
1994, Mr. Mandela became the first black and democratically elected
President of South Africa, embracing his former oppressors and leading
the country on a new path of healing. By so doing, Mr. Mandela chose
reconciliation over revenge, hope over despair. As he so eloquently said
in his Inaugural Address: “Never, never and never again shall it be
that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by
another.”
Let
the following words he spoke serve as a reminder of his greatness and
the legacy he leaves behind to a grateful nation and an admiring world:
“We must become bigger than we have ever been: more courageous, greater
in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race,
overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations
but to our fellow men within the human community.”
We
mourn his death while celebrating his deeds. Madiba, as he was
affectionately known to his beloved family and his people, personified
true democratic leadership. As a global human family, we celebrate July
18, as Nelson Mandela International Day and today, we mourn with world.
This is indeed an immensely sad day for the world, yet his heroic
Spirit will remain with us all.
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