War veterans vital in ensuring UN goal of world peace - Annan

Secretary-General Kofi Annan today stressed the vital importance of war veterans in promoting the goal of the United Nations Charter - a world free from the scourge of battle.

"Yours is a unique grouping," Mr. Annan said in a message to the 24th General Assembly of the World Veterans Federation in Johannesburg, South Africa. "You bring together former belligerents, the enemies of yesterday, to reconcile and to become friends today, and to work for a peaceful tomorrow.

"Few speak with more authority on the need for peace than those, like you, who know the face of war. That is why your work to promote disarmament, advance human rights, and strengthen peaceful settlement of international disputes is vital. So too is the need for societies to take measures to rehabilitate former soldiers and integrate them into society, and to remember those who have been lost," he added.

"The best way to remember our dead, and indeed all those who have been lost in war, is to rededicate ourselves to the cause of peace and to the daily work so eloquently set out in the Charter of the United Nations: the work of saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war," Mr. Annan concluded.