Paris, Sept 30: The conflicts in the two years since the Sept. 11 terror attacks have plunged the United Nations system into an unprecedented crisis, the head of the U.N. cultural arm said yesterday as the organization opened its biannual general conference.
Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General of the U.N.
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO,
said however that becoming discouraged would only dishonor
those who died in the Aug. 19 bombing of U.N. headquarters in
Baghdad, Iraq.
Still, the years since the terror attacks in New York
and Washington and the subsequent high-profile battle in the
Security Council over the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq have been
difficult for the United Nations.
"These two years, marked as they have been by so many
conflicts, have plunged the United Nations into the most
serious crisis it has had to face in its history, forcing it
to question more than ever before the capacity of its
institutions to reflect the world's new realities," Matsuura
said.
Matsuura spoke at the opening of UNESCO's general
conference, which this year is being marked by the return of
the United States to the organization after a 19-year
absence. U.S. First lady Laura Bush addressed the session
Monday afternoon, and linked UNESCO's work to the struggle
against terrorism.
This year's conference is expected to concentrate on
safeguarding cultural heritage and diversity, multilingualism
on the internet and human genetic data. Members will also look
at the search for cultural artifacts looted in Iraq in the
aftermath of the invasion.
Bureau Report
