United Nations

SG/SM/9233
                                                                                                                        31 March 2004

Secretary-General Saddened by Death of Alistair Cooke

NEW YORK, 30 March (UN Headquarters) -- The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

The Secretary-General was saddened by the death of Alistair Cooke.  The Secretary-General was a great admirer of Mr. Cooke’s renowned “Letter from America”.  But Mr. Cooke also had a special place in the history of the United Nations.  In 1945, as a journalist for the Manchester Guardian, he covered the San Francisco conference at which the United Nations was founded.  And from 1961 to 1967, he was the producer and on-camera presenter for “International Zone”, a globally distributed programme on world affairs produced by the UN Department of Public Information.  The Secretary-General pays tribute to Mr. Cooke’s lifelong efforts to increase mutual understanding between peoples, and extends condolences to Mr. Cooke’s family and all others touched by this loss.

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