Annan Recommends Renewal of U.N. Verification Mission in Guatemala

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday recommended renewing the mandate of the United Nations verification mission in Guatemala (MINUGUA) for another 12 months.

In a report to the U.N. General Assembly released in Minugua at the U. N. headquarters in New York, the secretary-general says the timetable for 2000-2004 is a new challenge for the peace process.

"Decisive support for its implementation must spur the actions of government institutions, civil society and the international community," he said. "The United Nations once again expresses its wholehearted commitment to the Guatemalan peace process."

Technical cooperation to support the institutions created under the peace process must continue and be expanded, Annan observed. " All those institutions need strengthening, especially those in the country's interior, where the effects of peace need to be more visible and generate more participation."

According to the secretary-general, substantive, sustained progress on the outstanding agenda is essential for overcoming the profound inequalities that still persist among the population and that are jeopardizing the achievements and sustainability of the peace process.

"At a time when the transformation of democratic institutions must be consolidated and the population needs to reap the benefits of a culture of peace, public authorities, the media and society as a whole must do their utmost to disseminate civic values and the values of peace, tolerance and dialogue as the basis for a new form of peaceful coexistence," he said.

MINUGUA was created in 1994 and its mandate expanded in 1997 in order to continue to verify compliance with the peace agreements signed between the Government of Guatemala and the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (URNG).

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