Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General, Ashraf Qazi: Dear friends and colleagues [indiscernible] feelings; one of sadness at leaving a wonderful country with wonderful people who have suffered much but who have great potential and great promise ahead of them. If the CPA is implemented in the way it was intended to be implemented and the structures of peace sustained, maintained and built upon and that, whatever the outcomes, that the links of history which are many between the people of the north and of the south enabled to be the platform.
It is for personal reasons, family reasons, that I have requested the Secretary-General to relieve me of my responsibilities much sooner than I would have wished for because I certainly would have liked at least to see the elections. But I can tell you with great gratification and assurance that my successor is going to be a far more than adequate replacement, far better person, more able person, more experienced person. He is a wonderful individual and is known and is respected in the north and in the south and has huge UN experience – Haile Menkerios will do an absolutely splendid job and you will all find that out.
I shall of course be following event closely because, as they say, “Once you have drunk from the Nile, you simply can’t keep the Nile out of your system,” and one day I hope to return and meet my many friends here in the north and in the south and to see them on their way to peace and prosperity. READ FULL DOCUMENT