THE WHITE HOUSE

                     Office of the Press Secretary
                 (Shanghai, People's Republic of China)
________________________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release                                      June 30, 1998

STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY

Death of UN Special Representative to Angola Maitre Beye

We are deeply saddened by the news of the tragic death of Maitre Alioune Bloundin Beye, the UN Secretary General's Special Representative to Angola. In the five years since Maitre Beye assumed his responsibilities as Special Representative, he was tireless in his efforts to bring peace to the people of Angola.

When Maitre Beye began his work in 1993, over a thousand Angolans a day were dying in a civil war that has lasted more than three decades. Beye was the driving force behind the November 1994 Lusaka Peace Accords which stopped the fighting and gave the Angolan people the longest period of peace they have known in more than a generation.

Now, the best way to acknowledge Maitre Beye's life's work will be for the two parties to fully complete the implementation of the Lusaka Accords, giving the Angolan people the lasting peace for which Maitre Beye gave his life.

The President and the people of the United States extend their sincerest condolences to the Beye family, to his friends and colleagues and to the entire United Nations family during this time of great sorrow.

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