Page 31 - Bulletin, Vol.80 No.2, September 2021

NATHALIE TSCHYRKOW

By Pierre SAYOUR

During my years as a representative of the participants in the Joint UN Staff Pension
Fund (UNJSPF), I met Nathalie on a number of occasions and was witness to her
strong personality and tenacity

She was an ardent defender of the rights of the divorced widows of international civil
servants who, on the death of their former husbands, were left without alimony, without
resources and without any social backing, far from their home country with which they
no longer had any link.

Through her knowledge of the question, she was able to provide arguments to the
participants’ representatives in the Joint Committee on modifications to Article 35bis.
Despite her impatience and difficulty in comprehending the slow reaction to making a
decision of both the Committee and UN General Assembly, she persisted and never
ceased to contact us during all the years of discussion on this subject.

We owe her a lot. She fought for a rightful cause and was able to bring improvements to
the Pension Fund regulations. May she rest in peace far from the troubles of our world.

Translation Elisabeth BELCHAMBER

RWANDA: RESURRECTION

By Yves BEIGBEDDER

Today, Rwanda's capital is famous for
its green hills, home to the last
remaining mountain gorillas, and the
immaculate cleanliness of its streets.
But for many, the city remains linked to
the genocide, where between 800,000
and one million Tutsis were murdered
during a terrible ethnic war in 1994.
Today, thanks to the mobilisation of the
inhabitants, and a spirit of enterprise
that is deeply rooted in the mentality,
Kigali is moving forward, without ever
forgetting the lessons of the past.

When you drive through Kigali, the cleanliness and absence of rubbish is a shock. Not a
single piece of rubbish, not a piece of paper, not a plastic bottle on the ground. If the city

30 AAFI-AFICS BULLETIN, Vol. 80 No. 2, 2021-09