Kofi Annan: A Man of Peace in a World of War

Kofi Annan

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He appeared on the children's television show "Sesame Street," leading the squabbling Muppets in a U. He and his wife, Nane, danced at so many dinners and parties that William H. Luers, a veteran U. Annan's first, celebrated term as secretary general was capped by the Nobel Peace Prize.

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For that reason, Annan had a bruising second term as he pushed back against President George W. Bush's growing determination to invade Iraq for supposedly harboring weapons of mass destruction. Annan became a continual irritant to the Americans. He eliminated an easy excuse for war by persuading the Iraqis to allow U. He emboldened the ambassadors from Chile and Mexico to withhold support for an American resolution authorizing an invasion. Bush aides thought the secretary general was trying to embarrass the president during his re-election campaign.

Randy Scheunemann, a Republican foreign policy specialist, told the BBC that Annan's labeling of the war as illegal was "outrageous" and "reeks of political interference. Annan wanted to keep channels open so that the U.

This would come to haunt the secretary general when a suicide bomber blew up U. Annan was buffeted a year or so after the invasion by a conservative campaign against him over what was called the "oil-for-food" scandal. Under the program, developed in while Iraq was under sanctions before the invasion, Saddam Hussein was allowed to sell some oil to buy food for his people.

Annan told reporters that most of these illegal sales had been allowed by American and British officials who "decided to close their eyes to smuggling to Turkey and Jordan because they were allies. The Volcker commission did not accuse Annan of making a single penny from the oil-for-food transactions. But it accused him of a failure of management for not preventing the corruption. Moreover, the commission found that Annan's son, Kojo, was on the secret payroll of a Swiss company trying to do business under the oil-for-food program.

The secretary general was cleared of trying to do anything to favor the Swiss firm, but the son's foolishness, as Annan put it, "caused me lots of grief. Annan was still venerated throughout the rest of the world, and after retiring from the U. His father was a senior buyer of cocoa for the Anglo-Dutch corporation Unilever. He named his son in the Ghanian Akan language: Kofi means "born on Friday" and Atta means "twin. After receiving a bachelor's degree in economics in , he found work as a junior administrative and budget officer with the U.

He received a master's degree in management from the Masschusetts Institute of Technology in Annan began to attract wider notice at the start of the Persian Gulf War in However, his climb to the exhilarating heights of the 38th floor of the United Nations headquarters was anything but newsworthy. On the contrary, they were, for the most part, humdrum bureaucratic. The years ahead, as Meisler expertly relates, held more promise for Annan. It involved his gradual ascent through the United Nations system, receiving special and sometimes decisive responsibilities in the areas of peacekeeping and negotiations, and happy wedlock to Nane Lagergren, his current wife.

S-led invasion of Iraq; belligerent and costly unilateralism that Annan would consider nothing short of tragic. To his credit, Meisler provides a brief biographical outline of Annan as an appendix to his book. Kofi Annan is not without its shortcomings, however. Indeed, these goals are mentioned only in passing, towards the end of the book, and in a single paragraph. In the Report of the high-level panel of experts on information and communication technology 22 May suggesting a UN ICT Task Force , the panel welcomed the establishment of UNITeS, and made suggestions on its configuration and implementation strategy, including that ICT4D volunteering opportunities make mobilizing "national human resources" local ICT experts within developing countries a priority, for both men and women.

The initiative was launched at the United Nations Volunteers and was active from February to February In an address to The World Economic Forum on 31 January , Secretary-General Annan argued that the "goals of the United Nations and those of business can, indeed, be mutually supportive" and proposed that the private sector and the United Nations initiate "a global compact of shared values and principles, which will give a human face to the global market".

In June of that year, the General Assembly of the United Nations committed to the creation of such a fund during a special session on AIDS, [52] and the permanent secretariat of the Global Fund was subsequently established in January Following the failure of Annan and the International Community to intervene in the genocide in Rwanda and in Srebrenica, Annan asked whether the international community had an obligation in such situations to intervene to protect civilian populations.

In a speech to the General Assembly on 20 September "to address the prospects for human security and intervention in the next century," [54] Annan argued that individual sovereignty—the protections afforded by the Declaration of Human Rights and the Charter of the UN—was being strengthened, while the notion of state sovereignty was being redefined by globalization and international co-operation.

As a result, the UN and its member states had to consider a willingness to act to prevent conflict and civilian suffering, [55] a dilemma between "two concepts of sovereignty" that Annan also presented in a preceding article in The Economist , on 16 September In September the Canadian government established an ad-hoc committee to address this balance between state sovereignty and humanitarian intervention.

The International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty published its final report in , which focused on not on the right of states to intervene but a responsibility to protect populations at risk. The report moved beyond the question of military intervention, arguing that a range of diplomatic and humanitarian actions could also be utilized to protect civilian populations. He later believed that Annan was oblivious to the fact the Iraqis took advantage of this in order to delay inspections.

He claimed that on one occasion, Annan refused to implement a no-notice inspection of the SSO headquarters and instead tried to negotiate access, but the negotiation ended up taking nearly six weeks, giving the Iraqis more than enough time to clean out the site. During the build-up to the invasion of Iraq , Annan called on the United States and the United Kingdom not to invade without the support of the United Nations. In a September interview on the BBC , when questioned about the legal authority for the invasion, Annan said he believed it was not in conformity with the UN charter and was illegal.

In , Annan was deeply involved in supporting the transition from military to civilian rule in Nigeria. The following year, he supported the efforts of East Timor to secure independence from Indonesia. In , he was responsible for certifying Israel 's withdrawal from Lebanon, and in , he led talks in New York between the presidents of Cameroon and Nigeria which led to a settlement of the dispute between the two countries over the Bakassi peninsula. Annan and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disagreed sharply on Iran's nuclear program, on an Iranian exhibition of cartoons mocking the Holocaust, and on the then upcoming International Conference to Review the Global Vision of the Holocaust , an Iranian Holocaust denial conference in Annan supported sending a UN peacekeeping mission to Darfur , Sudan.

The investigation found Lubbers guilty of sexual harassment; no mention was made publicly of the other charge against a senior official, or two subsequent complaints filed later that year. In the course of the official investigation, Lubbers wrote a letter which some considered was a threat to the female worker who had brought the charges.

Kofi Annan: A Man of Peace in a World of War by Stanley Meisler

In February , Lubbers resigned as head of the UN refugee agency, saying that he wanted to relieve political pressure on Annan. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations. In his first interview with the Inquiry Committee, Annan denied having had a meeting with Cotecna.

Later in the inquiry, he recalled that he had met with Cotecna's chief executive Elie-Georges Massey twice. In a final report issued on 27 October, the committee found insufficient evidence to indict Kofi Annan on any illegal actions, but did find fault with Benon Sevan , an Armenian-Cypriot national who had worked for the UN for about 40 years. Sevan's behavior was "ethically improper", Volcker said to reporters. Sevan repeatedly denied the charges and argued that he was being made a "scapegoat". It strongly recommended a new position be established of Chief Operating Officer COO , to handle the fiscal and administrative responsibilities then under the Secretary-General's office.

The report listed the companies, both Western and Middle Eastern, which had benefited illegally from the program. They were awarded the Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world," [2] having revitalized the UN and for having given priority to human rights. The Nobel Committee also recognized his commitment to the struggle to containing the spread of HIV in Africa and his declared opposition to international terrorism.

You will lose the UN one way or another. The talk was unusual because it violated unofficial policy of not having top officials publicly criticize member nations. Bolton , appointed by President George W. Bush , was reported to have told Annan on the phone: On 19 September , Annan gave a farewell address to world leaders gathered at the UN headquarters in New York, in anticipation of his retirement on 31 December. In the speech he outlined three major problems of "an unjust world economy, world disorder, and widespread contempt for human rights and the rule of law", which he believed "have not resolved, but sharpened" during his time as Secretary-General.

He also pointed to violence in Africa, and the Arab—Israeli conflict as two major issues warranting attention.

The fight against poverty

He called for the United States to return to President Truman's multilateralist foreign policies, and to follow Truman's credo that "the responsibility of the great states is to serve and not dominate the peoples of the world". He also said that the United States must maintain its commitment to human rights, "including in the struggle against terrorism. After his service as UN Secretary-General, Annan took up residence in Geneva and worked in a leading capacity on various international humanitarian endeavors.

In , Annan established the Kofi Annan Foundation , an independent, not-for-profit organization that works to promote better global governance and strengthen the capacities of people and countries to achieve a fairer, more peaceful world. The organisation was founded on the principles that fair and peaceful societies rest on three pillars: Peace and Security, Sustainable Development, and Human Rights and the Rule of Law, and they have made it their mission to mobilise the leadership and the political resolve needed to tackle threats to these three pillars ranging from violent conflict to flawed elections and climate change, with the aim of achieving a fairer, more peaceful world.

The Foundation provides the analytical, communication and co-ordination capacities needed to ensure that these objectives are achieved. Annan's contribution to peace worldwide is delivered through mediation, political mentoring, advocacy and advice. Through his engagement, Annan aimed to strengthen local and international conflict resolution capabilities.

The Foundation provides the analytical and logistical support to facilitate this in co-operation with relevant local, regional and international actors.

Factbox: Tributes laud Annan as man of peace and champion of rights

He was often asked to intercede in crises, sometimes as an impartial independent mediator, sometimes as a special envoy of the international community. Following the outbreak of violence during the Presidential elections in Kenya, the African Union established a Panel of Eminent African Personalities to assist in finding a peaceful solution to the crisis.

On 2 August, he resigned as UN and Arab League joint special envoy to Syria, [95] citing the intransigence of both the Assad government and the rebels , as well as the stalemate on the Security Council as preventing any peaceful resolution of the situation.

It comprised 12 eminent individuals from around the world, including Ernesto Zedillo , Martti Ahtisaari , Madeleine Albright and Amartya Sen , and aimed to highlight the importance of the integrity of elections to achieving a more secure, prosperous and stable world. The Commission released its final report: In September , Annan was asked to lead the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State in Myanmar [98] [99] [] [] — an impoverished region beset by ethnic conflict and extreme sectarian violence, particularly by Myanmar's Buddhist majority against the Rohingya Muslim minority , further targeted by government forces.

The reformist

When the Annan commission released its final report, [] the week of 24 August , with recommendations unpopular with all sides, violence exploded in the Rohingya conflict — the largest and bloodiest humanitarian disaster in the region in decades — driving most of the Rohingya from Myanmar. Annan died a week before the first anniversary of the report, shortly after an announcement by a replacement commission that it would not "point fingers" at the guilty parties — leading to widespread concern that the new commission was just a sham to protect culpable Myanmar government officials and citizens from accountability.

In , before Annan's death, Myanmar's civilian government, under the direction of State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi , made a gesture of acceptance of the Annan commission's recommendations by convening another board — the Advisory Board for the Committee for Implementation of the Recommendations on Rakhine State — ostensibly to implement the Annan commission's proposed reforms, but never actually implemented them.

Some of the international representatives resigned — notably the panel's Secretary, Thailand 's former foreign minister Surakiart Sathirathai , and former U. Bill Richardson — decrying the "implementation" committee as ineffective, or a "whitewash. He held the position until In addition to the above, Annan also became involved with several organizations with both global and African focuses, including the following:.

Annan served as Chair of The Elders , a group of independent global leaders who work together on peace and human rights issues. Refused entry, the Elders instead carried out their assessment from Johannesburg, where they met Zimbabwe- and South Africa-based leaders from politics, business, international organisations, and civil society.

During a session with fellow Elder Mary Robinson , Annan encouraged 1, young leaders from countries to lead on intergenerational issues such as climate change and the need for action to take place now, not tomorrow. The action must be now. You will come across people who think we should start tomorrow. Even for those who believe action should begin tomorrow, remind them tomorrow begins now, tomorrow begins today, so let's all move forward. Annan chaired the Africa Progress Panel APP , a group of ten distinguished individuals who advocate at the highest levels for equitable and sustainable development in Africa.

As Chair, he facilitates coalition building to leverage and broker knowledge, in addition to convening decision-makers to influence policy and create lasting change in Africa. Every year, the Panel releases a report, the Africa Progress Report , which outlines an issue of immediate importance to the continent and suggests a set of associated policies.

In , the Africa Progress Report highlighted the potential of African fisheries, agriculture, and forests to drive economic development. A Life in War and Peace. Several years later they had a daughter, Ama, and later a son, Kojo. The couple separated in the late s, [] and divorced in

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