George Kagame
14 December 2006
opinion
Kigali — Kofi Annan has been the UN Secretary-General since 1997. This time has been a very critical period in international diplomacy. Annan has been faced with enormous challenges that to put his leadership under scrutiny is a challenge in itself.
Annan joined the UN in 1962 and rose through the ranks to the most important diplomatic office in the world. This period has seen the most historical periods in modern history, especially the information techinology age.
While a university student, I used to have a very low opinion of Kofi Annan. Like other people of like mind, it was very understandable. In my 'ignorance', I blamed him for not acting to stop the 1994 Rwanda Genocide while he was in charge of peace keeping at the UN. That was before I read Boutros-Boutros Ghali's book, Unvanquished.
From Ghali's book, I learnt how the secretary general is very powerless in calling for effective international action against world crises or even rogue governments. As long as the five permanent members of the Security Council ignore a problem no one can influence change. Under this arrangement, the genocide was left to go on because France, US, Britain, Russia and China didn't have any particular interest in stopping it.
In his book, Ghali, a former UN Secretary General, wrote about the frustration of being head of an organisation whose every action was controlled by the US, more than all the other nations combined. Therefore, as the US struggled to find the best word to describe what was happening in Rwanda, the UN couldn't do anything about it. As such, Ghali and Annan watched on powerlessly from New York as innocent people were left to die. The US, it should be remembered, backed the UN's intervention in the Balkan conflict to save the Serbians.
Ghali says that at times, he was intimidated into accepting certain positions by US officials. However, in as far as the Rwandan Genocide is concerned, Annan, his junior at the time, has taken more flaks for the failure of the UN to prevent genocide.
When he made his farewell speech from the Truman Presidential Museum & Library in Missouri on Monday, Annan spoke as much of his frustration about holding an office which has tremendous power on the face of it when the reality is actually different.
This notwithstanding, Kofi Annan tried his best in turning the attention of western powers to African crises like urging them to commit resources to an action plan for ending poverty and inequality, improving education, reducing HIV/Aids, safeguarding the environment and protecting people from deadly conflicts and violence. He has done greatly to fight for Darfur, Iraq, Northern Uganda and Chad.
In April 2001, the Secretary-General rallied the western powers towards the HIV/AIDS epidemic - which he described as his "personal priority". He proposed the establishment of a Global AIDS and Health Fund (widely known as Global Fund) to serve as a mechanism for some of the increased spending needed to help developing countries confront the crisis.
Some people have argued that Annan didn't deserve the Nobel Peace prize, but that is very unfair considering the man's consistency about the violence in the Middle East , African conflicts and HIV/Aids.
Annan's priorities as Secretary-General have been to revitalise the UN through a comprehensive programme of reform; to strengthen its traditional work in the areas of development and the maintenance of international peace and security; to encourage and advocate human rights, the rule of law and the universal values of equality, tolerance and human dignity found in the UN Charter and to restore public confidence in the UN by reaching out to new partners and, in his words, by "bringing the UN closer to the people".
The remarks of Sir Marrack Goulding, ex-Deputy Secretary General of the UN, in his assessment of the role of the Secretary-General encapsulates the legacy of Annan. "But he [the Secretary-General] does have huge influence, and he has a 'bully pulpit'. He can tell the world that they really have to get to grips with whatever it might be - Aids, the environment. Kofi Annan in particular has made a great deal of that influence.
"I think we shouldn't understate the importance of the role. If you put into it someone who couldn't communicate properly, you'd be missing a lot of tricks. If major countries in the world aren't prepared to do something, the UN isn't going to be able to do it either. If people understood that, they would be less disappointed by the chief diplomat of the United Nations."
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