African Leaders Converge In Accra For Maiden Edition Of Kofi Annan Peace And Security (KAPS) Forum

Kofi Annan

EIN PRESS RELEASE

The Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) (https://www.KAIPTC.org/) has organized the maiden edition of the Kofi Annan Peace and Security (KAPS) Forum in Accra, Ghana, to facilitate discussions on evolving trends in peace and security in Africa. The forum was also organized to honour the sterling achievements of H.E. the late Kofi Annan and to immortalize his memory.

Under the theme, ‘Peace Operations in the Context of Violent Extremism in Africa’, the forum was held under the Distinguished patronage of H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, President of the Republic of Ghana and the Chairmanship of H.E. Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office for West Africa and Sahel (UNOWAS).

Among the high level delegates were seven former African Heads of State namely; H.E. Pierre Buyoya, Former President of Burundi and AU High Representative to Mali and Sahel (MISAHEL), H.E Catharine Samba-Panza, Former President of Central African Republic, H.E. Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, Former President of the Federal Republic of Somalia, H.E. Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, Former President of Sierra Leone, Professor Amos Claudius Sawyer, Former President of Liberia, H.E. Olusegun Obasanjo, Former President of Nigeria and H.E. John Dramani Mahama, Former President of Ghana.

Addressing the delegates at the opening ceremony, the Commandant of KAIPTC, Air Vice Marshall Griffiths S. Evans shared the rationale behind the forum;

“The forum seeks to provide a platform for robust engagement on critical peace and security issues affecting the African continent. Our actions are guided by our mission to foster peace and stability through the provision of a globally-recognized capacity and policy support for all actors on African peace and security issues”, he stated.

In his address, the President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, identified key interventions which can be implemented to tackle violent extremism.

“It is important that we promote and develop, on the continent, a system and culture of accountable governance, free of corruption, whereby our people are governed in accordance with the rule of law, respect for individual liberties and human rights, and the principles of democratic accountability”, he stressed.

He also threw more light on Ghana’s counter terrorism policy to combat violent extremism.

“Our Counter Terrorism Policy seeks to prevent acts of terrorism in the country. The Counter Terrorism Policy has led to the setting up of a Counter Terrorism Unit, within the National Security Council Secretariat, to lead and co-ordinate our efforts in the fight. Ghana has adopted a well-coordinated Inter Agency Approach, which encourages the timely sharing of information and intelligence, operational coordination and joint strategy formulation, and has proved essential towards ensuring the efficient execution of the country's Counter Terrorism Policy”, he explained.

The Kofi Annan Forum brought together over two hundred high-level delegates and diplomats from governmental and intergovernmental organizations (including the African Union and its Regional Economic Communities, United Nations and European Union). Security professionals and representatives from policy and research think tanks, development partners, training institutions and civil society groups were all present to participate in the dialogues.

The forum also seeks to deepen the collaboration between KAIPTC and international organisations such as the United Nations, African Union, Regional Economic Communities, Governments, development partners, civil society organisations and the business community.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Kofi Annan International Peace Keeping Training Centre (KAIPTC).

For further information, please contact the Corporate Affairs Unit of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) on +233302-718200 ext 1104/1203 or +233 550 303030. You can find the KAIPTC on facebook and twitter as: @Kaiptcgh. You can further find out more about the KAIPTC on our website: https://www.KAIPTC.org/.

About the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre: The Ghana Ministry of Defence (MoD) established the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC) (https://www.KAIPTC.org/) in 1998 and commissioned it in 2004. The purpose was to build upon and share Ghana's five decades of internationally acclaimed experience and competence in peace operations with other states in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region and the rest of Africa. This was in recognition of the need for training military, police and civilian men and women to meet the changing demands of multidimensional peace operations. The Centre is one of the three (3) Peacekeeping Training Centres of Excellence mandated by the ECOWAS to offer training in peacekeeping and peace support operations (PSO) in Africa.

The Centre delivers training courses in in three thematic areas; Peace Support Operations, Conflict Management and Peace and Security Studies and also runs Masters and PhD programmes in same. The KAIPTC has a world-class research department that undertakes research in the thematic areas in Peace and Security. Located in Accra, Ghana, the KAIPTC is an internationally-recognized institution and has till date trained and tutored over 21, 496 participants and students since its inception.

KAIPTC is a gender sensitive organization and committed to gender equality. Following the launch of its Gender policy in 2014, the Centre has mainstreamed gender into its policies and programmes, and integrates same in its focal areas, namely training, research and post-graduate education. The Centre has developed a Sexual Harassment policy and fully oriented employees on same. It has also provided a Nursing and Childcare Centre and instituted a paternity leave policy, all with the aim to create a conducive work environment at KAIPTC.

Mandela: A life of Soaring Symbolism, Now Harnessed By UN

In this July 22, 2007, file photo, Nelson Mandela gestures during the 5th annual Nelson Mandela Lecture at the Linder Auditorium in Johannesburg, South Africa. The United Nations is seeking to harness the soaring symbolism of Mandela, whose South African journey from anti-apartheid leader to prisoner to president to global statesman is one of the 20th century’s great stories of struggle, sacrifice and reconciliation. The unveiling of a statue of Mandela, born 100 years ago, with arms outstretched at the U.N. building in New York on Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, opens a peace summit at the General Assembly. (AP Photo, File)

In this July 22, 2007 file photo, Nelson Mandela and former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan arrive together at the 5th annual Nelson Mandela Lecture at the Linder Auditorium in Johannesburg, South Africa. The United Nations is seeking to harness the soaring symbolism of Mandela, whose South African journey from anti-apartheid leader to prisoner to president to global statesman is one of the 20th century’s great stories of struggle, sacrifice and reconciliation. The unveiling of a statue of Mandela, born 100 years ago, with arms outstretched at the U.N. building in New York on Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, opens a peace summit at the General Assembly. (AP Photo, File)



BY CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nelson Mandela’s South African journey from anti-apartheid leader to prisoner to president to global statesman — the “Long Walk to Freedom” of his autobiography title — is one of the 20th century’s great stories of struggle, sacrifice and reconciliation. Now the United Nations is seeking to harness its soaring symbolism.

The unveiling of a statue of Mandela, born 100 years ago, with arms outstretched at the U.N. building in New York on Monday opens a peace summit at the General Assembly, where world leaders will once again address the planet’s pressing problems: war, poverty, disease, migration and climate change. They’ll do so amid a massive security operation in a city where Mandela was welcomed by exultant crowds in 1990, a few months after he walked out of a South African jail, ending 27 years of imprisonment under the country’s white minority government.

“South Africa will be free,” Mandela said during that visit, and indeed, he became the country’s first black president in its first multi-racial elections four years later. His death in 2013 at age 95 brought a global outpouring of grief and tributes.

But there is something of a distinction between the main global perception of Mandela — the moral colossus whose resolve and generosity of spirit, tactical as well as genuine, inspired people in Colombia, Northern Ireland and other places struggling with seemingly intractable conflicts — and a growing body of opinion at home that he and his party were too quick to accommodate South Africa’s white minority, which lost political control but still dominates industry in one of the world’s most economically unequal societies.

Despite South Africa’s sense of unfinished business, it is a country enormously proud of the tall, charismatic orator with a broad smile and ironclad principles whose image and words were banned by his former captors, rendering him virtually invisible to the outside for decades. Mandela’s universality means that he also belongs to the world, which has wrestled with a fresh set of economic and political ruptures of late.

In July, former U.S. president Barack Obama traveled to Johannesburg and spoke about how Mandela, by offering the possibility of “moral transformation,” means as much to the globe as he does to South Africa.

“At the outset, his struggle was particular to this place, to his homeland — a fight to end apartheid, a fight to ensure lasting political and social and economic equality for its disenfranchised non-white citizens,” Obama said. “But through his sacrifice and unwavering leadership and, perhaps most of all, through his moral example, Mandela and the movement he led would come to signify something larger.”

The United Nations is declaring 2019-2028 as the “Nelson Mandela Decade of Peace,” and a declaration being adopted at Monday’s peace summit identifies the personal qualities that made him a transcendent humanitarian — “humility, forgiveness and compassion” — and connects them with U.N. goals, including disarmament, human rights and poverty alleviation.

It also warns of “challenges to the primacy of multilateralism,” a catch-all term that could refer to trade disputes between the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and other countries, or the European Union’s Brexit challenge, or other pressures testing the idea of shared values on which the U.N. was founded after World War II.

The declaration’s signatories recognize “that the world has changed significantly since the founding of the United Nations, and acknowledge that global peace eludes us to this day,” it says. But the tone is hopeful — “we must make the impossible possible” — and the document singles out South Africa for praise, remembering the country’s dismantling of its nuclear weapons program toward the end of apartheid and Mandela’s appeal for the “total elimination of nuclear weapons.”

Mandela’s plea is no closer to reality, and other elements of his legacy are under threat. In 2016, South Africa said it was withdrawing from the International Criminal Court, though a South African court later ruled against the move to pull out of the Hague-based tribunal, which was launched in 2002 and pursues perpetrators of the world’s atrocities. Mandela had been a strong advocate for the court’s creation.

The shine has come off the “rainbow nation” that was internationally admired in its early post-apartheid years during Mandela’s presidency. South Africa struggles with fallout from allegedly massive corruption under former president Jacob Zuma, and a contentious debate about land reform reflects the frustrations of many in the black majority who think their country has let them down since they got the right to vote.

Still, it has one of the biggest economies in Africa, as well as a relatively robust judicial system and civil society.

“For all our shortcomings and simmering tensions, our country was truly inspirational, and it still is. In recent years it had become harder to sell the South African miracle, as our detractors would point to rampant corruption, cronyism, and the masses who are yet to share in the dividends of peace,” Shannon Ebrahim, foreign editor for the Independent Media Group in South Africa, wrote in a column.

The U.N.’s honoring of Mandela, Ebrahim said, again gives South Africans a chance to inspire the world.

Monday is also a public holiday in South Africa, Heritage Day, introduced when Mandela was president to celebrate the country’s cultural diversity.

According to accounts, Mandela wanted to be seen as a normal human being with both flaws and virtues, and not as an icon or legend. In 2007, he spoke at the dedication of a statue in his likeness opposite the Houses of Parliament in London, and his talk about the symbolism, not the man, seems equally apt for the new statue at the United Nations.

“We trust that the statue will be a reminder of heroes and heroines past,” Mandela said, “as well as an inspiration for continuing struggles against injustice.”

Christopher Torchia on Twitter: www.twitter.com/torchiachris

Kofi Annan, The Last UN Secretary-General Who Paid For His Independence

Kofi Annan image by Evan Schneider, United Nations via Inter Press Servuce

BY ROBERTO SAVIO

ROME, SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 (IPS) - This testimony to Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary-General, comes a month after his death. Much has already been written, and it is now superfluous to recall his efforts for peace and international cooperation. It is better to place his figure in a crucial context: how the great powers progressively reduced the figure of the UN Secretary-General and charged a high price from those who tried to keep the system’s independence.

First of all, it must be remembered that the United Nations was born – to a considerable extent – due to the strong propulsive drive of the United States. The United States, the great winners of the Second World War [with 416,800 soldiers and 1,700 civilians dead, compared with over 20 million Soviet Union soldiers and civilians], wanted to avoid the recurrence of a new world conflict. It therefore sought the construction of a multilateral system, able to maintain – through peace in a ruined world – its economic and military hegemony intact. It pledged to contribute 25 percent to the budget of the organisation, agreed to house its headquarters and ceded national sovereignty to an unprecedented extent.

This special arrangement took the first heavy blow through the hand of US President Ronald Reagan who, at the North-South Summit held in Cancun, Mexico, in 1981, shortly after his election, said he considered the United Nations a straitjacket for American interests. He argued that it was not acceptable that his country had only one vote like any other country, and was forced by majority votes (often from developing countries) to follow paths far from US policy. Since then Washington’s policy has been to attempt to reshape the political weight of the United Nations, and it has constantly sought to have a “manager” as Secretary-General who would take account of American weight.

After Javier Perez de Cuellar, a quiet Peruvian diplomat who by nature and training avoided confrontation, had succeeded Kurt Waldheim – Secretary-General at the time of the Cancun summit – the United States began a process of disengagement, which came to a halt with the arrival of George W. Bush, a moderate from the old school, who took a more positive view of the United Nations as a place to assert American power.

Then came the fall of the Berlin Wall and the vote of the UN General Assembly could not be exploited by the socialist bloc. An Egyptian diplomat, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, had taken over from Perez de Cuellar, supported by Washington because Egypt was considered a traditional US ally.

Boutros-Ghali turned out to be surprisingly independent. A profound campaign to relaunch the United Nations began, with several World Conferences being organised on topics ranging from Climate to Population, from Human Rights to Gender Equity, and with a social summit in Copenhagen, which established a strong pledge agenda. Boutros-Ghali set an Agenda for Peace, an Agenda for Development, and many other initiatives that the United States could not desert. As a result, an American veto in 1996 prevented a second term for him (despite the favourable vote of the other 14 UN Security Council members: Boutros-Ghali was the only Secretary-General to serve just one mandate).

When Bill Clinton became US President, his mandate was not at all unequivocal. He was openly internationalist, and he officially declared, with regard to the Rwanda War, that the United States would ban any peacekeeping operation that did not directly benefit US foreign policy. He was also the one who abolished the 1933 Segall-Glass law, which strictly kept separated deposit banks from speculation banks. As a consequence of that , speculative finance boomed and citizens deposits started to be used to grow capital, giving supremacy to finance over economy and politics.

With the veto on Boutros-Ghali, the American administration, represented by Madeline Albright, ex-US Ambassador to the United Nations and promoted to Secretary of State thanks to her battle against Boutros-Ghali, wanted to give a signal: the United States was ready to ban a UN Secretary-General who did not respect Washington’s voice. Albright’s proposal was accepted and a respectable Ghanaian official, Kofi Annan, was appointed Boutros-Ghali’s successor by the Security Council.

It was at this point that the greatness of Annan came to the fore. The man who had been considered a man linked to Washington embarked on a process of deep UN administrative reform, in order to make it more transparent and efficient. He received the Nobel Prize in 2001, together with the UN Organization, “for his work for a better organized and peaceful world”: confirmation of his prestige and authority at the highest level.

However, in 2001, George W. Bush was elected President of the United States. His agenda’s priority was American supremacy in a changing world, taking over much of Reagan’s spirit. Whoever had Kofi Annam’s confidence could have heard how Bush wanted Annam’s unconditional support, despite his resistance.

Bush began his mandate with the decision to bring down the President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, for his invasion of Kuwait the previous year, despite American warnings. In 2003, because he did not have the support of the Security Council, which was not convinced there was sufficient evidence that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (France ‘s refusal to believe the US Administration was particularly firm), Bush invented the “Coalition of the Willing”, an alliance of various states promoted with the support of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and invaded Iraq without UN legitimation, with the results we all know.

Kofi Annan denounced the invasion, and in 2004 declared it illegal. American retaliation was rapid.

In 2005, an assistance programme was set up: the United Nations sold the country’s oil in order to provide food and medications to civilians. Under the pressure of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the American right-wing invented a scandal, which targeted the United Nations and Annan (through his son) undermining the organisation’s credibility. An inquiry commission headed by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker declared that American and British companies, and Saddam Hussein himself, benefited from the illegal transactions, but it did not help. By then image of the United Nations had been irreparably compromised.

Annan showed extreme dignity, and quit his position in 2006, taking action for peace and international cooperation. It was emblematic of his personality when the Arab League and the United Nations entrusted him in February 2012 with mediation to end the civil conflict in Syria. It took him just five months to quit the job, declaring that the conflict had then become internationalised, and that no one was interested in peace.

Between 2007 and 2016, South Korean diplomat Ban Ki Moon held the office of UN Secretary-General. It is said that Bush’s instructions to the American delegation were: choose the most innocuous. And even though the end of the Bush presidency in 2009 was followed by that of Barack Obama who believed in an American policy based on cooperation and détente, Ban Ki Moon’s secretariat left a minimum legacy of actions.

Today, the United Nations is a kind of ‘Super Red Cross’, focusing on sectors that do not affect governance of the economy or finance but politics on refugees, education, health, agriculture and fishing, and so on. Trade and finance, the two great engines of globalisation, are now outside of the United Nations which is no longer a place for debate and consensus for humanity. The Davos Economic Forum attracts more leaders than the UN General Assembly.

There are many factors behind the crisis of the United Nations but the progressive withdrawal of the United States from multilateralism is its fundamental cause. The United States no longer needs the United Nations under President Donald Trump’s desire for a policy not only of America First, but of America Alone. After Reagan and Bush, Trump is the third nail in the coffin.

The latest Secretary-General, António Guterres of Portugal, has a political career at the highest level, having also been his country’s prime minister. He was chosen by the General Assembly (an unprecedented fact), and imposed on the Security Council. Stuck by Trump’s promise to withdraw the United States from the United Nations, he had to avoid any position that would increase the decline of the United Nations thanks to this immobility.

It is clear that the crisis of multilateralism and the return to nationalism is an international phenomenon. Not only the United States, but China, India, Japan, the Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand, and several European countries, including Italy, are re-discovering the old traps: in the name of God, in the name of the Nation and now in the name of Money, using nationalism, xenophobia and populism to cancel the European project.

Is it reasonable to remark that those who are missing are the Kofi Annans, those who place values and ideals above all else, shunning personal interests and not interested in holding on to their positions, in order to invite citizens to a debate of ideas by those who dare to resist in this era of sleepwalking.

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Dies At Age 80

In this Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012 file photo Kofi Annan speaks during a press briefing, at the European headquarters of the United Nations, UN, in Geneva, Switzerland. Annan, one of the world’s most celebrated diplomats and a charismatic symbol of the United Nations who rose through its ranks to become the first black African secretary-general, has died. He was 80. (Martial Trezzini, Keystone via AP, File)

BY JOHN HEILPRIN & FRANCIS KOKUTSE

GENEVA (AP) — Kofi Annan, one of the world’s most celebrated diplomats and a charismatic symbol of the United Nations who rose through its ranks to become the first black African secretary-general, has died. He was 80.

His foundation announced his death in Switzerland’s capital, Bern, on Saturday in a tweet , saying he died after a short unspecified illness. It did not give details and remembered the Nobel Peace Prize winner as “radiating genuine kindness, warmth and brilliance in all he did.”

The president of Ghana, where Annan was born, said in a tweet that “I am ... comforted by the information, after speaking to (Annan’s wife) Nane Maria, that he died peacefully in his sleep.”

Annan spent virtually his entire career as an administrator in the United Nations. His aristocratic style, cool-tempered elegance and political savvy helped guide his ascent to become its seventh secretary-general, and the first hired from within. He served two terms from Jan. 1, 1997, to Dec. 31, 2006, capped nearly mid-way when he and the U.N. were jointly awardedthe Nobel Peace Prize in 2001.

During his tenure, Annan presided over some of the worst failures and scandals at the world body, one of its most turbulent periods since its founding in 1945. Challenges from the outset forced him to spend much of his time struggling to restore its tarnished reputation.

His enduring moral prestige remained largely undented, however, both through charisma and by virtue of having negotiated with most of the powers in the world.

When he departed from the United Nations, he left behind a global organization far more aggressively engaged in peacekeeping and fighting poverty, setting the framework for the U.N.’s 21st-century response to mass atrocities and its emphasis on human rights and development.

“Kofi Annan was a guiding force for good,” current U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. “It is with profound sadness that I learned of his passing. In many ways, Kofi Annan was the United Nations. He rose through the ranks to lead the organization into the new millennium with matchless dignity and determination.”

Even out of office, Annan never completely left the U.N. orbit. He returned in special roles, including as the U.N.-Arab League’s special envoy to Syria in 2012. He remained a powerful advocate for global causes through his eponymous foundation.

Annan took on the top U.N. post six years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and presided during a decade when the world united against terrorism after the Sept. 11 attacks — then divided deeply over the U.S.-led war against Iraq. The U.S. relationship tested him as a world diplomatic leader.

“I think that my darkest moment was the Iraq war, and the fact that we could not stop it,” Annan said in a February 2013 interview with TIME magazine to mark the publication of his memoir, “Interventions: A Life in War and Peace.”

“I worked very hard — I was working the phone, talking to leaders around the world. The U.S. did not have the support in the Security Council,” Annan recalled in the videotaped interview posted on The Kofi Annan Foundation’s website.

“So they decided to go without the council. But I think the council was right in not sanctioning the war,” he said. “Could you imagine if the U.N. had endorsed the war in Iraq, what our reputation would be like? Although at that point, President (George W.) Bush said the U.N. was headed toward irrelevance, because we had not supported the war. But now we know better.”

Despite his well-honed diplomatic skills, Annan was never afraid to speak candidly. That didn’t always win him fans, particularly in the case of Bush’s administration, with whom Annan’s camp spent much time bickering. Much of his second term was spent at odds with the United States, the U.N.’s biggest contributor, as he tried to lean on the nation to pay almost $2 billion in arrears.

Kofi Atta Annan was born April 8, 1938, into an elite family in Kumasi, Ghana, the son of a provincial governor and grandson of two tribal chiefs.

He shared his middle name Atta — “twin” in Ghana’s Akan language — with a twin sister, Efua. He became fluent in English, French and several African languages, attending an elite boarding school and the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. He finished his undergraduate work in economics at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1961. From there he went to Geneva, where he began his graduate studies in international affairs and launched his U.N. career.

Annan married Titi Alakija, a Nigerian woman, in 1965, and they had a daughter, Ama, and a son, Kojo. He returned to the U.S. in 1971 and earned a master’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. The couple separated during the 1970s and, while working in Geneva, Annan met his second wife, Swedish lawyer Nane Lagergren. They married in 1984.

Annan worked for the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa in Ethiopia, its Emergency Force in Egypt, and the office of the High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, before taking a series of senior posts at U.N. headquarters in New York dealing with human resources, budget, finance, and staff security.

He also had special assignments. After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, he facilitated the repatriation from Iraq of more than 900 international staff and other non-Iraqi nationals, and the release of western hostages in Iraq. He led the initial negotiations with Iraq for the sale of oil in exchange for humanitarian relief.

Just before becoming secretary-general, Annan served as U.N. peacekeeping chief and as special envoy to the former Yugoslavia, where he oversaw a transition in Bosnia from U.N. protective forces to NATO-led troops.

The U.N. peacekeeping operation faced two of its greatest failures during his tenure: the Rwanda genocide in 1994, and the massacre in the Bosnian town of Srebrenica in July 1995.

In both cases, the U.N. had deployed troops under Annan’s command, but they failed to save the lives of the civilians they were mandated to protect. Annan offered apologies, but ignored calls to resign by U.S. Republican lawmakers. After became secretary-general, he called for U.N. reports on those two debacles — and they were highly critical of his management.

As secretary-general, Annan forged his experiences into a doctrine called the “Responsibility to Protect,” that countries accepted — at least in principle — to head off genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and war crimes.

Annan sought to strengthen the U.N.’s management, coherence and accountability, efforts that required huge investments in training and technology, a new whistleblower policy and financial disclosure requirements.

In 1998, he helped ease a transition to civilian rule in Nigeria and visited Iraq to try to resolve its impasse with the Security Council over compliance with weapons inspections and other matters. The effort helped avoid an outbreak of hostilities that seemed imminent at the time.

In 1999, he was deeply involved in the process by which East Timor gained independence from Indonesia, and started the “Global Compact” initiative that has grown into the world’s largest effort to promote corporate social responsibility.

Annan was chief architect of what became known as the Millennium Development Goals, and played a central role in creating the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the U.N.’s first counter-terrorism strategy.

Annan’s uncontested election to a second term was unprecedented, reflecting the overwhelming support he enjoyed from both rich and poor countries. Timothy Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation, which disburses Ted Turner’s $1 billion pledge to U.N. causes, hailed “a saint-like sense about him.”

In 2005, Annan succeeded in establishing the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights Council. But that year, the U.N. was facing almost daily attacks over allegations about corruption in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, bribery by U.N. purchasing officials and widespread sex abuse by U.N. peacekeepers — an issue that would only balloon in importance after he left office.

It emerged that Annan’s son, Kojo, had not disclosed payments he received from his employer, which had a $10 million-a-year contract to monitor humanitarian aid under the oil-for-food program. The company paid at least $300,000 to Kojo so he would not work for competitors after he left.

An independent report criticized the secretary-general for being too complacent, saying he should have done more to investigate matters even if he was not involved with the awarding of the contract.

World leaders agreed to create an internal U.N. ethics office, but a major overhaul of the U.N.’s outdated management practices and operating procedures was left to Annan’s successor, Ban Ki-moon.

Before leaving office, Annan helped secure a truce between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, and mediated a settlement of a dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria over the Bakassi peninsula.

At a farewell news conference, Annan listed as top achievements the promotion of human rights, the fighting to close the gap between extreme poverty and immense wealth, and the U.N. campaign to fight infectious diseases like AIDS.

He never took disappointments and setbacks personally. And he kept his view that diplomacy should take place in private and not in the public forum.

In his memoir, Annan recognized the costs of taking on the world’s top diplomatic job, joking that “SG,” for secretary-general, also signified “scapegoat” around U.N. headquarters.

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke called Annan “an international rock star of diplomacy.”

After leaving his high-profile U.N. perch, Annan didn’t let up. In 2007, his Geneva-based foundation was created. That year he helped broker peace in Kenya, where election violence had killed over 1,000 people.

He also joined The Elders, an elite group of former leaders founded by Nelson Mandela, eventually succeeding Desmond Tutu as its chairman after a failed interlude trying to resolve Syria’s rising civil war.

Annan “represented our continent and the world with enormous graciousness, integrity and distinction,” Tutu said Saturday in a statement, adding that “we give great thanks to god” for him.

As special envoy to Syria in 2012, Annan won international backing for a six-point plan for peace. The U.N. deployed a 300-member observer force to monitor a cease-fire, but peace never took hold and Annan was unable to surmount the bitter stalemate among Security Council powers. He resigned in frustration seven months into the job, as the civil war raged on.

Annan continued to crisscross the globe. In 2017, his foundation’s biggest projects included promotion of fair, peaceful elections; work with Myanmar’s government to improve life in troubled Rakhine state; and battling violent extremism by enlisting young people to help.

He also remained a vocal commentator on troubles like the refugee crisis; promoted good governance, anti-corruption measures and sustainable agriculture in Africa; and pushed efforts in the fight against illegal drug trafficking.

Annan retained connections to many international organizations. He was chancellor of the University of Ghana, a fellow at New York’s Columbia University, and professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore.

His homeland of Ghana was shaken by his death. “One of our greatest compatriots,” President Nana Akufo-Addo said, calling for a week with flags at half-mast. “Rest in perfect peace, Kofi. You have earned it.”

Annan is survived by his wife and three children. Funeral arrangements weren’t immediately announced.

Kokutse reported from Accra, Ghana. Associated Press writer Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed.

Carter, Annan: Mandela Group Will Continue Work

Former UN Secretary-General and Chair of The Elders Kofi Annan, left, and former US President Jimmy Carter, right, speak to The Associated Press during an interview at a hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa Monday, Dec. 9, 2013. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan say that the group of world leaders set up by Nelson Mandela will continue its work. Carter and Annan spoke to The Associated Press on Monday after just arriving in Johannesburg, ahead of a major planned memorial for Mandela that will draw some 100 world leaders and tens of thousands of mourners.

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan say the group of world leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela will continue its work.

Carter and Annan spoke to The Associated Press on Monday after arriving in Johannesburg, ahead of a major planned memorial for Mandela that will draw some 100 world leaders and tens of thousands of mourners.

They are part of The Elders, an independent group of world leaders and human rights activists. Mandela became the group's honorary chairman after its founding in 2007 but was never an active member. Annan said of Mandela: "The way he lived his life and what he did also should convey the message to each and every one of us that as individuals, we have power."

Kofi Annan: Stewardship, Middleman And Quest For Global Peace

BY AMBROSE EHIRIM

“Interventions: A Life In War And Peace”
By Kofi Annan with Nader Mousavizadeh
Penguin, 383 pp., $36.00

United States President George W. Bush and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan speak to reporters after a meeting held to discuss international events in the Oval Office. Bush expressed a willingness to send a limited number of U.S. troops to Liberia to back a peacekeeping mission in the civil war torn nation. Before this meet, President Bill Clinton visited the Bush White House for possible dialogue to seek resolve in the Middle East crises calling on Bush to act swiftly to avoid more ominous consequences between negotiations with the United nations and Iraq but Bush would make his point deliberately accusing his gang of hardliners noting "my right-wingers wants to destroy the United nations, but I don't." Date: July 14, 2003. Image: Bruce Kraft.



I was not looking for much of a difference bearing in mind Kofi Annan’s diplomatic career throughout his adult life from the prospects of dabbling into Ghanaian politics which turned out a hopeless situation when the military juntas in Ghana interrupted his ideal of democracy by the stages of coups after coups which had made the possibilities of a stable democracy in Ghana far fetched.

The uncertainties of a stable Ghanaian democracy began to develop the moment Kwame Nkrumah’s presidency was questioned when a group of military juntas and some of Ghana’s high ranking police officers struck and overthrew Nkrumah’s government on February 24, 1966.

But a lot had been behind that, upon Annan identifying with himself what he’d wanted when he took the shot at the United Nation’s job which would catapult him to the top from his years of endurance, perseverance, commitment and the awareness of an unbecoming Ghana, what’s at stake and dangers the job posed, coupled with the significant role of his tolerance and abiding by the rules to keep his dignity, and to accomplish, on a variety of problems seemingly to have overshadowed the effectiveness of the United Nations, and what he must do under his watch to get things done.

Annan had been caught in-between a web of conflicts centered on the Middle East, precisely, the moment the United States, in particular, had figured Annan would be a good listener and would take decisions to do stuff in the United States’ interest, from strategic points in partnering with other organizations and national leaders.

The sudden disapproval of Boutros Boutros Ghali; the prospects of Annan succeeding him; and Annan, African, born in Ghana of a father who was well connected with the British and European corporations where he rose up the ladders becoming influential and aloof in Ghanaian politics while the quest for independence gained momentum during the constitutional conferences when Nkrumah was piecing together his cabinet as of July 1954, with the Conventional Peoples Party. Annan’s father, Henry Reginald Annan, supported Nkruma’s-led struggle for a Ghanaian national state and total liberation from colonial rule; but at the same time, was very careful about taking sides in Nkrumah’s revolution and, what would probably follow, henceforth.

As it had happened, the young Annan (Kofi) had second guessed a Ghanaian stable government when he had looked to a Ghana sound democratic fabric, in his boyhood, seeing the prospects of belonging to Ghana’s ruling elite class and setting the pace for Africa by way of respecting the rule of law and upholding democracy.

In 1954, Annan was 16 years old, born on April 8, 1938, in Kumasi, the Ashanti region, in Ghana, from a traditional royal family; and attended the prestigious Mfantsipim boarding school in Cape Coast, graduating in 1957, the time Nkrumah’s CPP cabinet had already set the stage to assume responsibilities of its own affairs of state which would lead to the midnight, March 5, 1957, at a huge meeting on the fields just opposite the Parliament Building where the Union Jack was lowered and, a red, yellow and green flag, printed with a black star on the yellow mark was hoisted; marking the end of Ghana’s struggle for independence. A new nation-state was born under the banner of Nkrumah and his CPP.

While Nkrumah, A.E. Inksumah, Kojo Botsio, K.A. Gbedemah, A. Casely-Hayford, A.E. Ofori-Atta, N.A. Welbeck, B. Yeboa-Afari, J.H. Alhasani, J.B. erzuah, L.R. Abavana, Ako Adjei, Krobo Edusei wrote the platforms to the nation’s affairs of state which would eventually not be likened by the opposing factions to what was becoming a tyrannical one-party state, including Gbedemah who had to disappear suddenly, finding himself in exile as a fugitive, and within the process, Annan pursued his post-secondary education at the Kumasi College of Science and Technology, and in 1961 would graduate from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, on the goodwill of a Ford Foundation grant.

Annan, groomed to become a Ghana elite class by all accounts would shun that and head to a branch of the United Nations, World Health Organization, as a budget officer. Returning to Ghana to work briefly in tourism, a government gone bad disrupted his chances which opened up another opportunity.

The United Nations popped up; calling.

But a United Nations under Annan from years of service on a variety of platforms with the organization was not going to be easy for a man who had initially thought of doing things differently, in order to build his legacy and deserve the respect he wanted for a career he gave up everything. It worked partially, for the fact that his stewardship in seeking peace for his credibility and as a middleman, made him a good negotiator with his diplomatic folks in the Arab League and a bullying United States that wanted all things their way, shovelling him around, or it would cost Annan the stewardship he had cherished and labored for his entire career.

It failed on many grounds; his attempt toward the realization of making deals to avert wars or conflicts between nations, sort of, did not materialize, thus frustrating all his efforts.

The cases of Rwanda, which he shares the blame with his colleagues after prior knowledge to the Rwandan genocide in 1994; the Balkans (Bosnia, Serbia, Croatia, Kosovo), Somalia, the Congo, the Baltic states, the Middle East ( Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq), Israel and the Far East/Central Asia (Pakistan, India, kashmir, Afghanistan) and, so on, comes to mind; all ending up incomplete despite the efforts he had made soldiering for a peaceful world without wars.

Annan could only do as much within the powers bestowed him as Secretary General which of course, was dictated, first, by the Bill Clinton administration with direct orders from Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who instructed him on what to do and how the United States wanted it done under Clinton, to a more dramatic, bullying George Bush administration where he had been left with no choices at all, considering the fact his diplomatic friend, Secretary of State, Colin Powell, had been cornered by the Bush gang to fabricate stories of weapons of mass destruction, for presentation to the United Nations Security Council which left the Annan-led United Nations observing team over Iraq, politically impotent and permanently disfigured in the area of dialogue and compromise from suspicion bent on Saddam Hussein's accumulation of weapons to eliminate his neighbors which includes Israel. At the same time, Annan over the cause of his long haul of trips to Baghdad to urge Hussein allow United Nations inspectors in for their investigations, Annan still did not believe such was in existence, pleading with Hussein for approval in order to clear his conscience.

Even though Powell as the world was made to believe did not know about all the fabrications by the Bush gang, which was hard to believe, Powell did all with his diplomatic and friendly positions to persuade Annan and his team with the assurance Hussein's stockpile of weapons had been found by the invading forces of the United States military commands and, so convinced that he’d been vindicated through the findings on which Powell’s mind reflected his dignity and free from guilt with regards to the invasion by the United States, in what would be an eventual capitulation and the ultimate end of Hussein's regime.

Annan and his team of United Nations investigators did not buy all that Powell had sold to the security council, and did not believe in any of powell’s made-up stories given to him for presentation to the United Nations Security Council by the Bush gang. Powell would lose his personal bearing and dignity, and of all the trumped-up cases to convince and compel the United Nations that invasion of Iraq was inevitable with the probable cause of an alleged findings of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The findings was a hoax, fabricated and intentionally manipulated for one purpose - to get rid of Hussein and his brutal regime.

Powell’s reputation would never be the same again. He had fallen cheaply to the Bush gang as errand boy to keep his relationship “intact and viable” with the House of Bush without bearing in mind what had counted was his dedication to service for the United States and the world in general; and, not the Bush gang he, in an about face, failed to thoroughly investigate in what would destroy his career at a time the entire world had seen him as the globe’s top notch diplomat.

But again, despite the fact Annan stood ground not taking into accounts all that was fabricated and presented by Powell as precedent to the invasion of Iraq when the United States ignored due process by following procedures of the security council in what necessitates invasion, Annan was desperately isolated by a Bush gang, using a concocted paperwork as evidence to invade Iraq, removing Hussein at a terrible cost in casualties, and resources on global and Iraqi perspective.

One thing that should be borne in Annan’s stewardship to use a United Nations conduit in bringing about peace of a troubled universe and stopping the “unnecessary wars,” was that, his one-on-one negotiations to avert war in any event like the Allied air strikes in Iraq, the war in Bosnia, Kosovo, Serbia, conflicting issues in Albania, an unstable African continent with mountains of problems remains the fact that a lot of unfulfilled, troubling issues will be haunting him the rest of his life.

Despite an incomplete mission and the quest for global peace, Annan leaves himself haunted by the scandals of his son, Kojo Annan’s involvement in the Iraq Oil For Food program which was launched to help Iraqi women and children from dying of starvation and other related diseases, following the scandals of kickbacks and diverting money meant for the program in which several companies engaged in the contract that had hired his son embezzled staggering amounts of cash, and a revelation of funny bookkeeping.

Annan, honest in his encounters, fully committed for positive results and revelations in “Interventions,” is still fighting to sustain his dignity as he keeps negotiating for global peace outside of his expired assignment as United Nations Secretary General.

Kofi Annan and Tariq Aziz signs a memorandum of understanding of issue of weapons inspection. Feb., 19, 1998. Image: Rick Maiman

Let's Break Africa's Resource Curse

By Kofi Annan - International Herald Tribune/Deccan Chronicle

Across Africa, oil, gas and minerals are being discovered more often than ever before. Nowhere is the global commodities boom being felt more acutely. Over the next decade, billions of dollars will flow into countries previously starved of financial capital.

Used wisely, these natural resource revenues could lead to sustainable economic growth, new jobs and investments in health, education and infrastructure. But sadly, history teaches us that a more destructive path is likely — conflict, spiralling inequality, corruption and environmental disasters are far more common consequences of resource bonanzas. The cliché remains true: striking oil is as much a curse as a blessing.

There are no easy answers to this problem. It can only be tackled with global cooperation among private sector leaders in the extractive industries, African leaders in government and civil society. The ultimate goal is a transparent and accountable sector-generating financial firepower that will enable countries that have previously lagged behind to accelerate rapidly towards the Millennium Development Goals.

The good news is that momentum is building behind this objective, and from an unlikely source. Financial regulators in the United States ruled on August 22 that all US-listed oil, gas and mining companies will have to publish all the payments they make to governments, broken down to the level of individual projects.

This historic implementation of the Cardin-Lugar amendment of the Dodd-Frank Act passed by Congress two years ago will open some of the world’s most opaque financial dealings to public scrutiny. The challenge now is to bring similar legislation to other jurisdictions, starting in the European Union, where policymakers will vote on new transparency laws next week. From there, African governments must pass their own reforms. The benefits will be huge.

First, citizens will be empowered with the information they need to hold government and companies to account for the money made from natural resources. This is not an abstract concept, as some have suggested. A former World Bank vice- president for Africa, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, estimates that Nigeria has had at least $400 billion of its oil revenue stolen or misspent since independence in 1960.

It is vital that countries with newly discovered oil reserves, like Ghana, Kenya and Uganda, do not suffer the same fate. Greater transparency will also improve the business climate. The politics around natural resources tends to be fractious and debilitating.

Of course, transparency alone cannot solve complex conflicts, but without it the hope of resolution is dramatically diminished. It is in the interests of companies to support an atmosphere in which political risk is minimised, rumours and innuendo around revenues are replaced with fact, and the most responsible companies are rewarded with the contracts they deserve.

US leadership on this issue should be the start, not the end, of efforts to break the resource curse. Europe’s proposed new transparency legislation would require another swath of companies to publish what they pay — but if it is to be effective, a number of loopholes and exemptions should be tightened up before it makes the statute book.

Most seriously, the proposed European law includes an exemption for autocrats who pass laws to prevent financial disclosure. This logic was explicitly rejected by the US regulator and should be removed in Europe. It is also essential to require disclosure at the level of individual projects, rather than the national level, which some European countries have suggested.

Local communities have the right to know what the mines and oil wells in their neighbourhoods are contributing to the economy.

Beyond Europe, the G20 should step up negotiations to ensure that companies from emerging economies are also required to disclose their payments. Given their rapidly growing presence in Africa, this is important to secure a truly global standard.

In the meantime, African governments should legislate at the national level so that all companies competing for their contracts have similar expectations. It is also necessary to step up support to civil society groups that aim to hold governments accountable, so they can use and interpret the data this transparency boom will release.

Some African countries have successfully used natural-resource revenue for the public good. Botswana now has middle-income status, and among countries with newly discovered oil, Ghana has made encouraging moves towards publishing all present and future oil contracts.

But the resource curse remains hard to shake off. The new global transparency momentum gives African countries a genuine chance to escape it once and for all.

The writer is chairman of the Africa Progress Panel, former Secretary-General of the United Nations and Nobel laureate