Kofi Annan

I

Introduction

Kofi Annan (1938- ), Ghanaian diplomat, seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations (1996-2006), the first secretary-general from sub-Saharan Africa.

Born in Kumasi, Ghana, Annan was educated at the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi and at Macalester College, St Paul, Minnesota, later studying at the Institut des Hautes Études Internationales in Geneva and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joining the UN in 1962, he rose through the organization’s hierarchy, holding posts in various departments and countries. Interrupting his UN career in 1974 to serve as director of the Ghana Tourist Development Company, he rejoined in 1976, entering the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). From 1980 onwards he occupied various senior administrative posts in the UN’s New York headquarters, becoming controller officer of programme planning, budget, and finance in 1990. In 1992 he joined the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, becoming under-secretary-general in charge of the department in 1993, and in 1995 UN special envoy to the former Yugoslavia, where he oversaw implementation of the Dayton Peace Accord ending the Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian War.

II

Secretary-General, First Term (1996-2001)

Annan was elected to the position of secretary-general by a unanimous vote of the UN Security Council in December 1996, as a compromise candidate following the United States’s veto of the re-election of the incumbent secretary-general, Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Annan was tasked to reform inefficiency and corruption within the UN bureaucracy, a problem underlined by US opposition to his predecessor. Officially taking up his post in January 1997, Annan soon earned a reputation for competence and diplomatic skills, helping to secure ratification of a global treaty against chemical weapons proliferation in May 1997 and an agreement in June 1997 on repayment of part of the US$1 billion in dues owed to the UN by the United States. In February 1998 he made a peacemaking trip to Iraq to negotiate directly with Saddam Hussein, aiming to avert another conflict in the region following the Gulf War. While he succeeded in the short term, Iraq was to be a persistent flashpoint during Annan’s tenure. At the same time, Annan attempted to reach a lasting settlement between Western Sahara separatists in December. However, the form of a putative referendum that would resolve the issue remained a highly contentious issue.

Annan supported the use of force by NATO over Kosovo in March 1999 while stating his belief that the UN Security Council should have been involved in any decision to use force. The UN-monitored referendum on independence for Timor-Leste finally took place in August and Annan insisted that Indonesia accept a UN peacekeeping force that was despatched in September to police the handover. In November a report stated that the UN should accept at least partial responsibility for the massacre at Srebrenica in 1995, in response to which Annan stated that “safe areas” should never again be established without credible means for their defence. There followed a second report in December that condemned the UN for ignoring evidence on the planned genocide in Rwanda in 1994, and for refusing to act when it had started.

In April 2000 Annan welcomed a report for the refocusing of the UN Charter for the 21st century to help reduce poverty and disease. The report was the topic of discussion at the UN millennium summit of more than 150 world leaders in September, which adopted a declaration setting targets for tackling poverty and disease, and promising to make the UN more effective in keeping the peace.

III

Secretary-General, Second Term (2001-2006)

In June 2001, in an unprecedented show of support for an incumbent secretary-general, Annan was unanimously approved for a second term by the security council and subsequently the general assembly. Annan was a vocal supporter of the coalition against terrorism formed by the United States after the attack on the World Trade Center, New York, on September 11, observing that reducing the terrorist threat was in the interest of all nations. However, he also warned governments not to use the rhetoric of the “war on terror” as justification for the withdrawal of civil liberties and the intensification of conflicts with neighbouring states. As US pressure for military action against the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq built up towards the end of 2002, Annan demanded that UN weapons inspectors be allowed to complete their investigations and that any armed intervention have the support of the UN Security Council (see War on Iraq). This placed him at odds with the administration of George W. Bush, which grew increasingly frustrated with Annan’s consensus-building approach. In September 2004, some time after the US-led invasion of Iraq, Annan declared that he regarded the action as a contravention of the UN charter, and therefore an illegal act.

During 2004 two other conflicts absorbed much of Annan's attention. The humanitarian disaster in the Darfur region of Sudan, the result of conflict between government-backed militias and rebel forces, provoked Annan to suggest that military intervention might be required. As the situation continued to deteriorate, in March 2005 he called for the Security Council to impose sanctions on the Sudanese government. Annan also worked to resolve the long-running division of Cyprus. In March 2004 he proposed a power-sharing plan that would involve both Greek and Turkish communities in a unified government. However, the plan was rejected by a majority of Greek Cypriots in a referendum the following month.

Throughout the year Annan was dogged by accusations of corruption in the UN's oil-for-food programme in Iraq, by which Saddam Hussein's government (on which sanctions had been imposed) was allowed to sell oil to buy food and medical supplies. An independent inquiry, chaired by Paul Volcker, delivered an interim report in February 2005, accusing the programme's overseers of unethical behaviour. Annan responded by beginning disciplinary procedures against the officials involved. Acknowledging some of the criticisms that had been made of the UN, in March he announced proposals for reform of the institution. Among these proposals were the expansion of the Security Council from 15 members to 24, a crackdown on abuses by UN peacekeeping forces, and an agreed definition of terrorism. At a UN summit held in September, some of Annan’s proposals were adopted. It was agreed that a peace-building commission should be established to help stabilize countries emerging from conflict, and terrorism was condemned “in all its forms and manifestations”. The summit coincided with the delivery of the final version of the Volcker report into the oil-for-food programme. Annan was accused of mismanagement, and the report stated that there was a need for extensive reform of the United Nations.

At the beginning of 2006, the final year of Annan’s second term as secretary-general, one of the major challenges facing the UN was Iran’s determination to continue developing its nuclear programme, provoking concerns that it was planning to arm itself with nuclear weapons. On Holocaust Memorial Day (January 27) Annan spoke of the need to challenge Holocaust denial—Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had recently made statements suggesting that the Holocaust was a “myth”. The urgency of the problem of nuclear proliferation was brought home in October, when North Korea announced that it had conducted a nuclear test. The same month the South Korean diplomat Ban Ki-moon was elected as Annan’s successor. In his final speech as secretary-general, delivered in December in Independence, Missouri, Annan stated that “no nation can make itself secure by seeking supremacy over others”, comments that were interpreted as a warning to the Bush administration over its aggressive foreign policy. In January 2008, Annan returned to high-profile diplomacy as he presided over talks to resolve the escalating crisis in Kenya that followed the disputed presidential election at the end of the previous year.

Annan and the United Nations were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2001, in reflection of their work towards a better organized and more peaceful world.