#UN Annan peace plan

[kyreniacommentator]

We Own Cyprus, insists the so-called Republic of Cyprus

Introduction by Chris Elliott….. Sadly as we were publishing our latest CyprusScene online e–newspaper with its worldwide readership, we received below the thought-provoking article by Ata Atun which should be read with the newspaper Embargoed, and Fahri Zihni articles which also make clear how the so-called Republic of Cyprus made their ” We Own Cyprus” claim by giving an OXI vote to the UN…

[juchechat]

Withdrawal of U.S. Hostile Policy towards DPRK - Indispensable Prerequisite for Peace and Stability on Korean Peninsula: Institute for Disarmament and Peace of DPRK Foreign Ministry

[June 25 Juche 109 (2020) KCNA]

70 years have elapsed since the bursts of gunfire of war were heard on this land.

The Korean War forced by the United States inflicted painful scars and tremendous human and material losses upon the Korean people. Continuing into this moment is the suffering of national division whereby kinsfolk of the same blood are compelled to live apart.

As the Korean nation still suffers from the heartrending wounds of war, it is stronger than any other nation in respect of its cherished desire to live on a peaceful land without war, and has long persevered in its efforts to realize the desire, but in vain.

Its underlying cause is the sinister design, that is, the U.S. hostile policy towards the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The Institute for Disarmament and Peace, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK Thursday releases this paper with a view to lay bare before the whole world the truth behind the Korean War ignited by the U.S. in the 1950s of the last century and to reveal the aggressive and predatory nature of the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK, which imposes immeasurable misfortunes and pains on the entire Korean nation.

The Korean War was an inevitable product of the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK

The Korean War is a criminal war of aggression which was systematically prepared and provoked by the U.S. under thoroughgoing plans to stifle the DPRK by force of arms and hold in its hands the Asia and the rest of the world.

Even though the U.S. continues to fabricate all sorts of tricky information designed to cover up its aggressive crimes of having provoked the Korean War, the truth of history can neither be covered up nor obliterated.

Since more than one century ago, the U.S. adopted it as its state policy to invade and dominate Korea, a gateway to the Asian continent, and desperately pursued the hostile policy towards Korea for its implementation.

The U.S. ruling circles presented the "proposal on opening Korea" to the Congress in February 1845 and perpetrated a series of incidents such as intrusions of ship "General Sherman" in 1866, ship "Shenandoah" and ship "China" respectively in 1868, and large-scale armed invasion in 1871.

After signing the "Taft-Katsura Agreement" in 1905, the U.S. backed the occupation and colonial rule by Japan over Korea while systematically attempting to turn it into its eventual colony. By the end of the World War II, it perfected its plan to occupy our country.

In the letter sent in March 1951 to Joseph Martin, Senator of the U.S. Congress, MacArthur, the then Commander of the U.S. Forces in the Far East, wrote:

…

"If we lose this war to Communism in Asia, the fall of Europe is inevitable.

By conquering all of Korea we can cut into pieces the one and only supply line connecting Soviet Siberia and South …, and control the whole area between Vladivostok and Singapore. Nothing would then be beyond the reach of our power." (Herschel Meyer, "Modern History of America", p.148)

In a word, the U.S. regarded Korea as a "dagger" to cut off a "lump of meat" which meant Asia.

Korean War was badly needed for the American munition monopolies which had been too fattened by piles of money they had amassed during the World War II.

The economic crisis which had started in the U.S. from the end of 1948 became more acute by 1949.

The industrial production plummeted by 15 percent compared to the previous year, the prices nose-dived, and the investment in machinery and equipment reduced sharply, which resulted in the bankruptcy of over 4,600 companies and the increase of the unemployed to 6 million during the first half of year 1949 alone. The revenue of the monopolies shrunk from US$ 36.6 billion to US$ 28.4 billion during the period between September 1948 and March 1949.

Soon after the Korean War broke out, American publications headlined that "the business called Korea revived the economy" and "the outbreak of the Korean War exorcised the evil of recession that had been agonizing the American commerce since the end of the World War II." This fact speaks itself that a "special recipe", i.e. a war, was needed for the U.S. at that time in order to rid itself of the economic crisis.

This is how the U.S. chose, pursuant to its strategy for world hegemony, Korea as a "unique point of tangency between the American military system and the Asian mainland", an "ideological battleground", a "test ground" of showdown for realizing world domination, and also as the only way to get out of the economic crisis after the World War II.

The true aggressive colours of the U.S. who took the lead in preparing for the Korean War are also clearly revealed by working out the war scenario.

The plan of the U.S. to occupy Far East was divided into three phases: The first phase begins with the Korean War (A) and in the second phase the war is expanded into China (B) and in the final phase, Siberia is occupied (C). The start of operation was slated for 1949.

A Japanese magazine dated September 1964 disclosed the story behind the scene by citing a former colonel of the Imperial Japanese Army, who had been involved in this conspiracy for the war, as follows:

"The operation was divided into three phases. First, 10 divisions comprising the U.S. Army and south Korean Army are deployed along the 38th Parallel, and two operation zones, i.e. the east zone and the west zone are formed. The west front directly advances to Pyongyang and a landing operation at northern Pyongyang with the cooperation of the Navy and Air Forces is conducted in parallel with it. The east front chooses Yangdok as its left flank and ensures the connection between Pyongyang and Wonsan and its right flank will march directly towards Wonsan. Here again, a landing operation at northern Wonsan is conducted by a naval unit. These two fronts advance together up to River Amnok and break through the Sino-Korean border. This was the first phase of the operation and a detailed plan based on data provided by the former Japanese Army was worked out. Next, the operation enters the second phase the moment the Sino-Korean border is broken through, followed by participation of the Japanese army and the UN forces. This was the sequence."

With a thoroughgoing plan and concrete preparation, the U.S. at last ignited the Korean War by inciting the south Korean puppet army at 4 a.m., June 25, 1950.

On the eve of the war, Robert, the then head of the U.S. military advisory group in south Korea gabbled as follows: "We have chosen the 25th and this explains our prudence. It is Sunday. It's the Sabbath for both the United States and south Korea, Christian states. No one will believe we have started a war on Sunday. In short, it is to make people believe that we are not the first to open a war."

After the provocation of the Korean War, the U.S. manoeuvred cunningly to cover up its true colour as aggressors.

On June 25, the U.S. asked for convening the United Nations Security Council meeting, and forged the UNSC "resolution" 82 which designated the DPRK as "aggressor" and on July 7, it forged yet another UNSC "resolution" 84 which "recommended" to make the allied forces available to "a unified command under the U.S." and "asked" the U.S. to designate its commander and "authorized" the usage of UN flag.

The DPRK was thus termed a "provoker" of the war and the Fatherland Liberation War of the Korean people an "aggression", and the "UN forces" made an appearance as a belligerent party to the war.

The previous UN Secretary-Generals officially admitted that the "UN Command" is not a UN-controlled organ but purely a war tool of the U.S.

In June 1994, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the then UN Secretary-General, admitted that "the UNSC did not establish the 'Unified Command' as a subsidiary organ under its control and it became to be placed under the authority of the U.S." (June 24, 1994 Letter from the UN Secretary-General to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK)

In December 1998, Kofi A. Annan, the then UN Secretary-General, said that "none of my predecessors have granted any authorization to any State to make the use of the name of the UN" when he had referred to the forces and command dispatched by the U.S. into the Korean War. (December 21, 1998, Letter from the UN Secretary-General to the President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK)

On July 27, 2004 and March 6, 2006, the UN spokesperson confirmed that the "'UN Command', despite its name, is not the army of UN, but a U.S.-led force."

It is not the UN but the U.S. which has the power to appoint the "UN commander." It is not the UN but the U.S. administration which has absolute power to decide on either reduction or increase of the U.S. forces in south Korea that are wearing the helmets of the "UN forces."

Despite all these facts, the UN flag is still brazenly hanging in Panmunjom, which is the shame on the part of the United Nations.

This fiercest war ended in the miraculous victory of the heroic Korean people who were under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung. Yet the human and material losses suffered by our nation were indeed tremendous.

The nefarious atrocities of massacre committed by the U.S. imperialists in particular cannot be detailed on this short paper.

The U.S. imperialists, who had wormed into Sinchon County in October 1950, committed all kinds of atrocities of massacre against 35,380-strong innocent residents, equivalent to 25% of the County's population, in 50-plus days. They burnt the innocent residents to death, drowned them in reservoir, shot to death, burnt them on the firewood, ripped apart the limbs of living persons and cut off the abdomens of pregnant women.  These facts lay bare before the world that the U.S. imperialists are no less than wild beasts and bloodthirsty wolves in human shape.

According to an official statistics alone, the U.S. imperialists, during the Korean War, killed more than 1.23 million people in the northern half of Korea and more than 1.24 million people in south Korea, and attempted to eliminate our nation by mobilizing even the chemical and germ weapons.

In 1951, an investigation team of the Women's International Democratic Federation, which investigated the atrocities of the U.S. imperialists on the site, wrote in its report: "The massacres and tortures committed by the U.S. troops in the areas of their temporary occupation are more atrocious than those committed by Hitler Nazis in Europe."

Openly clamouring that they would "wipe out 78 cities and towns of north Korea from the map" and "leave nothing intact", the U.S., throughout the Korean War, dropped almost 600,000 tons of bombs and napalm on the northern half of Korea, which are 3.7 times the amount of bombs dropped on the Japanese mainland during the Pacific War.

Severely destroyed owing to the atrocities of the U.S. imperialists during the Korean War were 50,941 factories and enterprises, 28,632 buildings of schools at all levels, 4,534 buildings of medical facilities including hospitals and clinics, 579 buildings of scientific research institutions, 8,163 buildings of press and culture organs, 2,077,226 dwelling houses. Also 563,755 hectares of farming land got damaged, and the total reduced area of paddy and non-paddy fields amounted to 155,500 hectares.

When the war was over, there was nothing left but ashes, and the U.S. bragged that Korea would not recover even after 100 years.

All these facts eloquently show that the U.S. imperialists are the very provokers of the Korean War and the sworn enemy of the Korean people, and prove that peace will never settle on the Korean peninsula as long as the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK persists.

Criminal Acts of U.S. – Systematic Abolition of Armistice Agreement

The U.S. hostile manoeuvres towards the DPRK after the Korean War can be characterized in a word as a pursuit of permanent division of the Korean peninsula and ceaseless nuclear threats and blackmail against the DPRK.

The Korean War, which Truman, a war chieftain, described as no less than the World War III, came to a pause with the conclusion of the Armistice Agreement. But it meant neither the end of war nor the conclusion of a peace agreement.

The Armistice Agreement, at the time of its conclusion, constituted no more than a transitional step aimed at withdrawing all foreign troops from the Korean peninsula and establishing lasting peace on it.

No sooner had the Armistice Agreement been signed than the U.S. drove the situation of the Korean peninsula to the brink of war in a flagrant violation of the Armistice Agreement, driven by its wild ambition to make our people its slaves by all means and seize the whole of Korean peninsula.

Around 22:20 p.m. on July 27, 1953, less than half an hour after the Armistice Agreement became effective, the U.S. army fired several machine gun shots towards our side's area and since then, fired shells into our side's area successively for several hours at intervals of tens of minutes.

In disregard of the Paragraph 10, Article I of the Armistice Agreement which stipulates that only pistols and rifles can be carried in Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) including the Joint Security Area (JSA), the U.S. army introduced automatic rifles and machine guns and, moreover, cannons, tanks, flame throwers, helicopters etc., and opened gunfire towards our side's posts and guardsmen indiscriminately almost every day.

Since 1968, the U.S. army mobilized the fully armed troops to repeat the military operations which it had once conducted in the areas along the 38th parallel including Mountain Songak just before the provocation of June 25 War.

The U.S. army committed innumerable acts of provocation in Panmunjom JSA, including Panmunjom incident on August 18, 1976 and the incident of gunfire towards our security personnel on November 23, 1984.

The U.S. nullified Paragraph 60, Article IV of the Armistice Agreement which envisages the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Korea and the peaceful settlement of the Korean question.

Paragraph 60 of the Armistice Agreement stipulated that within three months after the Armistice Agreement becomes effective a political conference of a higher level is to be held to negotiate the questions of the withdrawal of all foreign forces from the Korean peninsula and the ways for peaceful settlement of the Korean question.

At the preparatory talks for a political conference that were convened at Panmunjom on October 26, 1953, the U.S. laid artificial obstacles, only clinging to the obstructive manoeuvres, and on December 12 same year, it unilaterally withdrew from the meeting room. Thus the talks didn't proceed to the main conference, but was ruptured in the preparatory stage.

Afterwards, the Geneva Conference was convened for the peaceful settlement of the Korean question, but the U.S. deliberately disrupted the conference.

On August 8, 1953, the U.S. staged the ceremony of signing of what is called a "Mutual Defence Treaty" with south Korea in order to legitimize permanent stationing of U.S. troops in south Korea.

On January 2, 1955, the then Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff made reckless remarks that the U.S. army would station, for an indefinite period, in south Korea which is of great strategic significance in its world hegemony, and that it would continue to hinder the peaceful coordination of the Korean question.

After the UN resolution on dissolution of the "UN Command" for the durable peace on the Korean peninsula was adopted at the 30th session of the UN General Assembly in November 1975, the U.S. clinged more openly to its scheme for the permanent occupation by cooking up the U.S.-south Korea "Combined Forces Command."

In early March 2006, the U.S. worked out the plan and got down to its implementation for expanding and reorganizing the nominal "UN Command" into a permanent organization of multinational forces by way of increasing the role of belligerent states of the Korean War and permitting them to take part not only in the formulation of emergency and operational plans but also in detailed activities.

Thus, the process for converting the Armistice Agreement into a peace agreement miscarried, and the unstable state of neither war nor peace continues on the Korean peninsula.

In August 1953 the U.S. went totally against Sub-paragraph 13(b), Article II of the Armistice Agreement and unilaterally drew the "northern limit line" in the West Sea of Korea, which is an act of illegal and outrageous crime, thereby transforming its surrounding areas into the world's most dangerous hotspot. It is also attempting in every way to impose a blockade on our country under the pretext of "Proliferation Security Initiative", running counter to Paragraph 15, Article II which prohibits any kind of blockade against the DPRK.

The U.S. nullified Sub-paragraph 13(d), Article II of the Armistice Agreement which called for a complete cessation of introduction of all military materiel from outside of the Korean territory and turned south Korea into a world's weapons exhibition hall.

The U.S. incessantly threatened and blackmailed the Inspection Teams of Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission which were mandated according to Sub-paragraph 13(c), Article II of the Armistice Agreement to supervise and inspect the introductions of military materiel from outside of the Korean territory, and eventually expelled them from south Korea in June 1956, thereby paralyzing their inspection functions.

In May 1957, the then U.S. State Secretary openly stated in public that "the U.S. should consider sending more modern and effective weapons to south Korea," and on June 21 same year, the U.S. Army side that attended the 75th meeting of the Military Armistice Commission(MAC) announced its unilateral abrogation of Sub-paragraph 13(d) of the Armistice Agreement.

The U.S. shipped into south Korea more than 1,000 nuclear weapons during the period between the late 1950s and the 1980s. As a result, south Korea was converted into the most highly deployed area of nuclear weapons in the world, their number being over 4 times that of "NATO" member states, and into an advanced outpost for outbreak of a nuclear war. The U.S. also formalized the provision of nuclear umbrella to south Korea at the 14th session of the U.S.-south Korea Annual Security Consultative Meeting held in March 1982.

At the dawn of the 21st century, the U.S. designated our country as a target for preemptive nuclear strike in its "Nuclear Posture Review" and shipped into south Korea the warfare equipment worth an astronomical amount of money, along with nuclear weaponry.

The U.S. deployed in south Korea all sorts of ultra-modern offensive arms such as "F-117" stealth fighter, "F-15" and "F-16" fighters, "Shadow 200" tactical reconnaissance drones, Apache, new-type "Patriot" missiles, "Stryker" armored vehicles, guided missile destroyers, "Abrams M1-A2" tanks, "ATACMS" ground to ground missiles, Mine-Removing Armor-Protected(MRAP) special vehicles,  and even  introduced the THAAD system.

And recently, the U.S. introduced to south Korea "F-35A" stealth fighters, "Global Hawk" high-altitude reconnaissance drones, AWACS and many other ultra-modern offensive weapons, thus transforming south Korea into literally a showcase of lethal weapons.

The U.S. went to the length of abolishing the MAC and the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission (NNSC), the only remaining supervisory bodies for implementing the Armistice Agreement.

In the 1950s, it dissolved the Neutral Nations Inspection Teams under the NNSC and the Joint Observer Team under the MAC which were provided for by Paragraph 23, Article II of the Armistice Agreement. On March 25, 1991, it staged a farce of designating as a senior member of the U.S. Army side to the MAC a puppet army officer of south Korea which is not a signatory to the Armistice Agreement and therefore does not have any qualifications or authority to handle issues relating to the Armistice Agreement.

With this, the MAC, which had functioned for more than four decades, ceased its existence, and the NNSC, too, having lost its counterpart, withered away by itself.

The U.S. also abrogated the Preamble and the Paragraph 12 of the Armistice Agreement, which provides for a complete cessation of hostilities and of all acts of armed force in Korea.

Since 1954, when it staged "Focus Lens", the first joint military exercise with south Korea, the U.S. has ceaselessly conducted all kinds of war drills so far, to include "Freedom Bolt", "Team Spirit", "Ulji Focus Lens", "Joint Wartime Reinforcement Exercise", "Key Resolve", "Foal Eagle" and "Ulji Freedom Guardian."

These exercises far exceeded any other war exercises taking place in different regions of the world in terms of frequency and scope, and all of strategic nuclear triad such as nuclear aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines and nuclear strategic bombers were mobilized in its nuclear war drills aimed at the DPRK.

The nature of the exercises became more aggressive and provocative by changing their masquerades into "decapitation operation", "precision strike", "invasion of Pyongyang", etc. throwing off the "annual" and "defensive" veneer.

The pre-emptive nuclear strike scenarios were further specified into "OPLAN 5026", "OPLAN 5027", "OPLAN 5029", "OPLAN 5030", "OPLAN 5012", "OPLAN 5015", "OPLAN 8044", "OPLAN 8022", "OPLAN 8010", "tailored deterrence strategy" and "OPLAN 4D."

As is evident from the above, the U.S. left no stone unturned in abrogating each and every article and paragraph of the Armistice Agreement which consists of 5 Articles and 63 Paragraphs in total and as a consequence, the Armistice Agreement was dumped like a scrap of waste paper.

Owing to the hostile policy of the U.S. and its endless nuclear threats and blackmail towards the DPRK, the Korean peninsula has turned into the world's hottest spot, where a nuclear war could spark off at any moment.

If we had not considerably strengthened our self-defensive deterrence, the Korean peninsula would have fallen into the ravages of war more than hundreds times and a catastrophic third world war would have already started.

Strengthening the war deterrent is our final option

It is 67 years since the gunfire of war ceased on this land. But, there is one thing that has not ceased at all.

It is none other than the U.S. hostile policy towards the DPRK.

The United States is becoming ever more undisguised day by day in its scheme to annihilate the DPRK by force and gain military dominance in the Asia-Pacific region and, by extension, to realize its ambition for world hegemony at any cost.

The government of the DPRK put forward a number of peace proposals and initiatives including the proposal (1970s) for concluding a DPRK-U.S. peace agreement and the proposal (1990s) for establishing a new peace mechanism, all of which were rejected outright by the U.S.

In the second half of 1990s, the four-party talks were held involving the DPRK, the U.S., China and south Korea for an establishment of durable peace mechanism on the Korean peninsula, but owing to the insincere attitude from the U.S., no fruit was produced.

In the new century, we put forward the proposal for bringing earlier a declaration on an end to the war and the proposal for convening a meeting at the earliest possible date for replacing the Armistice Agreement with a peace agreement by 2010, 60th year of the outbreak of the Korean war. But the United States turned down all of those proposals.

Instead, the U.S. openly designated our country as "axis of evil", "outpost of tyranny" and "target of pre-emptive nuclear strike" and illegally labelled us as "sponsor of terrorism", "proliferation of weapons of mass destruction", "human rights abuse", "money laundering", "counterfeiting", "drug trafficking" in order to justify its hostile policy towards the DPRK.

It did not even hesitate to make reckless remarks of "total destruction" of the DPRK and run amuck in order to overturn our ideology and system.

The hostile policy of the U.S. towards the DPRK is well evidenced by the fact that it posed nuclear threats to us, openly talking about using nuclear weapons.

The U.S. had openly stated that it would drop atomic bombs on the DPRK during the Korean War, and gradually escalated its nuclear threats against us after the conclusion of the Armistice Agreement.

When its armed spy ship "Pueblo" was captured in January 1968, the U.S. reviewed the option of nuclear attack against us, and when the large-size reconnaissance plane "EC-121" was shot down in our territorial airspace in April 1969, it kept the nukes-mounted tactical bombers on emergency standby while the then U.S. President Nixon made reckless remarks that he decided to approve the use of  atomic bombs in case north Korea strikes back. Such nuclear threats and blackmail by the U.S. on the DPRK are only the visible tip of iceberg.

The war in Kosovo triggered by the U.S. from March to June 1999 was a war of injustice, simulating a second Korean war.

The former Yugoslavia served as the U.S. test ground for a new Korean war, because the country has the natural and geographical conditions similar to the Korean peninsula and its distance from the U.S. mainland is almost same as the distance between the U.S. mainland and the Korean peninsula.

The facts that the U.S. together with NATO conducted ceaseless and indiscriminate air raids of zero operational significance and ruthlessly used depleted uranium bombs and WMDs that spread toxic bacteria, serve as an oblique scene of the second Korean war being plotted by the U.S.

With the turn of a new millennium, the nuclear threats by the U.S. against the DPRK became ever more blatant.

On June 6, 2001, Bush announced a so-called "North Korea Policy Statement" where he claimed that the U.S. would wield its military strength including nuclear weapons if the DPRK does not accept its demand of nuclear inspection, suspension of development and launch of missiles, and reduction of conventional weapons.

In 2002, the U.S. stated that it could be the first to use nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula and it will develop small-size nuclear bunker busters to this end, thereby making its preemptive nuclear attack on the DPRK a fait accompli.

In 2009, at the 41st session of the U.S.-south Korea Annual Security Consultative Meeting, it announced in writing that it would provide extended deterrence such as nuclear umbrella, conventional strike capabilities and missile defense system to south Korea.

The American nuclear threats against the DPRK reached its peak in the year 2017.

The U.S. pushed the Korean peninsula onto the threshold of a nuclear war by deploying nuclear strategic assets and the latest warfare equipment including the super-large nuclear-powered aircraft carriers "Carl Vinson" and "Ronald Reagan", nuclear strategic bombers "B-1B", "B-52H" and "B-2A", nuclear-powered submarines "Columbus", "Tucson" and "Michigan" in south Korea and its surrounding areas.

The U.S. hostile policy and nuclear threats against the DPRK became further aggressive after the DPRK-U.S. Summit held in Singapore for establishing a new bilateral relationship and building a lasting and durable peace mechanism on the Korean peninsula.

Despite the fact that we voluntarily took crucial and meaningful initiatives including the discontinuation of nuclear test and ICBM test-fire for the sake of building a mutual confidence, the U.S., far from responding to these initiatives with corresponding measures, conducted tens of joint military drills, which its President personally promised to stop, and threatened the DPRK militarily by way of shipping into south Korea the ultra-modern warfare equipment.

The U.S. conducted a test simulating the interception of our intercontinental ballistic missile, followed by test launches, without hesitation, of all kinds of missiles including ICBM "Minuteman-3" and SLBM "Trident 2D-5", thus maximizing the nuclear threats against us.

Even amid the unprecedented crisis triggered by COVID-19, the military threats of the U.S. against us have not been abated at all. If anything, it staged a joint air drill and marine corps joint landing drill in April this year.

No other nation on this planet has so directly suffered from nuclear threats for so long as the Korean nation, and to our people, nuclear threat is not at all an abstract concept but actual and concrete experience.

Our nation suffered directly from the U.S. nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and our nation is the second largest victim after the Japanese people.

To our people, who personally experienced the horrible ravages of nuclear bomb, the atomic bomb threat of the U.S. during the Korean War was literally a nightmare, and a procession of "A-bomb refugees" streaming from the north to the south appeared on the Korean peninsula in the period of the Korean War.

Many families who couldn't move together sent only their husbands or sons to the south in hopes of carrying on their family lines.

This is how the separated families of millions of people came into being, and they still live separately in the north and south of the Korean peninsula and abroad.

In order to eliminate the nuclear threats from the U.S., the DPRK government made all possible efforts either through dialogue or in resort to the international law, but all ended in vain.

The option left was only one, and that was to counter nuclear with nuclear.

This brought to an end the nuclear imbalance in the Northeast Asia, where the DPRK only had been left without nukes and all other countries had been equipped with nuclear weapons or nuclear umbrella.

All these speak clearly to the fact that the root cause of aggravation of the situation on the Korean peninsula lies in the U.S. hostile policy and nuclear threats towards the DPRK and the dark cloud of a nuclear war can never be cleared away from the Korean peninsula unless the U.S. withdraws its hostile policy that treats the DPRK as an enemy and a belligerent state.

The U.S. might have its own calculations in keeping the dogged persistence of its hostile concept towards the DPRK and continuing the belligerent relations with the DPRK.

While the Far Eastern strategy of the U.S. had been shifting to "Nixon doctrine", "Neo-Pacific doctrine", Pivot to Asia-Pacific strategy and Indo-Pacific strategy, the environment surrounding the ceasefire on the Korean peninsula was abused to militarily deter the potential adversaries of the U.S.

In recent years alone, the U.S. deployed the high-altitude missile defence system "THAAD" in south Korea under the pretext of "missile threat" from us, thus making it possible to watch over the northeastern areas of China and the far eastern region of Russia like seeing the palm of its hand, and the U.S. is also openly releasing its evil intention to deploy intermediate-range missiles in our surrounding areas on the ground that the INF Treaty has become null and void.

As a result, it has now become a matter of time when a nuclear arms race starts around the Korean peninsula, and the U.S. military moves to contain China and Russia are bound to grow more pronounced as time goes by.

Under this circumstance, there is no guarantee that a second June 25 won't be repeated in case the U.S. interests coincide with the ones of 70 years ago - a far departure from being interested in keeping the armistice on the Korean peninsula.

To our people who were subjected to disastrous disturbances of war on this land owing to the U.S., the strong war deterrent for national defence came to stand out as an indispensable strategic option.

It is an indisputable, open and above-board exercise of the legitimate right to self-defence that we further consolidate the war deterrent for defending the national security and guaranteeing our development.

70-year-long history of the DPRK-U.S. confrontation is graphically showing that any self-restraint or broad-mindedness would not serve to contain the U.S. high-handedness and arbitrariness, aggression and war manoeuvres, but would encourage them instead.

It is no less than the despicable double-dealing tactics for the U.S. to talk about a sort of dialogue while maximizing its attempts to oppress the DPRK politically, economically and militarily, and its repeated harping, like an automatic responding machine, on denuclearization betrays only its brigandish intention to disarm us and open up the way to an aggression war.

At the Fourth Enlarged Meeting of the 7th Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, Comrade Kim Jong Un, chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK, set forth new policies to further bolster the national nuclear war deterrent and operate the strategic force on full alert in accordance with the overall requirements for building and developing state armed forces.

Under the condition where the U.S., the biggest nuclear power and the only user of nuclear weapons, clings to the pathological and inveterate hostile policy towards us, while indulging itself in extreme nuclear threats and blackmail, we will continue to further build up our strength to contain the persistent nuclear threats from the U.S. and we will never shrink from this road we have chosen.

Nobody in this world could block the victorious advance of our people and army who have inherited the heroic spirit and mettle of the great generation of victors that had defeated the U.S.-led gang of imperialists in the Fatherland Liberation War – a de facto confrontation between a rifle and an atomic bomb.

[blackkudos]

Kofi Annan

Kofi Atta Annan (8 April 1938 – 18 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an international organization founded by Nelson Mandela.

Annan studied economics at Macalester College, international relations at the Graduate Institute Geneva, and management at MIT. Annan joined the UN in 1962, working for the World Health Organization's Geneva office. He went on to work in several capacities at the UN Headquarters including serving as the Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping between March 1992 and December 1996. He was appointed the Secretary-General on 13 December 1996 by the Security Council, and later confirmed by the General Assembly, making him the first office holder to be elected from the UN staff itself. He was re-elected for a second term in 2001, and was succeeded as Secretary-General by Ban Ki-moon on 1 January 2007.

As the Secretary-General, Annan reformed the UN bureaucracy; worked to combat HIV/AIDS, especially in Africa; and launched the UN Global Compact. He was criticized for not expanding the Security Council and faced calls for his resignation after an investigation into the Oil-for-Food Programme, but was largely exonerated of personal corruption. After the end of his term as UN Secretary-General, he founded the Kofi Annan Foundation in 2007 to work on international development. In 2012, Annan was the UN–Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria, to help find a resolution to the ongoing conflict there. Annan quit after becoming frustrated with the UN's lack of progress with regards to conflict resolution. In September 2016, Annan was appointed to lead a UN commission to investigate the Rohingya crisis.

Early years and education

Kofi Annan was born in the Kofandros section of Kumasi in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) on 8 April 1938. His twin sister Efua Atta, who died in 1991, shared the middle name Atta, which in the Akan language means 'twin'. Annan and his sister were born into one of the country's Ashanti and Fante aristocratic families; both of their grandfathers and their uncle were tribal chiefs.

In the Akan names tradition, some children are named according to the day of the week on which they were born, sometimes in relation to how many children precede them. Kofi in Akan is the name that corresponds with Friday. Annan said that his surname rhymes with "cannon" in English.

From 1954 to 1957, Annan attended the elite Mfantsipim school, a Methodist boarding school in Cape Coast founded in the 1870s. Annan said that the school taught him that "suffering anywhere, concerns people everywhere". In 1957, the year Annan graduated from Mfantsipim, the Gold Coast gained independence from the UK and began using the name "Ghana".

In 1958, Annan began studying economics at the Kumasi College of Science and Technology, now the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology of Ghana. He received a Ford Foundation grant, enabling him to complete his undergraduate studies in economics at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States, in 1961. Annan then completed a diplôme d'études approfondies DEA degree in International Relations at The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1961–62. After some years of work experience, he studied at the MIT Sloan School of Management (1971–72) in the Sloan Fellows program and earned a master's degree in management.

Annan was fluent in English, French, Akan, and some Kru languages as well as other African languages.

Career

In 1962, Kofi Annan started working as a budget officer for the World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations (UN). From 1974 to 1976, he worked as a manager of the state-owned Ghana Tourist Development Company in Accra. In 1980 he became the head of personnel for the office of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. In 1983 he became the director of administrative management services of the UN Secretariat in New York. In 1987, Annan was appointed as an Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management and Security Coordinator for the UN system. In 1990, he became Assistant Secretary-General for Program Planning, Budget and Finance, and Control.

When Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali established the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) in 1992, Annan was appointed to the new department as Deputy to then Under-Secretary-General Marrack Goulding. Annan was subsequently appointed in March 1993 as Under-Secretary-General of that department. On 29 August 1995, while Boutros-Ghali was unreachable on an airplane, Annan instructed United Nations officials to "relinquish for a limited period of time their authority to veto air strikes in Bosnia." This move allowed NATO forces to conduct Operation Deliberate Force and made him a favorite of the United States. According to Richard Holbrooke, Annan's "gutsy performance" convinced the United States that he would be a good replacement for Boutros-Ghali.

He was appointed a Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the former Yugoslavia, serving from November 1995 to March 1996.

Criticism

In 2003, retired Canadian General Roméo Dallaire, who was force commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda, claimed that Annan was overly passive in his response to the imminent genocide. In his book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (2003), Dallaire asserted that Annan held back UN troops from intervening to settle the conflict, and from providing more logistical and material support. Dallaire claimed that Annan failed to provide responses to his repeated faxes asking for access to a weapons depository; such weapons could have helped Dallaire defend the endangered Tutsis. In 2004, ten years after the genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed, Annan said, "I could and should have done more to sound the alarm and rally support."

In his book Interventions: A Life in War and Peace, Annan again argued that the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations could have made better use of the media to raise awareness of the violence in Rwanda and put pressure on governments to provide the troops necessary for an intervention. Annan explained that the events in Somalia and the collapse of the UNOSOM II mission fostered a hesitation among UN Member states to approve robust peacekeeping operations. As a result, when the UNAMIR mission was approved just days after the battle, the resulting force lacked the troop levels, resources and mandate to operate effectively.

Secretary-General of the United Nations (1997–2006)

Appointment

In 1996, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali ran unopposed for a second term. Although he won 14 of the 15 votes on the Security Council, he was vetoed by the United States. After four deadlocked meetings of the Security Council, Boutros-Ghali suspended his candidacy, becoming the only Secretary-General ever to be denied a second term. Annan was the leading candidate to replace him, beating Amara Essy by one vote in the first round. However, France vetoed Annan four times before finally abstaining. The UN Security Council recommended Annan on 13 December 1996. Confirmed four days later by the vote of the General Assembly, he started his first term as Secretary-General on 1 January 1997.

Due to Boutros-Ghali's overthrow, a second Annan term would give Africa the office of Secretary-General for three consecutive terms. In 2001, the Asia-Pacific Group agreed to support Annan for a second term in return for the African Group's support for an Asian Secretary-General in the 2006 selection. The Security Council recommended Annan for a second term on 27 June 2001, and the General Assembly approved his reappointment on 29 June 2001.

ActivitiesRecommendations for UN reform

Soon after taking office in 1997, Annan released two reports on management reform. On 17 March 1997, the report Management and Organisational Measures (A/51/829) introduced new management mechanisms through the establishment of a cabinet-style body to assist him and be grouping the UN's activities in accordance with four core missions. A comprehensive reform agenda was issued on 14 July 1997 entitled Renewing the United Nations: A Programme for Reform (A/51/950). Key proposals included the introduction of strategic management to strengthen unity of purpose, the establishment of the position of Deputy Secretary-General, a 10-percent reduction in posts, a reduction in administrative costs, the consolidation of the UN at the country level, and reaching out to civil society and the private sector as partners. Annan also proposed to hold a Millennium Summit in 2000.After years of research, Annan presented a progress report, In Larger Freedom, to the UN General Assembly, on 21 March 2005. Annan recommended Security Council expansion and a host of other UN reforms.

On 31 January 2006, Annan outlined his vision for a comprehensive and extensive reform of the UN in a policy speech to the United Nations Association UK. The speech, delivered at Central Hall, Westminster, also marked the 60th Anniversary of the first meetings of the General Assembly and Security Council.

On 7 March 2006, he presented to the General Assembly his proposals for a fundamental overhaul of the United Nations Secretariat. The reform report is entitled Investing in the United Nations, For a Stronger Organization Worldwide.

On 30 March 2006, he presented to the General Assembly his analysis and recommendations for updating the entire work programme of the United Nations Secretariat. The reform report is entitled: Mandating and Delivering: Analysis and Recommendations to Facilitate the Review of Mandates.

Regarding the UN Human Rights Council, Annan said "declining credibility" had "cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system. Unless we re-make our human rights machinery, we may be unable to renew public confidence in the United Nations itself." However, he did believe that, despite its flaws, the council could do good.

In March 2000, Annan appointed the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations to assess the shortcomings of the then existing system and to make specific and realistic recommendations for change. The panel was composed of individuals experienced in conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peace-building. The report it produced, which became known as the Brahimi Report, after Chair of the Panel Lakhdar Brahimi, called for:

renewed political commitment on the part of Member States;

significant institutional change;

increased financial support.

The Panel further noted that in order to be effective, UN peacekeeping operations must be properly resourced and equipped, and operate under clear, credible and achievable mandates. In a letter transmitting the report to the General Assembly and Security Council, Annan stated that the Panel's recommendations were essential to make the United Nations truly credible as a force for peace. Later that same year, the Security Council adopted several provisions relating to peacekeeping following the report, in Resolution 1327.

Millennium Development Goals

In 2000, Annan issued a report entitled: "We the peoples: the role of the United Nations in the 21st century". The report called for member states to "put people at the centre of everything we do. No calling is more noble, and no responsibility greater, than that of enabling men, women and children, in cities and villages around the world, to make their lives better".

In the final chapter of the report, Annan called to "free our fellow men and women from the abject and dehumanizing poverty in which more than 1 billion of them are currently confined".:77

At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, national leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration, which was subsequently implemented by the United Nations Secretariat as the Millennium Development Goals in 2001.

United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS)

Within the "We the Peoples" document, Annan suggested the establishment of a United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS), a consortium of high-tech volunteer corps, including NetCorps Canada and Net Corps America, which United Nations Volunteers would co-ordinate. In the Report of the high-level panel of experts on information and communication technology (22 May 2000) 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 2001 to February 2005. Initiative staff and volunteers participated in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva in December 2003.

The United Nations Global Compact

In an address to The World Economic Forum on 31 January 1999, 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".

On 26 July 2000, the United Nations Global Compact was officially launched at UN headquarters in New York. It is a principle-based framework for businesses which aims to "Catalyse actions in support of broader UN goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)". The Compact established ten core principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption, and under the Compact, companies commit to the ten principles and are brought together with UN agencies, labour groups and civil society to effectively implement them.

Establishment of The Global Fund

Towards the end of the 1990s, increased awareness of the destructive potential of epidemics such as HIV/AIDS pushed public health issues to the top of the global development agenda. In April 2001, Annan issued a five-point "Call to Action" to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Stating it was a "personal priority", Annan proposed the establishment of a Global AIDS and Health Fund, "dedicated to the battle against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases" to stimulate the increased international spending needed to help developing countries confront the HIV/AIDS crisis. 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, and the permanent secretariat of the Global Fund was subsequently established in January 2002.

Responsibility to Protect

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 1999 "to address the prospects for human security and intervention in the next century," 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, a dilemma between "two concepts of sovereignty" that Annan also presented in a preceding article in The Economist, on 16 September 1999.

In September 2001 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 2001, 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.

In 2005, Annan included the doctrine of "Responsibility to Protect" in his report Larger Freedom. When that report was endorsed by the UN General Assembly, it amounted to the first formal endorsement by UN Member States of the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect.

Iraq

In the years after 1998 when UNSCOM was expelled by the government of Saddam Hussein and during the Iraq disarmament crisis, in which the United States blamed UNSCOM and former IAEA director Hans Blix for failing to properly disarm Iraq, former UNSCOM chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter blamed Annan for being slow and ineffective in enforcing Security Council resolutions on Iraq and was overtly submissive to the demands of the Clinton administration for regime removal and inspection of sites, often Presidential palaces, that were not mandated in any resolution and were of questionable intelligence value, severely hampering UNSCOM's ability to co-operate with the Iraqi government and contributed to their expulsion from the country. Ritter also claimed that Annan regularly interfered with the work of the inspectors and diluted the chain of command by trying to micromanage all of the activities of UNSCOM, which caused intelligence processing (and the resulting inspections) to be backed up and caused confusion with the Iraqis as to who was in charge and as a result, they generally refused to take orders from Ritter or Rolf Ekéus without explicit approval from Annan, which could have taken days, if not weeks. 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 2003 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 2004 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.

Other diplomatic activities

In 1998, 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 2000, he was responsible for certifying Israel 's withdrawal from Lebanon, and in 2006, 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 2006. During a visit to Iran instigated by continued Iranian uranium enrichment, Annan said "I think the tragedy of the Holocaust is an undeniable historical fact and we should really accept that fact and teach people what happened in World War II and ensure it is never repeated."

Annan supported sending a UN peacekeeping mission to Darfur, Sudan. He worked with the government of Sudan to accept a transfer of power from the African Union peacekeeping mission to a UN one. Annan also worked with several Arab and Muslim countries on women's rights and other topics.

Beginning in 1998, Annan convened an annual UN "Security Council Retreat" with the 15 States' representatives of the Council. It was held at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) Conference Center at the Rockefeller family estate in Pocantico Hills, New York, and was sponsored by both the RBF and the UN.

Lubbers sexual-harassment investigation

In June 2004, Annan was given a copy of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) report on the complaint brought by four female workers against Ruud Lubbers, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, for sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and retaliation. The report also reviewed a long-serving staff member's allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct against Werner Blatter, Director of UNHCR Personnel. 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. On 15 July 2004, Annan cleared Lubbers of the accusations, saying they were not substantial enough legally. The internal UN-OIOS report on Lubbers was leaked, and sections accompanied by an article by Kate Holt were published in a British newspaper. In February 2005, Lubbers resigned as head of the UN refugee agency, saying that he wanted to relieve political pressure on Annan.

Oil-for-Food scandal

In December 2004, reports surfaced that the Secretary-General's son Kojo Annan received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection SA, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Programme. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations. On 11 November 2005, The Sunday Times agreed to apologise and pay a substantial sum in damages to Kojo Annan, accepting that the allegations were untrue.

Annan appointed the Independent Inquiry Committee, which was led by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, then the director of the United Nations Association of the US. 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. Appointed by Annan to the Oil-For-Food role, Sevan repeatedly asked Iraqis for allocations of oil to the African Middle East Petroleum Company. Sevan's behavior was "ethically improper", Volcker said to reporters. Sevan repeatedly denied the charges and argued that he was being made a "scapegoat". The Volcker report was highly critical of the UN management structure and the Security Council oversight. 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.

Nobel Peace Prize

In 2001, its centennial year, the Nobel Committee decided that the Peace Prize was to be divided between the UN and Annan. They were awarded the Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world," 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.

Relations between the United States and the United Nations

Annan defended his deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, who openly criticized the United States in a speech on 6 June 2006: "[T]he prevailing practice of seeking to use the UN almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool while failing to stand up for it against its domestic critics is simply not sustainable. You will lose the UN one way or another. [...] [That] the US is constructively engaged with the UN [...] is not well known or understood, in part because much of the public discourse that reaches the US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News." Malloch later said his talk was a "sincere and constructive critique of U.S. policy toward the U.N. by a friend and admirer."

The talk was unusual because it violated unofficial policy of not having top officials publicly criticize member nations. The interim U.S. ambassador John R. Bolton, appointed by President George W. Bush, was reported to have told Annan on the phone: "I've known you since 1989 and I'm telling you this is the worst mistake by a senior UN official that I have seen in that entire time." Observers from other nations supported Malloch's view that conservative politicians in the U.S. prevented many citizens from understanding the benefits of U.S. involvement in the UN.

Farewell addresses

On 19 September 2006, 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.

On 11 December 2006, in his final speech as Secretary-General, delivered at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, Annan recalled Truman's leadership in the founding of the United Nations. 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."

Online access to Kofi Annan's archives

The United Nations Archives and Records Management Section (UNARMS) provides full text access to Kofi Annan's declassified archives while he served as Secretary-General of the United Nations (1997-2006)Search Kofi Annan's Archives

Post-UN career

After his service as UN Secretary-General, Annan took up residence in Geneva and worked in a leading capacity on various international humanitarian endeavors.

Kofi Annan Foundation

In 2007, 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. The Foundation works mainly through private diplomacy, where Annan provided informal counsel and participated in discreet diplomatic initiatives to avert or resolve crises by applying his experience and inspirational leadership. He was often asked to intercede in crises, sometimes as an impartial independent mediator, sometimes as a special envoy of the international community. In recent years he had provided such counsel to Burkina Faso, Kenya, Myanmar, Senegal, Iraq and Colombia.

Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Process (KNDR)

Following the outbreak of violence during the 2007 Presidential elections in Kenya, the African Union established a Panel of Eminent African Personalities to assist in finding a peaceful solution to the crisis.

The panel, headed by Annan, managed to convince the two principal parties to the conflict, President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) and Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), to participate in the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Process (KNDR). Over the course of 41 days of negotiations, several agreements regarding taking actions to stop the violence and remedying its consequences were signed. On 28 February, President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga signed a coalition government agreement.

Joint Special Envoy for Syria

On 23 February 2012, Annan was appointed as the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, in an attempt to end the civil war taking place. He developed a six-point plan for peace:

commit to work with the Envoy in an inclusive Syrian-led political process to address the legitimate aspirations and concerns of the Syrian people, and, to this end, commit to appoint an empowered interlocutor when invited to do so by the Envoy;

commit to stop the fighting and achieve urgently an effective United Nations supervised cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties to protect civilians and stabilise the country.To this end, the Syrian government should immediately cease troop movements towards, and end the use of heavy weapons in, population centres, and begin pullback of military concentrations in and around population centres.As these actions are being taken on the ground, the Syrian government should work with the Envoy to bring about a sustained cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties with an effective United Nations supervision mechanism.Similar commitments would be sought by the Envoy from the opposition and all relevant elements to stop the fighting and work with him to bring about a sustained cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties with an effective United Nations supervision mechanism;

ensure timely provision of humanitarian assistance to all areas affected by the fighting, and to this end, as immediate steps, to accept and implement a daily two-hour humanitarian pause and to co-ordinate exact time and modalities of the daily pause through an efficient mechanism, including at local level;

intensify the pace and scale of release of arbitrarily detained persons, including especially vulnerable categories of persons, and persons involved in peaceful political activities, provide without delay through appropriate channels a list of all places in which such persons are being detained, immediately begin organizing access to such locations and through appropriate channels respond promptly to all written requests for information, access or release regarding such persons;

ensure freedom of movement throughout the country for journalists and a non-discriminatory visa policy for them;

respect freedom of association and the right to demonstrate peacefully as legally guaranteed.

On 2 August, he resigned as UN and Arab League joint special envoy to Syria, 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. Annan also stated that the lack of international unity and ineffective diplomacy among the world leaders had made the peaceful resolution in Syria an impossible task.

Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security

Annan served as the Chair of the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security. The Commission was launched in May 2011 as a joint initiative of the Kofi Annan Foundation and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. 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: Democracy, a Strategy to Improve the Integrity of Elections Worldwide, in September 2012.

Rakhine Commission (Myanmar)

In September 2016, Annan was asked to lead the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State (in Myanmar) – 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 commission, widely known simply as the "Annan Commission", was opposed by many Myanmar Buddhists as unwelcome interference in their relations with the Rohingya.

When the Annan commission released its final report, the week of 24 August 2017, 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 attempted to engage the United Nations to resolve the matter, but failed.

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 2018, 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.S. ambassador to the U.N. Bill Richardson – decrying the "implementation" committee as ineffective, or a "whitewash."

Other activities

Corporate boards

In March 2011, Annan became a member of the Advisory Board for Investcorp Bank B. S. C. Europe, an international private equity firm and sovereign wealth fund owned by the United Arab Emirates. He held the position until 2018.

Annan became member of the Global Advisory Board of Macro Advisory Partners LLP, Risk and strategic consulting firm based in London and New York, for business, finance and government decision-makers, with some operations related to Investcorp.

Non-profit organizations

In addition to the above, Annan also became involved with several organizations with both global and African focuses, including the following:

United Nations Foundation, member of the board of directors (2008–2018)

University of Ghana, chancellor (2008–2018)

School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University, global fellow (2009–2018)

The Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University, fellow

Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Li Ka Shing Professor (2009–2018)

Global Centre for Pluralism, member of the board of directors (2010–2018)

Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, chairman of the prize committee (2007–2018)

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), chairman (2007–2018)

Global Humanitarian Forum, founder and president (2007–2018)

Global Commission on Drug Policy, founding commissioner. The commission had declared in a 2011 report that the war on drugs was a failure. Annan believed that, since drug use represents a health risk, it should be regulated, comparing it to the regulation of tobacco which reduced smoking in many countries.

Annan served as Chair of The Elders, a group of independent global leaders who work together on peace and human rights issues. In November 2008, Annan and fellow Elders Jimmy Carter and Graça Machel attempted to travel to Zimbabwe to make a first-hand assessment of the humanitarian situation in the country. 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. In May 2011, following months of political violence in Côte d'Ivoire, Annan travelled to the country with Elders Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson to encourage national reconciliation. On 16 October 2014, Annan attended the One Young World Summit in Dublin. During a session with fellow Elder Mary Robinson, Annan encouraged 1,300 young leaders from 191 countries to lead on intergenerational issues such as climate change and the need for action to take place now, not tomorrow.

"We don't have to wait to act. 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 2014, the Africa Progress Report highlighted the potential of African fisheries, agriculture, and forests to drive economic development. The 2015 report explores the role of climate change and the potential of renewable energy investments in determining Africa's economic future.

Memoir

On 4 September 2012, Annan with Nader Mousavizadeh wrote a memoir, Interventions: A Life in War and Peace. Published by Penguin Press, the book has been described as a "personal biography of global statecraft".

Personal life

In 1965, Kofi Annan married Titi Alakija, a Nigerian woman from an aristocratic family. Several years later they had a daughter, Ama, and later a son, Kojo. The couple separated in the late 1970s, and divorced in 1983. In 1984, Annan married Nane Lagergren, a Swedish lawyer at the UN and a maternal half-niece of diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. She has a daughter, Nina, from a previous marriage. His brother, Kobina Annan served as Ghana’s ambassador to Morocco.

Death and state funeral

Annan died on the morning of 18 August 2018 in Bern, Switzerland, at the age of 80 after a short illness. António Guterres, the current UN Secretary-General, said that "Kofi Annan was a champion for peace and a guiding force for good." The body of Kofi Annan was returned to his native Ghana from Geneva in a brief and solemn ceremony at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, on 10 September 2018. His coffin, draped in the blue UN flag, was accompanied by his widow Nane Annan, his children and senior diplomats from the international organisation.

On 13 September 2018, a state funeral was held for Annan in Ghana at the Accra International Conference Centre. The ceremony was attended by several political leaders from across Africa as well as Ghanaian traditional rulers, European royalty and dignitaries from the international community, including the U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Prior to the funeral service, his body lay in state in the foyer of the same venue, from 11–12 September 2018. A private burial followed the funeral service at the new Military Cemetery at Burma Camp, with full military honours – the sounding of the Last Post by army buglers and a 17-gun salute.

Memorials and legacy

The United Nations Postal Administration released a new stamp in memory of Kofi Annan on 31 May 2019. Annan's portrait on the stamp was designed by artist Martin Mörck.

[mywholelove]

Understandably, my great uncle, Marcus Garvey was misled by satan into endorsing the #slavetrade facility, created by pagans called #panafricanism.

I was also panafricanism as a profferred ideology, until I independently went to Africa in the 90s, and amongst other discoveries, saw that it was a prettily packaged, concept of malintent, created to apply human trafficking, or slave trading, and is similar to such things and phrases as " new world order ", a concept to promote mass murder, to the agenda of a league. Like santa claus, which actually is a satanic entity from east of Germany, it still sounds kind of attractive, from a distance, due to the imagery imbued in it!

panafricanism is a way to expand slave trade, without checks or account.

It's no surprise then, that in a eu state this week, ( romania ), someone was recently tried for trafficking over 1,000 vulnerable children, with intent to rob and burgle across all eu and other possible countries.

There are various reports of other activities against communities in United States of America and other places, which have received greater exposure, since the USElection2016 of United States President Donald John Trump, and his attention to the more effective protection and security of USA by improving US Military, and US Secret Service.

The eu is defined as a #paneuropean operation. #panamerican is operated across America by nafta, #panasian across Asia and Australia by asean, and panafrican across Africa by ecowas.

From the evidence, facts and truths I have witnessed, asean, ecowas, eu and nafta are the regional panafrican, panamerican, panasian and paneuropean entities, to manage the their activities under united nations holdings.

When you look beyond aesthetics, the Holy Bible, and other scriptures, reveal these in clues. This explains to me why the serpents, ( most main stream media and other plagiarist entities such as politics, religions, showbiz, sports and such ), are used to manipulate the ways of masses, in order to flatter and trick to the agenda of the league or cabal.

Watched closely, most main stream media and aid agencies promote projects which cause #familybreakdown, and war, diseases and distresses.

The Holy Bible refers to and defines the system called by such names as telnet, vax, superhighway, world wide web, internet, etcetera, as ' the backbone of the beast '.

Family breakdown is explained all through the Holy Scriptures including in the books of #Genesis, #Exodus, #Leviticus, #Deuteronomy, #Proverbs and #Revelations, and in spite of the multiple edits and obfuscations by those who support satanic or sat-un-ic agendas, ( most often those in politics and showbiz, the largest industries in this world over the millenias ), the references to Ethiopia, Ghana and Jamaica can be found. It was during my trips in Africa, that I discovered that many of the prophets and lands mentioned are in truth what are now called 'African'.

By cunning manipulation by organized crime entities, such as created by sat-un and its use of family breakdown, manipulation of the health, history and security of communities, panafricanism, as diesel being presented as ' clean ' in 2000, is presented, offered then enforced on compliant communities prepared to prostitute or embrace the sat-un-ic entities. They force people to focus on micro aspects, while they're being distracted from the greater agendas.

I was shocked when I overheard on multiple occasions, a relation reply to a question when she was asked ' what good she was achieving by dating a racist European', by her friends, that he maintained her house, bought her things and took her on expensive foreign holidays. Approval by society?

This may also explain why aid agencies operate plots and plans to encourage division of family, and therefore phrases such as " it takes a village to raise a child ".

It sounds pretty at glance, but then ask them,

" how many of your kids were raised by villages; or is that a facility to only be applied to those you consider as live stock for your exploitation? "

Due to #familybreakdown, most people, in spite of the abundance of evidences, still believe that there were no Negast, Akhan and other people from Africa in America, before the 1400s!

A combination of lessons from my daddy, my own observations and my research led me to discover that Negast or Nigga people have been established in America since at least the second century ' before christ ', about 2,200 years ago, long before Gama, Vespucci and Columbus, but family breakdown is designed by sat-un to hide knowledge and cause confusion, and the desire for social approval.

I see panafricanism as abject racism, to facilitate human trafficking, prostitution and slave trading, in support of the ' new world order ' agendas.

This also explains why, a un general secretary, the late Kofi annan, though born in, raised and very familiar with Africa and african cultures, never addressed the proliferate slave or barbaric, abominable, infidel, pagan practices across the whole world, and other matters. It took the babies nursed by western white women and islamic cultures to identify, and bring to world attention and action, the slave trade, and child slavery, then to develop and implement the system we now call #FairTrade.

During and following the severe droughts in Somalia, Ethiopia, and such, brought to our attention by pop stars like Midge Ure, Boy George, Michael Jackson, Bob Geldof, and many others pop music superstars, after some rains during dry season months in the 90s, the un administrators were at very first trying to figure a way to secure their continued funding. They'd rather flies, swollen bellied kids, than lose their funding. That's beyond sadastic politics.

As a result, in 1995, on an Indian Ocean or such island, I heard that they convened meetings. From those meetings, ( I figure ), they developed the ' jihadi ' and ' climate change ' narratives.

I discovered that the united nations pays up to $120,000.00 for a slave in the eu, while serpents ( main stream media entities ) distract the public with prejudices, pecuniary and other means. There hasn't been a war in Nigeria since the 1970s, so how come so many refugees claiming asylum in Europe, America and so on?

Iraq is further away from Nigeria than Nigeria is from France. People seeking social approval, never question obvious things.

Do you remember when many billions of US dollars, UK pounds, etcetera, were used to justify the mass slaughter of, ( say ), native Americans?

It was, until very recently, acceptable, encouraged and taught to children!

As a young kid of 5, 6, 7, etcetera, ( being Crazy ), I used to wonder

"why?

Couldn't they find a way to be friends, and ' make things better? '.

"

There is and always will be enough for everyone and more.

🤣🤣🤣😂😂

Never forget; God Jah is Greatest. Those who have a sat-un-ic agendas will try and countermand that position by many means.

Ras Tafari is the way of love, which brings peace and prosperity, irrespective of whether this is subsequently claimed by sat-un and or its serpents. The Most High God Jah states specifically that it is a vanity and a sin to work for nought. Where ever the counsel of Rastafarians is heeded, respected and adhered to, results in meaningful peace and prosperity.

Our Creator God Jah is truly greatest.

We give praises, glory, blessings and thanks to the Creator of the Universes, the Most High God Jah.

http://mywholelove.tumblr.com

[radiosat24web]

Every year the TRNC celebrates July 20 as its Peace and Freedom Day to mark the operation – a large-scale military intervention to protect Turkish Cypriots from violence that struck the island in 1974. Cyprus has been mired in a decades-long dispute between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, despite a series of diplomatic efforts by the UN to achieve a comprehensive settlement. In the early 1960s, ethnic attacks forced Turkish Cypriots to withdraw into enclaves for their safety. In 1974, a Greek Cypriot coup aiming at Greece's annexation led to Turkey's military intervention as a guarantor power to protect Turkish Cypriots from persecution and violence The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) was founded in 1983. The island has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece, and the UK. The Greek Cypriot administration entered the European Union in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots thwarted the UN's Annan plan to end the decades-long dispute. #radiosat24web https://www.instagram.com/p/CRhJ9oMNCzC/?utm_medium=tumblr

[accrafreepress]

Kofi Annan: tribute to a rare gentleman

He could give you his full attention for a few seconds and leave you with the feeling you mattered. This is a quality you will recognize in very few individuals. It is emotional and profound. That’s because people occupying powerful positions more commonly portray arrogance and impatience. It could be true such people are usually quite busy, which explains their limited time for kindness or small talk. That is the normal behaviour you sort of expect. And, then, there was the Kofi Annan way.

From a secular pope to a rock star of diplomacy, from a Nobel Prize laureate to traditional chieftainship, Kofi Annan was used to titles, glamour and recognitions of all sorts. Yet such attention would not make his voice louder. Here was a sophisticated player capable of enhancing his stature by doing the opposite: restricting his appearances, demonstrating humbleness, and lowering the tone of his voice when talking to the powerful or the vulnerable. Almost everyone that came across this rare combination of charm and poise was conquered. A rare gentleman that transmitted noble upbringing and natural politeness.

This personality archetype being so singular it is no surprise everybody that crossed him would pretend they knew him. In fact, in an odd way, they did. They could, even if they just saw him for a few seconds, connect the man with his public persona; so detectable and discernible.

For the UN actors—diplomats, staff, envoys, media—the connection was even stronger. He was their Secretary-General, someone approachable, sincere and capable of acknowledging his and the organization’s mistakes. He was almost predictable in his demeanour.

I, like many others, got to know Mr. Annan in the course of time, throughout the various echelons of his UN career. When reflecting on the past more than once, he and I remembered three moments that marked our connection.

As the UN Resident Coordinator (RC) in Zimbabwe, I had the chance of welcoming the Secretary-General to an historic AU Summit in 1997. When the plane stopped next to the red carpet in the VIP area of Harare Airport, in-between other flights of important dignitaries, one could excuse a protocol confusion, even more so with a Head of State sharing the same flight and descending the same stairs. Mr. Annan was so popular that many minders rushed to shake his hand in the middle of folkloric dancers, military parade, and a cacophonic muddle. Visibly protocol-lost and looking for a reference, his eyes finally spotted me. In a typical discreet diplomatic touch, he greeted me while asking with visible annoyance who was the RC. I responded: “It’s me!” It was my way of, also diplomatically, reminding him of our connection. He had known me since he was the Head of Human Resources at the UN. At the time we both lived at Roosevelt Island in New York. At the Airport tarmac he could, nevertheless, be excused for realizing that a 37-year-old was actually the RC, apart from being his acquaintance. We used to laugh about this encounter.

The second moment was no laughing matter. One of Mr. Annan’s best friends and respected UN high-flyer Sérgio Vieira de Mello had died, a victim of the bomb attack on the UN compound in Baghdad on 19 August 2003. After numerous changes to the funeral plans by relatives and the Brazilian government, the decision was finally made that a state ceremony would be organized in Rio de Janeiro. I was then RC in Brazil, this time nominated by Mr. Annan, who who used to ask me informally about my views on a range of issues.

Mr. Annan arrived in Rio almost an entire day before the funeral ceremonies. I felt the need to organize some sort of a programme, but he was not interested. I insisted on at least a short helicopter flight to see Rio’s peaceful beauty from the sky, which he finally accepted. The Government was happy to do this for him. I joined the flight and while in the air pointed to the Rocinha favela that he had heard so much about. I told him that my friend, the Minister of Culture and famous singer Gilberto Gil, had a project there. It was the beginning of a conversation that ended up with Mr. Gil and Mr. Annan playing together in the UN General Assembly Hall in commemoration of Sérgio’s exceptional life.

The third moment we often recalled was the modest beginnings of the Kofi Annan Foundation in Geneva, with me helping with some minor things to get it established. This modest man would be telling me about his student times in that city where we shared the same alma matter, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, and unusual routines we learned there. I was myself back to Geneva to lead the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAIR), after having served in the UN’s 38th floor—a floor usually for top management. I never knew if my landing at UNITAR had his fingers. Like many people he helped or protected, his number one rule was discretion. But certainly, we were both happy to be able to continue to work together on the same causes. Although this is a personal tribute, I am convinced many people have similar stories from this towering character. He touched deeply those who had a chance to cross his path.  

Source: CARLOS LOPES, Africa Renewal.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“There has been little mainstream media attention -- or context -- given to the Trudeau government's announcement earlier this week that it would extend the deployment of Canadian troops in Iraq until March 2021.

A quick historical recap.

On February 15-16, 2003, an estimated six to 11 million people in 60 countries marched against the imminent invasion of Iraq. That invasion began 16 years ago this week on the evening of March 19, 2003 (at 5:34 a.m. Baghdad time on March 20).

By September 2004, then United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan stated that the invasion was not sanctioned by the UN Security Council and that the war was illegal.

A study released in October 2013 found that at least 405,000 people died between 2003 and 2011 due to the war and occupation of Iraq.

Those casualties have continued to mount.

Furthermore, the United Nations reported in January 2016 that "3.2 million people have been internally displaced since January 2014, including more than a million children of school age."

As of January 10, 2016, the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France, Australia and several other countries had carried out 6,341 airstrikes in Iraq.

By July 2016, a British inquiry led by Sir John Chilcot found that the legal basis for the war was "far from satisfactory," peaceful alternatives to the war had not been exhausted, and that the lack of post-war planning significantly contributed to the emergence of ISIS.

In other words, this was arguably an avoidable war that spawned increased violence.

That's critical context missing from the Government of Canada media release this week highlighting that Canada has spent more than $2.1 billion since 2016 on "security, stabilization and humanitarian and development assistance needs in response to the crises in Iraq and Syria and their impacts on Jordan and Lebanon."

The Trudeau government has reshaped Canada's military engagement in Iraq several times since it won the October 2015 federal election.

In February 2016, Trudeau announced that six CF-18s would be withdrawn from bombing missions in Iraq and Syria, but among other actions, tripled the number of special forces troops in Iraq, maintained two surveillance aircraft there that helped identify targets to bomb, and provided a refuelling plane for continued allied bombing missions.

By June 2017, the Trudeau government announced that Canadian troops would stay in Iraq for another two years.

At that time, Toronto Star columnist Thomas Walkom wrote, "Ottawa's hope is that if Trump thinks Canada is pulling its weight militarily, he will order his negotiators to go easy on this country during the upcoming North American Free Trade Agreement talks."

By January 2019 the Trudeau government withdrew the CC-150 Polaris refuelling aircraft but only after, as reported by iPolitics, it had "delivered more than 65 million pounds of fuel to coalition aircraft during its deployment."

In terms of the present deployment, Global News reports that "Canada has about 500 military members in Iraq, including 200 who are part of a NATO training mission and 120 special forces who have been helping Iraqi forces root out Islamic State insurgents around the northern city of Mosul."

It's only in the closing paragraphs of a Canadian Press article that we see the point that "Questions and concerns have been raised in the past about the conduct of some Iraqi security forces, which includes allegations of torture, kidnappings and extrajudicial killings…"

Even there though, that sentence ends with, "…but [Maj.-Gen. Peter] Dawe said the units that his troops are partnered with have been carefully screened."

In February 2016, the Trudeau government announced it would be spending $1.6 billion in Iraq over the following three years. It now boasts in a media release that it has spent "more than $2.1 billion" in the region.

Where's the critical and contextual media coverage that says many continue to suffer and that billions of dollars continue to be spent in the aftermath of an illegal and avoidable war that killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions more?” - Brent Patterson, “Trudeau continues Canada's war in Iraq with little critical media coverage.” Rabble.ca, March 20, 2019.

[politicoscope]

Bashar al-Assad Biography and Profile

New Post has been published on https://www.politicoscope.com/bashar-al-assad-biography-and-profile/

Bashar al-Assad Biography and Profile

Bashar al-Assad inherited power in July 2000, a month after his father, military strongman Hafez al-Assad died. But since March 2011, his rule over Syria has been under threat, with the country beset by violence that has killed an estimated 465,000 people and embroiled regional and world powers in the never-ending horror.

Despite Western and Arab countries backing the opposition, Assad has survived seven years of war and refuses to step aside.

But who is he? This is what we know:

Medical student Ruling family: Born on September 11, 1965, Bashar al-Assad is the second son of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, and his wife Anisa.

His father, Hafez, rose to power through the Syrian military and the minority Alawite political party before taking control of Syria in 1970.

Studies: Bashar al-Assad was educated at the Arab-French al-Hurriya School in Damascus where he learned to speak English and French fluently.

He graduated from school in 1982 and continued studying medicine at the University of Damascus, graduating in 1988.

UK: He went to London in 1992 to the Western Eye Hospital to further his studies, at this time, the ruler was leading the life of a medical student and had no ambitions to start a political career.

Road to the presidency Brother’s death: At the age of 29, Assad was forced to return to Damascus from London after his older brother Basil – who was initially groomed for the presidency – died in a car crash in 1994, at the age of 33.

He entered the military academy at Homs, located in North Damascus, and was quickly pushed through the ranks and became a lieutenant-colonel in five years. He was then promoted to colonel in January 1999.

During this time, he also served as an adviser to his father hearing appeals from citizens and led a campaign against corruption.

Father’s death: When Hafez al-Assad died on June 10, 2000, the Syrian parliament quickly voted to lower the minimum age for presidential candidates from 40 to 34, so that Assad could be eligible for the office.

Assad took office on July 11, 2000. He was also selected leader of the Ba’ath Party and commander in chief of the military.

He was elected president, officially with more than 97 percent of the vote, and in his inaugural speech, affirmed his commitment to economic liberalisation and vowed to carry out some political reform.

Rejectionist politics Bashar rejected Western-style democracy as an appropriate model for Syrian politics.

The economy was in a poor shape, and the government bureaucracy made it difficult for a private sector to emerge, however, some signs of improvement were seen particularly in the area of telecommunications.

“The economic situation is a priority for us all to improve its performance and improve the life of our citizens. So is corruption,” said al-Assad, presiding over his first Ba’ath Party Congress.

Lebanon uprising In international affairs, Assad was confronted with a volatile relationship with Israel, military occupation in Lebanon, and tensions with Turkey over water rights.

He began a gradual withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, which was quickly hastened when Syria was accused of involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The accusation led to a public uprising in Lebanon, as well as international pressure to remove all troops. Syria denied any involvement.

“We are more confident … that Syria has nothing to do with this crime,” Assad said days before the release of a UN report on an investigation into al-Hariri’s assassination.

“If the UN investigation concludes Syrians were involved, those people would be regarded as traitors who would be charged with treason and face an international court or the Syrian judicial process,” CNN quoted al-Assad as saying.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Beirut demanding an end to Syrian influence in Lebanon, and on April 26, 2005, one last Syrian soldier left Lebanese territory.

Crackdown on opposition Despite promises of human rights reforms, not much changed after Assad took office.

In 2006, Syria expanded its use of travel bans against dissidents, preventing many from leaving the country.

In 2007, a referendum was held to confirm the presidential candidate with no opposition parties competing.

Voters were asked whether they “approve the candidacy of Dr Bashar al-Assad for the post of president of the republic”.

Once again, he won with 97 percent of the vote.

In 2007, and again in 2011, social media sites such as Facebook were blocked. Human rights groups have reported that political opponents of Bashar al-Assad were routinely tortured, imprisoned, disappeared, and killed.

According to Human Rights Watch, in 2009, Syria’s human rights situation was one of the worst in the world, and it had “deteriorated further”.

Arab Spring Following the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, protests began in Syria on March 15, 2011, demanding political reforms, a reinstatement of civil rights and an end to the state of emergency, which had been in place since 1963.

Assad insisted that Syria was immune to the uprisings that spread throughout the Arab world.

But anti-government protests calling for a “revolution”, the “downfall of corruption” and the release of political prisoners, spread throughout the country, with rights groups reporting that over 2,000 had been killed by the sixth month of the protests.

Critics said his inexperience in politics hade made it difficult for him to establish Syria’s place in the new world order. “Syria has become a dictatorship without a dictator,” a European diplomat in Damascus said in 2005.

He previously rejected comments by some observers that he did not hold full power in Syria, saying: “You cannot be a dictator and not in control. If you are a dictator you are in full control … I have my authority by the Syrian constitution,” he said in an interview to CNN.

“You cannot be a dictator and not in control.” – BASHAR AL-ASSAD

Civilian deaths In the first eight months of the protests, as the number of deaths in Syria mounted and a growing number of refugees escaped to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, Assad kept a low profile, speaking fewer than a handful of times in public.

His speeches generally made reference to the need for a national dialogue while touching on the protests being the work of foreign agents of disruption.

His government, he said, was being hit by a political conspiracy.

“Conspiracies, like germs, reproduce everywhere, every moment and they cannot be eradicated,” he said in 2011.

In December 2011, Assad denied culpability for his government’s crackdown on protests, saying he had never given an order for security forces of whom he was commander-in-chief “to kill or be brutal”.

“They’re not my forces,” Assad told the US’s ABC television network when asked about the crackdown.

“They are military forces [who] belong to the government. I don’t own them. I’m president. I don’t own the country. No government in the world kills its people, unless it is led by a crazy person,” he said in December 2011.

“No government in the world kills its people.” – BASHAR AL-ASSAD

Bashar al-Assad just justified killing hundreds of thousands of people in Syria because “every war is bad.” pic.twitter.com/zsLyZ5ceYx — AJ+ (@ajplus) January 10, 2017

Refuses to resign By the fall of 2011, many countries were calling for President Bashar al-Assad’s resignation and the Arab League suspended Syria, leading the Syrian government to agree to allow Arab observers into the country.

In January 2012, it was reported that more than 5,000 civilians had been killed by the Syrian militia, and that 1,000 people had been killed by anti-regime forces.

That March, United Nations endorsed a peace plan that was drafted by former UN Secretary Kofi Annan, but this didn’t stop the violence.

Chemical attacks In June 2012, a UN official stated that the uprisings had transitioned into a full-scale civil war, the International Committee of the Red Cross also declared the conflict a civil war.

But the conflict continued. There were daily reports of civilians being killed by government forces, and counter-claims by the Assad regime of the deaths being staged or the result of outside agitators.

In August 2013, Assad came under fire from leaders around the world, for using chemical weapons against civilians.

However, he was able to stave off foreign intervention with assistance from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who agreed to help remove Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons.

By 2013, the UN estimated that more than 70,000 people had been killed since the start of the conflict in March of 2011.

Sham elections Bashar al-Assad continued his campaign against rebel forces while dismissing outside calls to step down and held sham elections in June 2014. Voting was held only in government-controlled areas, excluding vast chunks of northern and eastern Syria that were in rebel hands.

Assad’s campaign slogan in 2014 was “sawa”, the Arabic word for “together”. He didn’t make any public appearances following the announcement of his candidacy to discuss his programme. Assad secured 88 percent of the vote.

His position strengthened the following September, when Russia agreed to provide military support to his forces.

By February 2016, the conflict had led to an estimated 470,000 deaths in Syria, and sparked international debate over how to handle the millions of refugees seeking to escape the brutality.

US strikes In April 2017, following news of another round of chemical weapons unleashed on civilians, US President Donald Trump ordered air raids on a Syrian airbase, drawing sharp condemnation from Assad and Syria’s allies Russia and Iran.

One year later, in April 2018, footage of dead Syrians surfaced amid reports that Assad had again used chemical weapons.

President Trump called Assad an “animal” and even delivered public criticism of Putin for protecting the Syrian leader.

On April 13, 2018, the United States ordered air attacks in Syria in collaboration with the UK and France.

Bashar al-Assad Biography and Profile (aljazeera)

[political-affairs]

Kofi Annan

Kofi Atta Annan (pron.: /ˈkoʊfi ˈænən/; born 8 April 1938) is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, from 1 January 1997 to 31 December 2006. Annan and the United Nations were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for his founding of theGlobal AIDS and Health Fund to support developing countries in their struggle to care for their people.

From 23 February until 31 August 2012, Annan was the UN–Arab League Joint Special Representative for [2] Syria, to help find a resolution to ongoing conflict there.[3] Annan quit after becoming frustrated with the UN's lack of progress with regard to conflict resolution,[4] stating that "when the Syrian people desperately need action, there continues to be finger-pointing and name-calling in the Security Council."

Early years and education

Kofi Annan was born in Kumasi in the Gold Coast on 8 April 1938. His twin sister Efua Ataa, who died in 1991, shares the middle name Atta, which inFante and Akan means 'twin'. Annan and his sister were born into one of the country's aristocratic families; both their grandfathers and their uncle were tribal chiefs.[5]

In the Akan names tradition, some children are named according to the day of the week on which they were born, and/or in relation to how many children precede them. Kofi in Akan is the name that corresponds with Friday.[6]

Pronunciation: Annan has said his surname rhymes with "cannon" in English.[7]

From 1954 to 1957, Annan attended the elite Mfantsipim school, a Methodist boarding school in Cape Coast founded in the 1870s. Annan has said that the school taught him "that suffering anywhere concerns people everywhere".[8] In 1957, the year Annan graduated from Mfantsipim, the Gold Coast gained independence from Britain and began using the name "Ghana".

In 1958, Annan began studying economics at the Kumasi College of Science and Technology, now the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology of Ghana. He received a Ford Foundation grant, enabling him to complete his undergraduate studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States, in 1961. Annan then did a DEA degree in International Relations at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1961–62. After some years of work experience, he studied at the MIT Sloan School of Management[9] (1971–72) in theSloan Fellows program and earned a Master of Science (M.S.) degree.

Annan is fluent in English, French, Akan, some Kru languages and other African languages.[10]

Early career

In 1962, Kofi Annan started working as a Budget Officer for the World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations (UN). From 1974 to 1976, he worked as the Director of Tourism in Ghana. In the late 1980s, Annan returned to work for the UN, where he was appointed as an Assistant Secretary-General in three consecutive positions: Human Resources, Management and Security Coordinator (1987–1990); Program Planning, Budget and Finance, and Controller (1990–1992); and Peacekeeping Operations (March 1993 – December 1996).

The Rwandan Genocide took place in 1994 while Annan directed UN Peacekeeping Operations. In 2003 Canadian ex-General Roméo Dallaire, who was force commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda, claimed that Annan was overly passive in his response to the imminent genocide. In his book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda(2003), General Dallaire asserted that Annan held back UN troops from intervening to settle the conflict, and from providing more logistical and material support. Dallaire claimed that Annan failed to provide responses to his repeated faxes asking for access to a weapons depository; such weapons could have helped Dallaire defend the endangered Tutsis. In 2004, ten years after the genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed, Annan said, "I could and should have done more to sound the alarm and rally support."[11]

Annan served as Under-Secretary-General from March 1994 to October 1995. He was appointed a Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the former Yugoslavia, serving for five months before returning to his duties as Under-Secretary-General in April 1996.

Secretary-General of the United Nations

Appointment

On 13 December 1996, the United Nations Security Council recommended Annan to replace the previous Secretary-General, Dr. Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt, whose second term faced the veto of the United States.[12][13] Confirmed four days later by the vote of the General Assembly,[14] he started his first term as Secretary-General on 1 January 1997.

[blackkudos]

Kofi Annan

Kofi Atta Annan (8 April 1938 – 18 August 2018) was a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, from January 1997 to December 2006. Annan and the UN were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize. He was the founder and chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as chairman of The Elders, an international organization founded by Nelson Mandela.

Born in Kumasi, Annan went on to study economics at Macalester College, international relations from the Graduate Institute Geneva and management at MIT. Annan joined the UN in 1962, working for the World Health Organization's Geneva office. He went on to work in several capacities at the UN Headquarters including serving as the Under-Secretary-General for peacekeeping between March 1992 and December 1996. He was appointed as the Secretary-General on 13 December 1996 by the Security Council, and later confirmed by the General Assembly, making him the first office holder to be elected from the UN staff itself. He was re-elected for a second term in 2001, and was succeeded as Secretary-General by Ban Ki-moon on 1 January 2007.

As the Secretary-General, Annan reformed the UN bureaucracy; worked to combat HIV, especially in Africa; and launched the UN Global Compact. He was criticized for not expanding the Security Council and faced calls for resignation after an investigation into the Oil-for-Food Programme. After leaving the UN, he founded the Kofi Annan Foundation in 2007 to work on international development. In 2012, Annan was the UN–Arab League Joint Special Representative for Syria, to help find a resolution to the ongoing conflict there. Annan quit after becoming frustrated with the UN's lack of progress with regard to conflict resolution. In September 2016, Annan was appointed to lead a UN commission to investigate the Rohingya crisis. In August 2018, Annan died in Switzerland after a short illness.António Guterres, the current UN Secretary-General, said that Kofi Annan was a champion for peace and a guiding force for good.

Early years and education

Kofi Annan was born in the Kofandros section of Kumasi in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) on 8 April 1938. His twin sister Efua Atta, who died in 1991, shared the middle name Atta, which in the Akan means 'twin'. Annan and his sister were born into one of the country's Ashanti and Fante aristocratic families; both of their grandfathers and their uncle were tribal chiefs.

In the Akan names tradition, some children are named according to the day of the week on which they were born, and/or in relation to how many children precede them. Kofi in Akan is the name that corresponds with Friday. Annan said that his surname rhymes with "cannon" in English.

From 1954 to 1957, Annan attended the elite Mfantsipim school, a Methodist boarding school in Cape Coast founded in the 1870s. Annan said that the school taught him "that suffering anywhere concerns people everywhere". In 1957, the year Annan graduated from Mfantsipim, the Gold Coast gained independence from the UK and began using the name "Ghana".

In 1958, Annan began studying economics at the Kumasi College of Science and Technology, now the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology of Ghana. He received a Ford Foundation grant, enabling him to complete his undergraduate studies in economics at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, United States, in 1961. Annan then completed a diplôme d'études approfondies DEA degree in International Relations at The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1961–62. After some years of work experience, he studied at the MIT Sloan School of Management (1971–72) in the Sloan Fellows program and earned a master's degree in management.

Annan was fluent in English, French, Akan, some Kru languages and other African languages.

Career

In 1962, Kofi Annan started working as a budget officer for the World Health Organization, an agency of the United Nations (UN). From 1974 to 1976, he worked as a manager of the state-owned Ghana Tourist Development Company in Accra. In 1980 he became the head of personnel for the office of the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva. In 1983 he became the director of administrative management services of the UN Secretariat in New York. In 1987, Annan was appointed as an Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management and Security Coordinator for the UN system. In 1990, he became Assistant Secretary-General for Program Planning, Budget and Finance, and Control.

When Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali established the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) in 1992, Annan was appointed to the new department as Deputy to then Under-Secretary-General Marrack Goulding. Annan was subsequently appointed in March 1993 as Under-Secretary-General of that department. On 29 August 1995, while Boutros-Ghali was unreachable on an airplane, Annan instructed United Nations officials to "relinquish for a limited period of time their authority to veto air strikes in Bosnia." This move allowed NATO forces to conduct Operation Deliberate Force and made him a favorite of the United States. According to Richard Holbrooke, Annan's "gutsy performance" convinced the United States that he would be a good replacement for Boutros-Ghali.

He was appointed a Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the former Yugoslavia, serving from November 1995 to March 1996.

Criticism

In 2003, retired Canadian General Roméo Dallaire, who was force commander of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda, claimed that Annan was overly passive in his response to the imminent genocide. In his book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda (2003), Dallaire asserted that Annan held back UN troops from intervening to settle the conflict, and from providing more logistical and material support. Dallaire claimed that Annan failed to provide responses to his repeated faxes asking for access to a weapons depository; such weapons could have helped Dallaire defend the endangered Tutsis. In 2004, ten years after the genocide in which an estimated 800,000 people were killed, Annan said, "I could and should have done more to sound the alarm and rally support."

In his book Interventions: A Life in War and Peace, Annan again argued that DPKO could have made better use of the media to raise awareness of the violence in Rwanda and put pressure on governments to provide the troops necessary for an intervention. Annan explained that the events in Somalia and the collapse of the UNOSOM II mission fostered a hesitation amongst UN Member states to approve robust peacekeeping operations. As a result, when the UNAMIR mission was approved just days after the battle, the resulting force lacked the troop levels, resources and mandate to operate effectively.

Secretary-General of the United Nations (1997–2006)

Appointment

In 1996, Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali ran unopposed for a second term. Although he won 14 of the 15 votes on the Security Council, he was vetoed by the United States. After four deadlocked meetings of the Security Council, Boutros-Ghali suspended his candidacy, becoming the only Secretary-General ever to be denied a second term. Annan was the leading candidate to replace him, beating Amara Essy by one vote in the first round. However, France vetoed Annan four times before finally abstaining. The UN Security Council recommended Annan on 13 December 1996. Confirmed four days later by the vote of the General Assembly, he started his first term as Secretary-General on 1 January 1997.

Due to Boutros-Ghali's overthrow, a second Annan term would give Africa the office of Secretary-General for three consecutive terms. In 2001, the Asia-Pacific Group agreed to support Annan for a second term in return for the African Group's support for an Asian Secretary-General in the 2006 selection. The Security Council recommended Annan for a second term on 27 June 2001, and the General Assembly approved his reappointment on 29 June 2001.

ActivitiesRecommendations for UN reform

Soon after taking office in 1997, Annan released two reports on management reform. On 17 March 1997, the report Management and Organisational Measures (A/51/829) introduced new management mechanisms through the establishment of a cabinet-style body to assist him and be grouping the UN's activities in accordance with four core missions. A comprehensive reform agenda was issued on 14 July 1997 entitled Renewing the United Nations: A Programme for Reform (A/51/950). Key proposals included the introduction of strategic management to strengthen unity of purpose, the establishment of the position of Deputy Secretary-General, a 10-percent reduction in posts, a reduction in administrative costs, the consolidation of the UN at the country level, and reaching out to civil society and the private sector as partners. Annan also proposed to hold a Millennium Summit in 2000.After years of research, Annan presented a progress report, In Larger Freedom, to the UN General Assembly, on 21 March 2005. Annan recommended Security Council expansion and a host of other UN reforms.

On 31 January 2006, Kofi Annan outlined his vision for a comprehensive and extensive reform of the UN in a policy speech to the United Nations Association UK. The speech, delivered at Central Hall, Westminster, also marked the 60th Anniversary of the first meetings of the General Assembly and Security Council.

On 7 March 2006, he presented to the General Assembly his proposals for a fundamental overhaul of the United Nations Secretariat. The reform report is entitled Investing in the United Nations, For a Stronger Organization Worldwide.

On 30 March 2006, he presented to the General Assembly his analysis and recommendations for updating the entire work programme of the United Nations Secretariat. The reform report is entitled: Mandating and Delivering: Analysis and Recommendations to Facilitate the Review of Mandates.

Regarding the UN Human Rights Council, Annan has said "declining credibility" had "cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system. Unless we re-make our human rights machinery, we may be unable to renew public confidence in the United Nations itself." However, he does believe that, despite its flaws, the council can do good.

In March 2000, Annan appointed the Panel on United Nations Peace Operations to assess the shortcomings of the then existing system and to make specific and realistic recommendations for change. The panel was composed of individuals experienced in conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. The report it produced, which became known as the Brahimi Report, after Chair of the Panel Lakhdar Brahimi, called for:

renewed political commitment on the part of Member States;

significant institutional change;

increased financial support.

The Panel further noted that in order to be effective, UN peacekeeping operations must be properly resourced and equipped, and operate under clear, credible and achievable mandates. In a letter transmitting the report to the General Assembly and Security Council, Annan stated that the Panel's recommendations were "essential to make the United Nations truly credible as a force for peace." Later that same year, the Security Council adopted several provisions relating to peacekeeping following the report, in Resolution 1327.

Millennium Development Goals

In 2000, Annan issued a report entitled "We the peoples: the role of the United Nations in the 21st century". The report called for member states to "put people at the centre of everything we do. No calling is more noble, and no responsibility greater, than that of enabling men, women and children, in cities and villages around the world, to make their lives better."

In the final chapter of the report, Annan called to "free our fellow men and women from the abject and dehumanizing poverty in which more than 1 billion of them are currently confined".:77

At the Millennium Summit in September 2000, national leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration, which was subsequently implemented by the United Nations Secretariat as the Millennium Development Goals in 2001.

United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS)

Within the "We the Peoples" document, Annan suggested the establishment of a United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS), a consortium of high-tech volunteer corps, including NetCorps Canada and Net Corps America, which United Nations Volunteers would co-ordinate. In the Report of the high-level panel of experts on information and communication technology (22 May 2000) 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 2001 to February 2005. Initiative staff and volunteers participated in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva in December 2003.

The United Nations Global Compact

In an address to The World Economic Forum on 31 January 1999, 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".

On 26 July 2000, the United Nations Global Compact was officially launched at UN headquarters in New York. It is a principle-based framework for businesses which aims to "Catalyse actions in support of broader UN goals, such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)". The Compact established ten core principles in the areas of human rights, labour, the environment and anti-corruption, and under the Compact, companies commit to the ten principles and are brought together with UN agencies, labour groups and civil society to effectively implement them.

Establishment of The Global Fund

Towards the end of the 1990s, increased awareness of the destructive potential of epidemics such as HIV/AIDS pushed public health issues to the top of the global development agenda. In April 2001, Annan issued a five-point "Call to Action" to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Stating it was a "personal priority", Annan proposed the establishment of a Global AIDS and Health Fund, "dedicated to the battle against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases" to stimulate the increased international spending needed to help developing countries confront the HIV/AIDS crisis. 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, and the permanent secretariat of the Global Fund was subsequently established in January 2002.

Responsibility to Protect

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 in September 1999 "to address the prospects for human security and intervention in the next century," Annan argued that individual sovereignty- the protections afforded by the Declaration of Human Rights and the Charter of the UN, were 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 re-consider their willingness to act to prevent conflict and civilian suffering.

In September 2001 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 2001, which focused not on the right of states to intervene but on 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.

In 2005, Annan included the doctrine of "Responsibility to Protect" in his report Larger Freedom. when that report was endorsed by the UN General Assembly, it amounted to the first formal endorsement by UN Member States of the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect.

Iraq

In the years after 1998 when UNSCOM was expelled by the government of Saddam Hussein and during the Iraq disarmament crisis, in which the United States blamed UNSCOM and former IAEA director Hans Blix for failing to properly disarm Iraq, Scott Ritter the former UNSCOM chief weapons inspector, blamed Annan for being slow and ineffective in enforcing Security Council resolutions on Iraq and was overtly submissive to the demands of the Clinton administration for regime removal and inspection of sites, often Presidential palaces, that were not mandated in any resolution and were of questionable intelligence value, which severely hampered UNSCOM's ability to co-operate with the Iraqi government and contributed to their expulsion from the country. Ritter also claimed that Annan regularly interfered with the work of the inspectors and diluted the chain of command by trying to micromanage all of the activities of UNSCOM, which caused intelligence processing (and the resulting inspections) to be backed up and caused confusion with the Iraqis as to who was in charge and as a result, they generally refused to take orders from Ritter or Rolf Ekéus without explicit approval from Annan, which could have taken days, if not weeks. 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 2003 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 2004 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.

Other diplomatic activities

In 1998, 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 2000, he was responsible for certifying Israel 's withdrawal from Lebanon, and in 2006, 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 2006. During a visit to Iran instigated by continued Iranian uranium enrichment, Annan said "I think the tragedy of the Holocaust is an undeniable historical fact and we should really accept that fact and teach people what happened in World War II and ensure it is never repeated."

Annan supported sending a UN peacekeeping mission to Darfur, Sudan. He worked with the government of Sudan to accept a transfer of power from the African Union peacekeeping mission to a UN one. Annan also worked with several Arab and Muslim countries on women's rights and other topics.

Beginning in 1998, Annan convened an annual UN "Security Council Retreat" with the 15 States' representatives of the Council. It was held at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF) Conference Center at the Rockefeller family estate at Pocantico, and was sponsored by both the RBF and the UN.

Lubbers sexual-harassment investigation

In June 2004, Annan was given a copy of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) report on the complaint brought by four female workers against Ruud Lubbers, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, for sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and retaliation. The report also reviewed a long-serving staff member's allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct against Werner Blatter, Director of UNHCR Personnel. 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. On 15 July 2004, Annan cleared Lubbers of the accusations, saying they were not substantial enough legally. His decision held until November 2004. When the OIOS issued its annual report to the UN General Assembly, it stated that it had found Lubbers guilty of sexual harassment. These events were widely reported and weakened Annan's influence.

On 17 November 2004, Annan accepted an OIOS report clearing Dileep Nair, UN Under-Secretary-General for Internal Oversight Services, of political corruption and sexual harassment charges. Some UN staff in New York disagreed with this conclusion, leading to extended debate on 19 November.

The internal UN-OIOS report on Lubbers was leaked, and sections accompanied by an article by Kate Holt were published in a British newspaper. In February 2005, he resigned as head of the UN refugee agency. Lubbers said he wanted to relieve political pressure on Annan.

Oil-for-Food scandal

In December 2004, reports surfaced that the Secretary-General's son Kojo Annan received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection SA, which had won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Programme. Kofi Annan called for an investigation to look into the allegations.

Annan appointed the Independent Inquiry Committee, which was led by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, then the director of the United Nations Association of the US. 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. Appointed by Annan to the Oil-For-Food role, Sevan repeatedly asked Iraqis for allocations of oil to the African Middle East Petroleum Company. Sevan's behavior was "ethically improper", Volcker said to reporters. Sevan repeatedly denied the charges and argued that he was being made a "scapegoat". The Volcker report was highly critical of the UN management structure and the Security Council oversight. It strongly recommended a new position be established of Chief Operating Officer (COO), to handle the fiscal and administrative responsibilities than under the Secretary-General's office. The report listed the companies, both Western and Middle Eastern, that benefited illegally from the program.

Nobel Peace Prize

In 2001, its centennial year, the Nobel Committee decided that the Peace Prize was to be divided between the UN and Annan. He was awarded the Peace Prize for 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.

Relations between the United States and the United Nations

Kofi Annan defended his deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, who openly criticized the United States in a speech on 6 June 2006: "[T]he prevailing practice of seeking to use the UN almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool while failing to stand up for it against its domestic critics is simply not sustainable. You will lose the UN one way or another. [...] [That] the US is constructively engaged with the UN [...] is not well known or understood, in part because much of the public discourse that reaches the US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News." Malloch later said his talk was a "sincere and constructive critique of U.S. policy toward the U.N. by a friend and admirer."

The talk was unusual because it violated unofficial policy of not having top officials publicly criticize member nations. The interim US ambassador John R. Bolton, appointed by President George W. Bush, was reported to have told Annan on the phone: "I've known you since 1989 and I'm telling you this is the worst mistake by a senior UN official that I have seen in that entire time." Observers from other nations supported Malloch's view that conservative politicians in the US prevented many citizens from understanding the benefits of US involvement in the UN.

Farewell addresses

On 19 September 2006, 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 believes "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.

On 11 December 2006, in his final speech as Secretary-General, delivered at the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library in Independence, Missouri, Annan recalled Truman's leadership in the founding of the United Nations. 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."

Post-UN career

After his service as UN Secretary-General, Annan took up residence in Geneva and worked in a leading capacity on various international humanitarian endeavors.

Kofi Annan Foundation

In 2007, 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. Kofi Annan's contribution to peace worldwide is delivered through mediation, political mentoring, advocacy and advice. Through his engagement, Kofi 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. The Foundation works mainly through private diplomacy, where Kofi Annan provided informal counsel and participates in discreet diplomatic initiatives to avert or resolve crises by applying his experience and inspirational leadership. He was often asked to intercede in crises, sometimes as an impartial independent mediator, sometimes as a special envoy of the international community. In recent years he had provided such counsel to Burkina Faso, Kenya, Myanmar, Senegal, Syria/Iraq and Colombia.

Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Process (KNDR)

Following the outbreak of violence during the 2007 Presidential elections in Kenya, the African Union established a Panel of Eminent African Personalities to assist in finding a peaceful solution to the crisis.

The panel, headed by Annan, managed to convince the two principal parties to the conflict, President Mwai Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) and Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), to participate in the Kenya National Dialogue and Reconciliation Process (KNDR). Over the course of 41 days of negotiations, several agreements regarding taking actions to stop the violence and remedying its consequences were signed. On 28 February President Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga signed a coalition government agreement.

Joint Special Envoy for Syria

On 23 February 2012, Annan was appointed as the UN-Arab League envoy to Syria, in an attempt to end the civil war taking place. He developed a six-point plan for peace:

commit to work with the Envoy in an inclusive Syrian-led political process to address the legitimate aspirations and concerns of the Syrian people, and, to this end, commit to appoint an empowered interlocutor when invited to do so by the Envoy;

commit to stop the fighting and achieve urgently an effective United Nations supervised cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties to protect civilians and stabilise the country.To this end, the Syrian government should immediately cease troop movements towards, and end the use of heavy weapons in, population centres, and begin pullback of military concentrations in and around population centres.As these actions are being taken on the ground, the Syrian government should work with the Envoy to bring about a sustained cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties with an effective United Nations supervision mechanism.Similar commitments would be sought by the Envoy from the opposition and all relevant elements to stop the fighting and work with him to bring about a sustained cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties with an effective United Nations supervision mechanism;

ensure timely provision of humanitarian assistance to all areas affected by the fighting, and to this end, as immediate steps, to accept and implement a daily two-hour humanitarian pause and to co-ordinate exact time and modalities of the daily pause through an efficient mechanism, including at local level;

intensify the pace and scale of release of arbitrarily detained persons, including especially vulnerable categories of persons, and persons involved in peaceful political activities, provide without delay through appropriate channels a list of all places in which such persons are being detained, immediately begin organizing access to such locations and through appropriate channels respond promptly to all written requests for information, access or release regarding such persons;

ensure freedom of movement throughout the country for journalists and a non-discriminatory visa policy for them;

respect freedom of association and the right to demonstrate peacefully as legally guaranteed.

On 2 August, he resigned as UN and Arab League joint special envoy to Syria, 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. He also stated that the lack of international unity and ineffective diplomacy among the world leaders has made the peaceful resolution in Syria an impossible task.

Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security

Annan served as the Chair of the Global Commission on Elections, Democracy and Security. The Commission was launched in May 2011 as a joint initiative of the Kofi Annan Foundation and the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance. 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: Democracy, a Strategy to Improve the Integrity of Elections Worldwide, in September 2012.

Rakhine Commission (Myanmar)

In September 2016, Annan was asked to lead the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State (in Myanmar) – an impoverished region beset by ethnic conflict and extreme sectarian violence, particularly by Myanmar's Buddhist majority against the unpopular Rohingya Muslim minority, further targeted by by government forces. The commission, widely known simply as the "Annan Commission", was opposed by many Myanmar Buddhists as unwelcome interference in their relations with the Rohingya.

When the Annan commission released its final report, the week of 24 August 2017, 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 attempted to engage the United Nations to resolve the matter, but failed.

Annan would later die on the week before the first anniversary of that event, shortly following the 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 2018, 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.S. ambassador to the U.N. Bill Richardson -- decrying the "implementation" committee as ineffective, or a "whitewash."

Other activities

Corporate boards

In March 2011, Annan became a member of the Advisory Board for Investcorp Bank B. S. C. Europe, an international private equity firm and sovereign wealth fund owned by the United Arab Emirates. He held the position until 2018.

Annan became member of the Global Advisory Board of Macro Advisory Partners LLP, Risk and strategic consulting firm based in London and New York, for business, finance and government decision-makers, with some operations related to Investcorp.

Non-profit organizations

In addition to the above, Annan also became involved with several organizations with both global and African focuses, including the following:

United Nations Foundation, Member of the Board of Directors (2008-2018)

University of Ghana, Chancellor (2008-2018)

School of International and Public Affairs of Columbia University, Global Fellow (2009)

The Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University, Fellow

Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Li Ka Shing Professor (2009-2018)

Global Centre for Pluralism, Member of the Board of Directors (2010-2018)

Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership, Chairman of the Prize Committee (2007-2018)

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Chairman (2007-2018)

Global Humanitarian Forum, President (2007-2018)

Annan served as Chair of The Elders, a group of independent global leaders who work together on peace and human rights issues. In November 2008, Annan and fellow Elders Jimmy Carter and Graça Machel attempted to travel to Zimbabwe to make a first-hand assessment of the humanitarian situation in the country. 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. In May 2011, following months of political violence in Côte d'Ivoire, Annan travelled to the country with Elders Desmond Tutu and Mary Robinson to encourage national reconciliation. On 16 October 2014, Kofi Annan attended the One Young World Summit in Dublin. During a session with fellow Elder Mary Robinson, Kofi Annan encouraged 1,300 young leaders from 191 countries to lead on intergenerational issues such as climate change and the need for action to take place now, not tomorrow. During the Summit he told leaders from 191 countries that addressing the effects of climate change was a general issue, for both the young and old.

"We don't have to wait to act. 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 lets 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, that outlines an issue of immediate importance to the continent and suggests a set of associated policies. In 2014, the Africa Progress Report highlighted the potential of African fisheries, agriculture and forests to drive economic development. The 2015 report explores the role of climate change and the potential of renewable energy investments in determining Africa's economic future.

Memoir

On 4 September 2012, Annan with Nader Mousavizadeh wrote a memoir, Interventions: A Life in War and Peace. Published by Penguin Press, the book was described as a "personal biography of global statecraft".

Personal life and death

In 1965, Kofi Annan married Titi Alakija, a Nigerian woman from an aristocratic family. Several years later they had a daughter, Ama, and later a son, Kojo. The couple separated in the late 1970s, and divorced in 1983. In 1984, Annan married Nane Annan, a Swedish lawyer at the UN and a maternal half-niece of diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. She has a daughter, Nina, from a previous marriage.

Annan died on the morning of 18 August 2018 in Bern, Switzerland, at the age of 80 after a short illness.

[ericfruits]

Cyprus can be reunified, if Turkey’s president allows it

TREAD carefully through the building sites that litter Paphos, testament to the city’s preparations for its stint as 2017 European Capital of Culture, and you eventually find your way to the enclave of Mouttalos. Thousands of Turkish-Cypriots once lived here, before intercommunal fighting, reprisal killings and Turkey’s invasion of Cyprus in 1974 drove their exodus to the island’s north. George Pachis, a local Greek-Cypriot, sometimes helps those who fled find the graves of relatives. Recalling one brings him close to tears. Accompanying an old widow through the cemetery recently, rather than the single tomb he expected, he found a gravestone listing nine names, including a two-year-old girl. All had been shot dead by Greek-Cypriot irregulars.

The scars of Paphos bear witness to the traumas of Europe’s last divided country. Cyprus’s cleavage may be peaceful today, but it is deeply entrenched. Its artefacts—barbed wire, rusting military outposts—are scrawled artlessly across the UN “buffer zone” that divides Nicosia, the capital. Checkpoints allow easy travel between north and south, but the two peoples lead separate lives; 48% of Greek-Cypriot students have never visited the north, and 43% “rarely” go. Cyprus’s rifts keep the island poorer, hinder the return of refugees, embarrass the European Union (Cyprus joined as a divided island in 2004, but only the Greek-Cypriot republic enjoys international recognition) and act as a regional spoiler, hampering EU-NATO co-operation and the EU’s relationship with Turkey.

In this section

The island has been formally split since Turkish troops occupied its northern third in 1974. Reunification schemes have come and gone, most recently in 2004, when the Greek-Cypriot majority rejected a plan devised by Kofi Annan, then UN secretary-general. But more recently Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Akinci, respective presidents of the Greek- and Turkish-Cypriots, have brought a settlement within grasp. The two men, who enjoy a strong personal rapport, seek agreement on a “bizonal, bicommunal federation”, with a weak central government overseeing two autonomous communities. Hopes are high, despite the failure of a recent summit in Switzerland. If a deal is reached in the weeks ahead, a new constitution will be drawn up while the leaders drum up support for the double referendum that will follow. But that will take time, and not much is left: Mr Anastasiades faces elections in February that he may not win.

The outline of a deal has long been clear, and left alone the two men might have found agreement by now. But Cyprus has long been a pawn in the chess games of others. Today, unhappily, the island’s fate lies largely in the hands of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s authoritarian president. Under the provisions of Cyprus’s 1960 independence settlement, Turkey, along with Greece and Britain, maintains a right to military intervention if the island’s constitutional order is threatened. The Greek-Cypriots (and Greece itself) insist on scrapping those guarantees, and on the eventual removal of Turkish troops, several thousand of whom remain in the north. But despite fresh ideas from the UN to allay Turkish-Cypriot fears, such as a multinational police force stationed on the island, Mr Erdogan has so far refused to budge.

The security guarantees are at the heart of the Cyprus problem. Fix them, and you might unlock solutions to other outstanding issues, notably on territory and power-sharing. Only 1% of the island’s land mass remains disputed, and a compromise looks possible: the Turkish-Cypriots relinquish their claim to Morphou, a contested town in the north, in exchange for a rotating presidency, ensuring that Turkish-Cypriots run the federal state for part of the time.

But crossing red lines is hard when you feel the other lot’s guns trained on you. “In Cyprus we don’t fight facts, but ghosts,” says Harry Tzimitras, director of the PRIO Cyprus Centre in Nicosia, a research outfit. Memories of the violence of the 1960s make Turkish-Cypriots loth to give up their protector. Greek-Cypriots balk at the idea of mortgaging their security to Turkey. “It is like asking Latvia to accept a Russian security guarantee,” says Mr Anastasiades. Mr Erdogan’s frequent outrages at home are well noted by the many enemies of a settlement on the Greek-Cypriot side.

Will Mr Erdogan move? No one can be sure. His priority is winning a referendum on constitutional reforms, probably in April; some say he can compromise only after that. Others divine a willingness to help sooner, perhaps to get a piece of the hydrocarbon riches beneath Cypriot waters (and to wean the north off the subsidies it gets from the Turkish treasury). Two planned visits to Ankara by European leaders—Theresa May, Britain’s prime minister, on January 28th, and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, five days later—will sound the president out.

Nervous in Nicosia

Even a deal will leave difficult referendums to be won. Neither leader will sign an agreement he cannot sell at home. But that job gets harder every year. Younger Greek-Cypriots, raised on a diet of Hellenic nationalism at school and with memories of nothing other than division, are the least likely to support reunification. Nor can support from the Turkish-Cypriots, who backed the Annan plan, be assumed, in part because Mr Akinci’s government is split. Tahsin Ertugruloglu, the Turkish-Cypriot foreign minister, describes the negotiations as a “total failure”.

If that seems unfair, caution is certainly in order. The Cyprus dispute is a repository of dashed hopes and broken dreams. Veteran island-watchers remain almost uniformly sceptical. (The expiry of the Obama administration, which quietly nudged both sides towards a deal, will not help.) It is noble to hope for a resolution to this wretched problem, and the courage of Messrs Anastasiades and Akinci has brought a deal tantalisingly close. But to bet on a reunified Cyprus implies a faith in Mr Erdogan’s statesmanship that the Turkish president has done little to warrant.

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[rightsinexile]

Banishing refugees to a flood-prone island will not solve Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee crisis

This short piece was contributed by Ashraful Azad, Assistant Professor of International Relations at University of Chittagong. It is reprinted here under a Creative Commons license.

Hundreds of hard-line Buddhist monks in Myanmar protested on March 19 against a proposal to grant citizenship to the country’s persecuted Muslim minority, the Rohingya who are excluded from the Citizenship law of 1982.

The demonstrations came after the Rakhine Advisory Commission, led by former UN chief Kofi Annan, urged Myanmar’s government to reconsider the ethnic group’s legal status. The government actually does not recognise the existence of Rohingya and rather considers them as Bengali.

Stripped of their basic rights, community members have been submitted to extreme violence and atrocities in Myanmar. More than 87,000 people have been displaced since October. For years now, many have fled to neighbouring countries such as Bangladesh, where they live a life in limbo.

State counsellor Aung Saan Suu Kyi has thus far remained silent on the issue.

Bangladesh has some 32,000 registered refugees in two official camps located mainly in the Cox’s Bazar district bordering the eastern Rakhine State. An additional 200,000 to 500,000 unregistered refugees live in makeshift camps there, alongside locals.

Having faced a continuous flow of Rohingya refugees for over two decades, the Bangladesh government is now planning to relocate the refugees to a remote island in Noakhali district, Thengar Char, about 250 km northwest of current camps.

The government says the move would improve refugees’ access to humanitarian assistance. But Rohingya refugees reportedly oppose the plan, and human rights groups have urged the government to cancel the plan, which the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network has declared to be “dangerous, absurd and inhumane”. Rights groups argue that the island is uninhabitable: it rose from the sea only 11 years ago and is highly prone to flooding and cyclones.

Local integration

The Bangladeshi people of Cox’s Bazar and the Rohingya refugees share a common dialect and culture. As a result, law enforcement forces cannot always differentiate between refugees and locals. Despite restrictions on their ability to work, many refugees find employment in the informal sector, and some children go to local schools. The government has reluctantly allowed the refugees to stay so far, but it is clearly concerned that such opportunities will lead to integration.

Thengar Char is a remote island in the most literal sense. The nearest sub-district office, Hatiya, is two hours away by boat. The surrounding areas are poor and underdeveloped.

For the government, it is easier to manage a refugee population that is concentrated on Thengar Char. Locals there do not speak the same dialect as Rohingyas, decreasing the potential for integration. It will also be practically impossible for them to seek employment and education outside the camp.

Challenges for humanitarian agencies

But the relocation would also make it very difficult for the UNHCR/UN Refugee Agency International Organisation for Migration and local NGOs to provide humanitarian services. Currently, agencies are mainly based in Cox’s Bazar, a popular Bangladeshi tourist destination with the longest sea-beach in the world. It is well connected to Bangladesh and other parts of the world by land and air and offers staff the comforts of living in a city, including basic facilities and security.

Thengar Char, on the other hand, is an exceptional place in overpopulated Bangladesh: it has no human settlement. Villagers who live nearby complain of pirates roaming the nearby waters, stealing goods and holding people hostage. The area’s security risks and remoteness may discourage humanitarian agency staffers from relocating there.

Possibilities of a human catastrophe

The Bangladesh forest department has warned that the Thengar Char island is not yet suitable for human habitation, writing in a letter that:

The soil and environment of Thengar Char is not yet suitable for human settlement. The island is submerged in water during monsoon. Though it emerges during dry season, most of the island goes underwater at high tide.

Cyclone are of significant concern. According to a catalogue of tropical storms in Bangladesh, 193 cyclones struck the country between 1484 and 2009. Arguably the deadliest tropical cyclone in history hit the region in 1970, battering the coast with a six-metre storm surge and killing some 300,000 people. If even a small-scale cyclone hits the proposed Rohingya camp, a human catastrophe is nearly certain.

The Noakhali district administration has written that the government would also have to “build flood protection embankment, cyclone centres and necessary infrastructure and ensure supply of drinking water” before receiving the Rohingyas in the Thengar Char.

Lost connections

For the Rohingyas, current border camps in Cox’s Bazar are close to home not just culturally but also geographically. For some, crossing into Bangladesh is as easy as wading through a little creek on foot or taking a short boat trip.

When Myanmar erupts in violence, many Rohingyas seek safety in Bangladesh, and, when it ends, some of them head back home. There is usually no asylum application, refugee-status determination procedure or UN-assisted voluntary repatriation; registration was last done in 1992. The country’s hundreds of thousands of unregistered Rohingya migrants live in limbo, as Bangladesh lacks specific refugee laws.

During relative peace, many Rohingyas also cross the border to seek medical treatment, education, marriage, daily shopping trips, or to visit relatives. Some will embark on a secondary migration, heading to Saudi Arabia or Malaysia. Many of these practices likely violate Bangladeshi law, but they are locally accepted and have been going on for generations.

Newly arrived refugees or migrants often get shelter and other assistance from relatives already living in Bangladesh’s camps. Many refugees in the camp also act as bridge between Rohingyas living in Myanmar and the diaspora of approximately one million others who live around the world.

Indirect force for repatriation?

Bangladesh has been negotiating with Myanmar to repatriate the Rohingyas. Many Rohingyas in Bangladesh have expressed their willingness to go back to their homeland if state authorities can ensure their safety.

However, the risk of persecution and violence in Myanmar remains high, and most refugees do not consider it safe there. International law requires that the Bangladeshi government only send back refugees who would voluntarily repatriate.

If the alternative to life in Myanmar is banishment to Thengar Char, many Rohingyas might “agree” to return rather than face a dangerous and uncertain future on a remote island of Bangladesh.

[itsnelkabelka]

Speech: Security Council briefing on the UN Fact-Finding Mission in Burma

Statement ahead of Procedural Vote

I would like to make a statement on behalf of the United Kingdom, Cote d’Ivoire, France, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Sweden, and the United States of America.

We have read carefully the letter that was sent on the 18th of October from you and colleagues Mr President.

We have requested the Chair of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar to brief us today. The report produced by the Mission is the most authoritative and comprehensive account of the human rights violations that have occurred in the country since 2011. It details, in particular, the events that took place in Rakhine State on and around 25 August 2017 and led to the forcible displacement of over 725,000 refugees across an international border into Bangladesh.

As we will hear, the Fact-Finding Mission’s findings are of the gravest nature.

The report concludes that “gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law have been committed in Myanmar since 2011 and that many of these violations undoubtedly amount to the gravest crimes under international law”.

It makes a specific recommendation to the Security Council to “ensure accountability for crimes under international law committed in Myanmar”.

Ensuring the prevention of such crimes – genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity – is one of the reasons that the United Nations and the Security Council were established in the first place.

As members of the Security Council we are today faced with a situation that clearly endangers international peace and security, and also a specific request for this Council to act.

It is therefore absolutely without doubt the Security Council’s responsibility to hear these allegations concerning the gravest crimes under international law related to this situation and to deliberate on how to proceed, and so Mr President, we will vote in favour of this meeting.

Statement during Security Council meeting

Thank you Mr President to the Chairman for that compelling, and shocking and moving briefing.

As I said on behalf of the nine Council members that called for this meeting, the briefing we have heard today concerns allegations of the gravest crimes against international law – genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

On this day in 1945, the UN came into being. We agree with you Mr Chairman; What is the United Nations for - What is the Security Council for if it cannot deal with some of worst things that a government can do to its own people?

The Security Council has a solemn responsibility to consider these matters and decide how to proceed.

Despite the objections of Council members here today, we believe it is right that this meeting is taking place. I will come in my remarks to what should happen in our view after this meeting.

Mr President, I wanted to draw out two points from the Mission’s report and Mr Darusman’s briefing today.

The first concerns the situation in Rakhine which is an “enduring catastrophe”.

Human rights violations against the people of Rakhine – ethnic Rakhine as well as Rohingya – continue to this day. The Rohingya in particular continue to face daily intimidation, restrictions on their freedom of movement, access to markets, education and healthcare, continued discrimination and denial of their right to citizenship. As the Chairman said; the Rohingya Muslims who are left behind in Rakhine are not safe and cannot be safe and the Rohingya who are in the camps in Bangladesh cannot go home until these matters are addressed.

Although the Burmese authorities have previously claimed that 81 out of 88 of the Annan Commission recommendations have been implemented, there is in fact, Mr. President, very little evidence that sincere efforts have been made to address the acute deprivation of human rights that lies at the root cause of this crisis.

And although we have previously welcomed the signing of the MoU between the government, UNHCR, and UNDP, those UN agencies continue to be denied access to large parts of Rakhine.

The conditions for safe, voluntary and dignified repatriation are manifestly not in place. Any calls for immediate repatriation in the current circumstances are deeply irresponsible. We need first to see the Burmese government cooperate fully with the United Nations and make genuine progress to change the situation, in line with the Annan Commission recommendations.

In the meantime, the UK commends the government and people of Bangladesh for continuing to show great generosity in continuing to host the refugee population and cooperate in good faith with the Burmese government. The needs of the refugees continue to be great – including protection, legal status, assistance – and we call on the international community to intensify its support through the UN’s Joint Response Plan.

My second point Mr President; Rakhine is the most egregious example of the Burmese military’s conduct. But it is not the only one. The report makes clear the Burmese military is conducting human rights violations across the country against other ethnic communities, most notably in Kachin and Shan states.

Accountability is vital to get justice for the Rohingya and others who have suffered. It is necessary to give the Rohingya confidence that they can return to Myanmar/Burma. But, fundamentally, it is necessary in order to prevent the Burmese military from committing these same crimes again and again against the people of Myanmar.

It is vital Mr President that this Council acts to uphold the Charter. I take very seriously what the Chairman said about the need to send a signal from this Council to other countries around the world who’s governments may be tempted to take a leaf out of the Burmese military’s horrific playbook and execute such crimes on their own people.

Myanmar/Burma has established a domestic Commission of Inquiry. We note the Fact Finding Mission’s conclusion that this Commission “cannot provide a real avenue for accountability”.

We note also the six Generals who the report mentions with Command Responsibility starting with the senior General.

We note too that previous commissions of inquiries have been a whitewash and they have preserved the military’s long-standing impunity. The government has repeatedly denied the crimes described to us today. It has locked up journalists who have exposed government wrongdoing, most notably the two Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo – I repeat the UK’s call for their immediate release.

If there is to be any faith in this latest Commission of Inquiry, it should be independent and report transparently on its progress. It should operate according to international standards - as the Fact Finding Mission itself did - and it should cooperate with other bodies gathering evidence such as the Fact Finding Mission and the ongoing Independent Mechanism established by the Human Rights Council earlier this month. We have repeatedly asked the Burmese government to work closely with the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the findings of the Commission of Inquiry should lead to an independent judicial process where all – including the military – are equal before the law.

Otherwise, if there is not going to be domestic accountability in Burma, then the UK believes that we must consider all options including ICC referral or an ad-hoc tribunal.

Mr President, I never thought in my diplomatic career that I would hear a briefing to the Security Council a briefing as compelling but detailing such awful treatment of a people as we have heard today.

The crimes we have heard echo those committed in Rwanda and Srebrenica some twenty years ago. The Security Council acted in those two situations. It acted too late to prevent them which is all to our lasting shame but it did act to ensure accountability was brought to bear on those responsible. As you have said Mr Chairman, national sovereignty is a not a licence to commit crimes against humanity. It is not a licence to wreak such havoc on the livelihoods and lives of your own people.

The UK now plans to work with our partners to press for progress in creating conditions so that the refugees can return but also so that we can have accountability that genuinely ends the Burmese military’s impunity.

In the face of the acts we have heard described today, we believe this is a responsibility that the Security Council owes not just to the Rohingya, not just to peoples of Burma but it owes them to people everywhere around the world.

Thank you

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[politicoscope]

Bashar al-Assad Biography and Profile

New Post has been published on https://www.politicoscope.com/bashar-al-assad-biography-and-profile/

Bashar al-Assad Biography and Profile

Bashar al-Assad inherited power in July 2000, a month after his father, military strongman Hafez al-Assad died. But since March 2011, his rule over Syria has been under threat, with the country beset by violence that has killed an estimated 465,000 people and embroiled regional and world powers in the never-ending horror.

Despite Western and Arab countries backing the opposition, Assad has survived seven years of war and refuses to step aside.

But who is he? This is what we know:

Medical student Ruling family: Born on September 11, 1965, Bashar al-Assad is the second son of former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, and his wife Anisa.

His father, Hafez, rose to power through the Syrian military and the minority Alawite political party before taking control of Syria in 1970.

Studies: Bashar al-Assad was educated at the Arab-French al-Hurriya School in Damascus where he learned to speak English and French fluently.

He graduated from school in 1982 and continued studying medicine at the University of Damascus, graduating in 1988.

UK: He went to London in 1992 to the Western Eye Hospital to further his studies, at this time, the ruler was leading the life of a medical student and had no ambitions to start a political career.

Road to the presidency Brother’s death: At the age of 29, Assad was forced to return to Damascus from London after his older brother Basil – who was initially groomed for the presidency – died in a car crash in 1994, at the age of 33.

He entered the military academy at Homs, located in North Damascus, and was quickly pushed through the ranks and became a lieutenant-colonel in five years. He was then promoted to colonel in January 1999.

During this time, he also served as an adviser to his father hearing appeals from citizens and led a campaign against corruption.

Father’s death: When Hafez al-Assad died on June 10, 2000, the Syrian parliament quickly voted to lower the minimum age for presidential candidates from 40 to 34, so that Assad could be eligible for the office.

Assad took office on July 11, 2000. He was also selected leader of the Ba’ath Party and commander in chief of the military.

He was elected president, officially with more than 97 percent of the vote, and in his inaugural speech, affirmed his commitment to economic liberalisation and vowed to carry out some political reform.

Rejectionist politics Bashar rejected Western-style democracy as an appropriate model for Syrian politics.

The economy was in a poor shape, and the government bureaucracy made it difficult for a private sector to emerge, however, some signs of improvement were seen particularly in the area of telecommunications.

“The economic situation is a priority for us all to improve its performance and improve the life of our citizens. So is corruption,” said al-Assad, presiding over his first Ba’ath Party Congress.

Lebanon uprising In international affairs, Assad was confronted with a volatile relationship with Israel, military occupation in Lebanon, and tensions with Turkey over water rights.

He began a gradual withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, which was quickly hastened when Syria was accused of involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The accusation led to a public uprising in Lebanon, as well as international pressure to remove all troops. Syria denied any involvement.

“We are more confident … that Syria has nothing to do with this crime,” Assad said days before the release of a UN report on an investigation into al-Hariri’s assassination.

“If the UN investigation concludes Syrians were involved, those people would be regarded as traitors who would be charged with treason and face an international court or the Syrian judicial process,” CNN quoted al-Assad as saying.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered in Beirut demanding an end to Syrian influence in Lebanon, and on April 26, 2005, one last Syrian soldier left Lebanese territory.

Crackdown on opposition Despite promises of human rights reforms, not much changed after Assad took office.

In 2006, Syria expanded its use of travel bans against dissidents, preventing many from leaving the country.

In 2007, a referendum was held to confirm the presidential candidate with no opposition parties competing.

Voters were asked whether they “approve the candidacy of Dr Bashar al-Assad for the post of president of the republic”.

Once again, he won with 97 percent of the vote.

In 2007, and again in 2011, social media sites such as Facebook were blocked. Human rights groups have reported that political opponents of Bashar al-Assad were routinely tortured, imprisoned, disappeared, and killed.

According to Human Rights Watch, in 2009, Syria’s human rights situation was one of the worst in the world, and it had “deteriorated further”.

Arab Spring Following the Arab Spring in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, protests began in Syria on March 15, 2011, demanding political reforms, a reinstatement of civil rights and an end to the state of emergency, which had been in place since 1963.

Assad insisted that Syria was immune to the uprisings that spread throughout the Arab world.

But anti-government protests calling for a “revolution”, the “downfall of corruption” and the release of political prisoners, spread throughout the country, with rights groups reporting that over 2,000 had been killed by the sixth month of the protests.

Critics said his inexperience in politics hade made it difficult for him to establish Syria’s place in the new world order. “Syria has become a dictatorship without a dictator,” a European diplomat in Damascus said in 2005.

He previously rejected comments by some observers that he did not hold full power in Syria, saying: “You cannot be a dictator and not in control. If you are a dictator you are in full control … I have my authority by the Syrian constitution,” he said in an interview to CNN.

“You cannot be a dictator and not in control.” – BASHAR AL-ASSAD

Civilian deaths In the first eight months of the protests, as the number of deaths in Syria mounted and a growing number of refugees escaped to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, Assad kept a low profile, speaking fewer than a handful of times in public.

His speeches generally made reference to the need for a national dialogue while touching on the protests being the work of foreign agents of disruption.

His government, he said, was being hit by a political conspiracy.

“Conspiracies, like germs, reproduce everywhere, every moment and they cannot be eradicated,” he said in 2011.

In December 2011, Assad denied culpability for his government’s crackdown on protests, saying he had never given an order for security forces of whom he was commander-in-chief “to kill or be brutal”.

“They’re not my forces,” Assad told the US’s ABC television network when asked about the crackdown.

“They are military forces [who] belong to the government. I don’t own them. I’m president. I don’t own the country. No government in the world kills its people, unless it is led by a crazy person,” he said in December 2011.

“No government in the world kills its people.” – BASHAR AL-ASSAD

Bashar al-Assad just justified killing hundreds of thousands of people in Syria because “every war is bad.” pic.twitter.com/zsLyZ5ceYx — AJ+ (@ajplus) January 10, 2017

Refuses to resign By the fall of 2011, many countries were calling for President Bashar al-Assad’s resignation and the Arab League suspended Syria, leading the Syrian government to agree to allow Arab observers into the country.

In January 2012, it was reported that more than 5,000 civilians had been killed by the Syrian militia, and that 1,000 people had been killed by anti-regime forces.

That March, United Nations endorsed a peace plan that was drafted by former UN Secretary Kofi Annan, but this didn’t stop the violence.

Chemical attacks In June 2012, a UN official stated that the uprisings had transitioned into a full-scale civil war, the International Committee of the Red Cross also declared the conflict a civil war.

But the conflict continued. There were daily reports of civilians being killed by government forces, and counter-claims by the Assad regime of the deaths being staged or the result of outside agitators.

In August 2013, Assad came under fire from leaders around the world, for using chemical weapons against civilians.

However, he was able to stave off foreign intervention with assistance from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who agreed to help remove Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons.

By 2013, the UN estimated that more than 70,000 people had been killed since the start of the conflict in March of 2011.

Sham elections Bashar al-Assad continued his campaign against rebel forces while dismissing outside calls to step down and held sham elections in June 2014. Voting was held only in government-controlled areas, excluding vast chunks of northern and eastern Syria that were in rebel hands.

Assad’s campaign slogan in 2014 was “sawa”, the Arabic word for “together”. He didn’t make any public appearances following the announcement of his candidacy to discuss his programme. Assad secured 88 percent of the vote.

His position strengthened the following September, when Russia agreed to provide military support to his forces.

By February 2016, the conflict had led to an estimated 470,000 deaths in Syria, and sparked international debate over how to handle the millions of refugees seeking to escape the brutality.

US strikes In April 2017, following news of another round of chemical weapons unleashed on civilians, US President Donald Trump ordered air raids on a Syrian airbase, drawing sharp condemnation from Assad and Syria’s allies Russia and Iran.

One year later, in April 2018, footage of dead Syrians surfaced amid reports that Assad had again used chemical weapons.

President Trump called Assad an “animal” and even delivered public criticism of Putin for protecting the Syrian leader.

On April 13, 2018, the United States ordered air attacks in Syria in collaboration with the UK and France.

Bashar al-Assad Biography and Profile (aljazeera)

[todaynewsstories]

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

ACCRA/GENEVA (Reuters) – Leaders around the world paid tribute to former United Nations Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kofi Annan, who died in hospital in Bern, Switzerland, in the early hours of Saturday aged 80.

FILE PHOTO – Chair of the Africa Progress Panel, Kofi Annan, attends a media launch of the Africa Progress Report 2014 in London May 8, 2014. REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth/File Photo

U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL ANTONIO GUTERRES:

“In many ways, Kofi Annan was the United Nations. He rose through the ranks to lead the organisation into the new millennium with matchless dignity and determination.”

– – – –

GHANAIAN PRESIDENT NANA AKUFO-ADDO:

“Consummate international diplomat and highly respected former Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan was the first from sub-Saharan Africa to occupy this exalted position. He brought considerable renown to our country by this position and through his conduct and comportment in the global arena.

He was an ardent believer in the capacity of the Ghanaian to chart his or her own course onto the path of progress and prosperity.”

– – – –

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN:

“Many years of the life of this remarkable person and great politician were devoted to the service of the United Nations. Heading the UN at a difficult time, he did a great deal to realise the purposes and the goals of the organisation, strengthening its central role in world affairs. His personal contribution to building the UN’s peacekeeping potential, as well as in the settlement of a number of regional conflicts, was particularly significant.

I sincerely admired his wisdom and courage, his ability to make balanced decisions even in the most difficult, critical situations.”

– – – –

U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO:

“Mr. Annan spent his life advocating for peace and human dignity during his long career at the United Nations. Even after leaving his post as Secretary-General he embodied the mission of the United Nations, by sowing the seeds of peace as Chair of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders committed to advancing the cause of peace and promoting human rights around the world.”

– – – –

FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON AND FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON:

“Kofi Annan was a truly great UN Secretary-General. It was an honour to work with him in his efforts to reform the UN, strengthen global health and peacekeeping, and reduce poverty. He made the fight against AIDS and the responsibility to protect civilians in conflict zones true priorities for the UN.”

– – – –

FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH:

“Kofi was a gentle man and a tireless leader of the United Nations. His voice of experience will be missed around the world.”

– – – –

FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:

“Kofi Annan was a diplomat and humanitarian who embodied the mission of the United Nations like few others. His integrity, persistence, optimism, and sense of our common humanity always informed his outreach to the community of nations. Long after he had broken barriers, Kofi never stopped his pursuit of a better world, and made time to motivate and inspire the next generation of leaders.”

– – – –

THE ELDERS (group of global leaders):

“He played a vital role in leading The Elders’ work, and was a voice of great authority and wisdom in public and private.

He was a constant advocate for human rights, development and the rule of law.

Kofi Annan had a life-long commitment to the cause of peace and was known for his staunch opposition to military aggression, notably the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.”

– – – –

NIGERIAN PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI:

“Annan’s humility, nobility and love for humanity set him apart for global greatness, achieving recognition and commendation for the reform of the United Nations’ bureaucracy and multiple interventions to bring peace to the world.”

– – – –

U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS NIKKI HALEY:

“Kofi Annan devoted his life to making the world a more peaceful place through his compassion and dedication to service. He worked tirelessly to unite us and never stopped fighting for the dignity of every‎ person.”

– – – –

GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL:

“Kofi Annan never gave up working for the good in the world. (He) knew how to get people engaged, and became a role model, especially for young people all over the world.”

– – – –

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER THERESA MAY:

“A great leader and reformer of the UN, he made a huge contribution to making the world he has left a better place than the one he was born into.”

– – – –

FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON:

“France pays tribute to him. We will never forget his calm and resolute approach to matters, nor the strength of his commitments.”

– – – –

IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF:

“A towering global leader and an unwavering champion for peace, justice and rule of law. Rest in peace my dear old friend.”

– – – –

ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTRY:

“A champion of Multilateral Diplomacy, a Nobel prize recipient and a world statesman who dedicated his public life to striving towards global peace and the alleviation of poverty and reducing child mortality. As UN Secretary General, he resisted the delegitimisation of Israel. He fought actively against Holocaust denial and supported in 2006 the UN initiative on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.”

– – – –

RAILA ODINGA, KENYAN OPPOSITION LEADER AND FORMER PRIME MINISTER:

“A great African, a great leader of the world. We here in Kenya remember him for the role that he played in presiding over the process of reconciliation following the crisis that followed the 2007 general elections. Kofi Annan was able to bring the different factions in our country together.”

– – – –

FORMER GHANAIAN PRESIDENT JOHN MAHAMA:

“He lived and worked for global peace, security and sustainable development in very challenging times. A proud son of Ghana and Africa.”

– – – –

SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA:

Annan was “a great leader and diplomat extraordinaire” who had advanced the African agenda within the United Nations and had “flown the flag for peace” around the world.

– – – –

CYPRUS PRESIDENCY

“Despite the fact that his efforts to solve the Cyprus problem, and the plan which bore his name were not met with success, his name has been linked to the issue of occupied Cyprus.”

Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Editing by Angus MacSwan, Ros Russell and Frances Kerry

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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

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

ACCRA/GENEVA (Reuters) – Leaders around the world paid tribute to former United Nations Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kofi Annan, who died in hospital in Bern, Switzerland, in the early hours of Saturday aged 80.

FILE PHOTO – Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan displays a AK47 gun transformed to a guitar at Vienna’s U.N. headquarters September 11, 2007. REUTERS/Herwig Prammer/File Photo

U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL ANTONIO GUTERRES:

“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.”

– – – –

GHANAIAN PRESIDENT NANA AKUFO-ADDO:

“Consummate international diplomat and highly respected former Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan was the first from sub-Saharan Africa to occupy this exalted position. He brought considerable renown to our country by this position and through his conduct and comportment in the global arena.

He was an ardent believer in the capacity of the Ghanaian to chart his or her own course onto the path of progress and prosperity.”

– – – –

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN:

“Many years of the life of this remarkable person and great politician were devoted to the service of the United Nations. Heading the UN at a difficult time, he did a great deal to realize the purposes and the goals of the organization, strengthening its central role in world affairs. His personal contribution to building the UN’s peacekeeping potential, as well as in the settlement of a number of regional conflicts, was particularly significant.

I sincerely admired his wisdom and courage, his ability to make balanced decisions even in the most difficult, critical situations.”

– – – –

U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO:

“Mr. Annan spent his life advocating for peace and human dignity during his long career at the United Nations. Even after leaving his post as Secretary-General he embodied the mission of the United Nations, by sowing the seeds of peace as Chair of The Elders, an independent group of global leaders committed to advancing the cause of peace and promoting human rights around the world.”

– – – –

FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON AND FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON:

“Kofi Annan was a truly great UN Secretary-General. It was an honor to work with him in his efforts to reform the UN, strengthen global health and peacekeeping, and reduce poverty. He made the fight against AIDS and the responsibility to protect civilians in conflict zones true priorities for the UN.”

– – – –

FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH:

“Kofi was a gentle man and a tireless leader of the United Nations. His voice of experience will be missed around the world.”

– – – –

FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:

“Kofi Annan was a diplomat and humanitarian who embodied the mission of the United Nations like few others. His integrity, persistence, optimism, and sense of our common humanity always informed his outreach to the community of nations. Long after he had broken barriers, Kofi never stopped his pursuit of a better world, and made time to motivate and inspire the next generation of leaders.”

– – – –

THE ELDERS (group of global leaders):

“He played a vital role in leading The Elders’ work, and was a voice of great authority and wisdom in public and private.

He was a constant advocate for human rights, development and the rule of law.

Kofi Annan had a life-long commitment to the cause of peace and was known for his staunch opposition to military aggression, notably the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.”

– – – –

NIGERIAN PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI:

“Annan’s humility, nobility and love for humanity set him apart for global greatness, achieving recognition and commendation for the reform of the United Nations’ bureaucracy and multiple interventions to bring peace to the world.”

– – – –

U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS NIKKI HALEY:

“Kofi Annan devoted his life to making the world a more peaceful place through his compassion and dedication to service. He worked tirelessly to unite us and never stopped fighting for the dignity of every‎ person.”

– – – –

GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL:

“Kofi Annan never gave up working for the good in the world. (He) knew how to get people engaged, and became a role model, especially for young people all over the world.”

– – – –

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER THERESA MAY:

“A great leader and reformer of the UN, he made a huge contribution to making the world he has left a better place than the one he was born into.”

– – – –

FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON:

“France pays tribute to him. We will never forget his calm and resolute approach to matters, nor the strength of his commitments.”

– – – –

IRANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER MOHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF:

“A towering global leader and an unwavering champion for peace, justice and rule of law. Rest in peace my dear old friend.”

– – – –

ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTRY:

“A champion of Multilateral Diplomacy, a Nobel prize recipient and a world statesman who dedicated his public life to striving towards global peace and the alleviation of poverty and reducing child mortality. As UN Secretary General, he resisted the delegitimization of Israel. He fought actively against Holocaust denial and supported in 2006 the UN initiative on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.”

– – – –

RAILA ODINGA, KENYAN OPPOSITION LEADER AND FORMER PRIME MINISTER:

“A great African, a great leader of the world. We here in Kenya remember him for the role that he played in presiding over the process of reconciliation following the crisis that followed the 2007 general elections. Kofi Annan was able to bring the different factions in our country together.”

– – – –

FORMER GHANAIAN PRESIDENT JOHN MAHAMA:

“He lived and worked for global peace, security and sustainable development in very challenging times. A proud son of Ghana and Africa.”

– – – –

SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA:

Annan was “a great leader and diplomat extraordinaire” who had advanced the African agenda within the United Nations and had “flown the flag for peace” around the world.

– – – –

CYPRUS PRESIDENCY

“Despite the fact that his efforts to solve the Cyprus problem, and the plan which bore his name were not met with success, his name has been linked to the issue of occupied Cyprus.”

Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Editing by Angus MacSwan, Ros Russell and Frances Kerry

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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