Mr. Kofi Annan was born to Henry Reginald Annan and Victoria Annan in the
Kofandros section of Kumasi, Ghana. He was a twin, an occurrence that is
regarded as special in Ghanaian culture. His twin sister, Efua Atta, died in
1991; their middle name, Atta, means twin in Fante. As with most Akan names, his
first and last names indicate the day of the week he was born and his place in
the family: Kofi denotes a boy born on a Friday, and Annan indicates that he was
the fourth child of his family. Annan's surname is frequently mispronounced as "uh-NON"
or "ah-NON". In an interview on National Public Radio, shortly after taking
office as U.N. Secretary General, he was asked how to say his name, and
explained that the correct pronunciation rhymes with "cannon": thus, "A-nun".
Annan's family was part of the country's elite; both of his grandfathers and his
uncle were tribal chiefs. His father was half Asante and half Fante; his mother
was Fante. Annan's father worked for a long period as an export manager for the
Lever Brothers cocoa company.
Annan is married to Nane Maria Annan, a Swedish lawyer and artist who is the
half-niece of Raoul Wallenberg. He has two children, Kojo and Ama, from his
previous marriage to Nigerian Titi Alakija. He and Alakija divorced in the late
1970s. Nane Annan also has one child, Nina Cronstedt de Groot, from a previous
marriage. Kojo Annan was in the headlines in 2005 because of his involvement in
the Oil-for-Food Programme.
Education
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". In 1957,
the year Annan graduated from Mfantsipim, Ghana became the first British colony
in Sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence.
In 1958, Annan began studying for a degree in 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 studied at the Graduate Institute of
International Studies (Institut universitaire des hautes études internationales
IUHEI) in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1961–62, later attending the MIT Sloan
School of Management (1971–72) Sloan Fellows programme and receiving a Master of
Science (M.S.) degree from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Annan is fluent in English, French, Kru, other dialects of Akan, and other
African languages.
Early career
In 1962, Annan started working as a Budget Officer for the World Health
Organization, an agency of the United Nations. From 1974 to 1976, Annan worked
as the Director of Tourism in Ghana.
Following that, he returned to work for the United Nations as an Assistant
Secretary-General in three consecutive positions: Human Resources Management and
Security Coordinator from 1987 to 1990, Programme Planning, Budget and Finance,
and Controller from 1990 to 1992, and Peacekeeping Operations from March 1993 to
February 1994.
In his book Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, ex-General
Roméo Dallaire who was force commander of the UNAMIR claims that Annan has been
overly passive in his response to the 1994 Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. Gen.
Dallaire explicitly stated that the then Undersecretary-General for Peacekeeping
Operations held back UN troops from intervening to settle the conflict and from
providing more logistic and material support. For example, he claimed that Annan
failed to provide any responses to Dallaire's repeated faxes asking him for
access to a weapons depository, something that could have helped defend the
Tutsis. Dallaire concedes however that Annan was a man whom he found extremely "committed"
to the founding principles of the United Nations.
Annan was then an Under-Secretary-General until October 1995, when he was made a
Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the former Yugoslavia,
serving for five months in this capacity and returning to his duties as Under-Secretary-General
in April 1996.
Secretary-General of the United Nations
Annan in São Paulo, Brazil, during the "Civil Society Forum" in June 2004.On
December 13, 1996, Annan was selected by the United Nations Security Council to
be Secretary-General, and was confirmed four days later by vote of the General
Assembly. Annan took the oath of office without delay, starting his first term
as Secretary-General on January 1, 1997. Annan replaced outgoing Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt, becoming the first person from a black African
nation to serve as Secretary-General.
Annan's tenure as Secretary-General was renewed on January 1, 2002, in an
unusual deviation from informal policy. The office usually rotates among the
continents, with two terms each; since Annan's predecessor Boutros-Ghali was
also an African, Annan normally would have served only one term.
Mark Malloch Brown succeeded Louise Frechette as Annan's Deputy Secretary-General
in April 2006.
In April 2001, the Secretary-General issued a five-point "Call to Action" to
address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Annan sees this pandemic as his "personal
priority" as Secretary-General and in life in general. He proposed the
establishment of a Global AIDS and Health Fund to stimulate increased spending
needed to help developing countries confront the HIV/AIDS crisis.
On December 10, 2001, Annan and the United Nations were jointly awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize, "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful
world".
During the buildup 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, Annan was asked about the
legal authority for the invasion, and responded, "from our point of view and
from the Charter point of view it was illegal."
Annan supports sending a UN peacekeeping mission to Darfur, Sudan, and is
working with the government of Sudan to accept a transfer of power from the
African Union peacekeeping mission to a UN one. Annan is also working with
several Arab and Muslim countries on women's rights and other topics.
On September 19, 2006, Annan gave a farewell address in anticipation of his
retirement on December 31. 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. [2]
UN Controversies during Annan's tenure
Lubbers sexual harassment investigation
In June 2004, Annan was given a copy of the Office of Internal Oversight
Services (OIOS) report on the complaint of sexual harassment, abuse of authority,
and retaliation against Ruud Lubbers, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and
sexual harassment and misconduct as well against Werner Blatter, Director of
UNHCR Personnel by a long-serving staff member. The investigation report found
Ruud Lubbers guilty of sexual harassment and no mention was made publicly of the
other charge against a senior official or the two subsequent complaints she
filed later that year. In the course of the official investigation, Lubbers
wrote a letter that some speculate was a threat to the female worker who had
brought the charges of misconduct.[2] However, on July 15, 2004, Lubbers was
declared innocent by Kofi Annan. His decision only lasted until November when
OIOS issued its annual report to the UN General Assembly noting it has found
Lubbers guilty. Widely reported in the media, these events served to weaken
Annan's position.
On November 17, 2004, Annan accepted a report clearing UN Under-Secretary-General
for Internal Oversight Services Dileep Nair of graft and sexual harassment
charges, some viewed as retaliation against Nair for supporting the complainant
in the Lubbers affair. Still, clearance was not viewed favorably by some UN
staff in New York, leading to extensive debate on November 19.
Administration of the Oil-for-Food Programme
In December 2004, reports surfaced that the Secretary-General's son Kojo
received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection SA, which won a
lucrative contract under the UN Oil-for-Food Programme. Kofi Annan called for an
investigation into this matter.
The Independent Inquiry Committee into The United Nations Oil-for-Food Programme
was appointed by Annan and led by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul
Volcker, in spite of the latter's strong ideological ties to the UN as director
of the United Nations Association of the United States of America. 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 October 27, the
committee exonerated Kofi Annan of any illegal actions, but found fault with the
UN management structure and the Security Council oversight. It strongly
recommended a new position of Chief Operating Officer to handle the fiscal and
administrative responsibilities which currently fall to the Secretary General's
office. The report listed the companies, both Western and Middle Eastern, who
illegally benefited from the program. Some believe the committee and its outcome
to have been politically motivated.
Conflict between the United States and the United Nations
Kofi Annan supported his deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, who openly
criticized the United States media in a speech on June 6, 2006: 'The prevailing
practice of seeking to use the U.N. 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 U.N. one way or another.'[3] US ambassador John
R. Bolton said to Annan on the phone: 'I've known you since 1989 and I'm telling
you this is the worst mistake by a senior U.N. official that I have seen in that
entire time.'[4] Indeed, Richard Holbrooke, in his article “Authentically
Liberal” in the journal Foreign Affairs (July/August 2006, Vol. 85, Number 4)
alleges that “The new breed of 'neoconservative' has a reflexive horror of most
forms of international institutions: whereas Jeane Kirkpatrick supports
strengthening the United Nations through reform, for instance, most younger 'neoconservatives'
would like to see the organization weakened or abolished.”[citation needed].
Annan's recommendations for U.N. reform
On March 21, 2005, Annan presented a progress report, In Larger Freedom, to the
UN General Assembly. Annan recommended Security Council expansion and a host of
other UN reforms.[5]
On March 7, 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
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