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Kofi Annan Sums Up
Kofi Annan gave his last press conference as the seventh UN secretary general on Tuesday. He will be succeeded by Ban Ki-moon at the end of the year. The press conference started somberly, when one of the first question he took from journalists was what he considered the three worst moments of his ten years in office. All three of those moments were connected with the war in Iraq.
The first worst moment Annan mentioned was the Iraq war itself, saying about it that “Governments and peoples around the world should learn from that experience and draw the right conclusions for future actions.” He then went on to mention the 2003 explosion in the UN office in Baghdad, which killed 22 employees of the organization, including head of the mission Sergio Vieira de Melo. “They were not just colleagues; they were true friends. And, I think nothing had hit me as much as – was the loss of my twin sister,” he commented. Annan's sister Efua died of an unknown illness in 1991.
Equally difficult for the secretary general was the oil-for-food program, in which more than 2000 companies from 40 countries gave bribes to the regime of Saddam Hussein. Several UN personnel were implicated in that scandal, including Annan's son Kojo. “Of course, I hope the historians will realize that the UN is more than oil-for-food. The UN is the UN that coordinates tsunami [relief], the UN that deals with the Kashmir earthquake, the UN that is pushing for equality and fighting to implement the Millennium Development Goals, the UN that is fighting for human dignity and the rights of others, and all the other aspects,” he commented.
The greatest achievements of his years in office he listed as the UN's contributions to human rights and “our determination that any inequality between states and within states should be reduced.” That was followed by the organization's role in combating infectious diseases and the Millennium Development Goals program, which aims to make education and quality medical care available and to fight poverty, hunger and infant mortality. He mentioned with satisfaction that this Monday the program received a $700-million donation from the Spanish government. “This is the largest contribution yet made to the UN for this purpose by any country, and I believe it is a splendid example of international solidarity, which I hope other members will follow,” he commented.
He advised his successor to concentrate on global warming, human rights and Africa as whole, as well as Darfur, the Arab-Israeli conflict and Iran. He ended on an upbeat when asked about the world leaders he had met. He said that “they all have their talents.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 21, 2006
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