SECRETARY-GENERAL'S TRIP TO WASHINGTON, D.C., 7 - 8 MAY
Press Release
SG/T/2178
SECRETARY-GENERAL'S TRIP TO WASHINGTON, D.C., 7 - 8 MAY
19990517 Secretary-General Kofi Annan began his visit to Washington, D.C., on Friday, 7 May, by meeting with United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at the State Department.That same evening, the Secretary-General attended the Howard University Commencement Dinner, hosted by University President and Mrs. H. Patrick Swygert. The dinner was given in honour of the Secretary-General as the 1999 Commencement Orator and recipient of the honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.
On Saturday morning, 8 May, the Secretary-General was greeted at his hotel and escorted to Howard University by Louis E. Sterling, III, a junior finance major from Chicago, Illinois, and the 1999 Truman Scholar. (The Truman Scholarship programme, set up as a federal memorial to United States President Harry S. Truman, selects students nationwide who plan to pursue careers in government or public service, who demonstrate leadership, and intellectual and analytical abilities.)
Before the commencement exercises, President Swygert showed the Secretary-General photographs of Ralph Bunche, former United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs and former chair of the Howard University Political Science Department. The Secretary-General also answered questions from the press on the Kosovo crisis. He expressed deep regret that "the international community, despite months of diplomatic efforts, failed to prevent this disaster". He added, "What gives me hope is that a universal sense of outrage has been provoked."
At the commencement ceremony, the Secretary-General was presented with the honorary Degree of Humane Letters. He then delivered the keynote address (issued as Press Release SG/SM/6983*), in which he noted that many Africans had left Howard University to make "major contributions to their countries and to the world". He described Ralph Bunche as one of the greatest men ever to serve the United Nations, noting that, throughout his career in the service of world peace, he "exemplified the highest values of the United Nations Charter".
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On the situation in Africa, he said, "For too long, conflict in Africa has been seen as inevitable or intractable, or both. It is neither. Conflict in Africa, as everywhere, is caused by human action, and can be ended by human action."
After the commencement ceremony, the Secretary-General met with United States National Security Advisor Sandy Berger at the White House.
The Secretary-General left Washington for New York early Saturday afternoon.
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