ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN WASHINGTON, D.C., 1-3 DECEMBER

Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Washington, D.C., on Sunday, 1 December, where the following day he would participate in discussion with scholars of the Woodrow Wilson Center.

On Monday, prior to that discussion, Mr. Annan briefly addressed some

60 fellows and staff of the Center.  In his comments, he said that the Center served as a living memorial to the vision of Woodrow Wilson, who did perhaps more than any other American to inspire the idea of the United Nations.  As members of the Center, he added, “you are also carrying forward the belief that a world of laws, and a world of order based on multinational cooperation, is a world where all States pursue their aims in peace”.

In answer to a question from the Center’s Director, former United States Congressman Lee Hamilton, on the current crisis in Iraq, the Secretary-General said “we hope that if [the inspectors] are able to get the full cooperation of the Iraqis […] the arguments for war will be considerably diminished and that we may be able to resolve this issue without conflict”.

The Secretary-General then met for over an hour for an off-the-record discussion with four of the Center’s research directors.  The discussion included issues of nuclear non-proliferation, globalization, water, and the relevance of cold war archival research.

On Monday evening, the Secretary-General was the keynote speaker at the hundredth anniversary dinner of the Pan American Health Organization -– known as PAHO.

In his speech, he noted the many advances in the field of public health which have reduced misery, stimulated economic growth, built stronger societies and enabled the Americas to modernize and engage with the global marketplace.  This, the Secretary-General said, is a record that PAHO should be proud of.

But he added that the region still faces an enormous backlog of health-related despair.  “The Caribbean”, he said, “has one of the highest HIV rates outside of Africa, and violence, particularly against women and children, continues to be a leading cause of physical problems and mental trauma”.

He called on PAHO and its supporters to be creative in solving existing health issues.  He noted, for example, the need to work with pharmaceutical companies to secure wider and more affordable access to medication.  See press release SG/SM/8538.

The Secretary-General returned to New York early on Tuesday morning, 3 December.