ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN MOZAMBIQUE, 8-12 JULY
Secretary-General Kofi Annan left Switzerland in the evening of Monday, 7 July, and arrived in Maputo, Mozambique at midday on Tuesday, where he was due to attend the African Union Summit and hold meetings in the margins with a number of African leaders. High on his agenda were the efforts to restore peace and stability to Liberia and to get the peace process in the Democratic Republic of the Congo back on track.
On Tuesday afternoon, he and his senior staff were briefed on current developments at the African Union meeting, which had been taking place at the ministerial level, by the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Tuliameni Kalomoh. In the evening, he met with Oluyemi Adeniji, the former United Nations Special Representative in Sierra Leone who just that day was sworn in as the new Foreign Minister of Nigeria, and Gen. Abdelsalami Abubakar, former Nigerian Head of State, and Special Envoy for Liberia for the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). They prepared the agenda for a meeting scheduled for the next day among ECOWAS leaders to discuss the next steps in the Liberian peace process.
On Wednesday morning, the Secretary-General conferred with his Special Advisor, Mohammed Sahnoun, before leaving for the Villa of Ghanaian President John Kufuor. The Ghanaian leader then hosted an ECOWAS principals-only meeting on Liberia. Also attending were President Olesegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, President Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone, the Foreign Ministers of Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea and Nigeria, as well as Gen. Abubakar.
They discussed transitional arrangements for the peaceful transfer of power in Liberia and the role of a possible multi-national peacekeeping force there. They also reviewed the status of the ECOWAS joint verification team which was trying to get into Liberia from Sierra Leone to verify the ceasefire.
At midday he went to the Presidential Palace to meet for almost an hour with Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, who was about to assume the Presidency of the African Union. They discussed the current Union meeting and a series of African issues, from Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Madagascar and the situation between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
At a press encounter afterwards, the Secretary-General made an appeal to Africans everywhere to unite behind the fight against HIV/AIDS and to “end the stigma and discrimination that is attached to this disease”. In response to a question on Liberia and the possibility of the United States sending troops there, the Secretary-General said that the immediate challenge had been taken up by ECOWAS with the full support of the African Union. He applauded the African leaders who took such energetic action to try and resolve the Liberian issue but, he added, the United Nations and the larger international community, “including the United States, and the United States in particular”, would have to help. The United States hasn’t indicated firmly exactly what it is going to do and the nature of its contribution, he added, “but I expect it to take the right decision and grant support to the effort”.
In the afternoon, he met with his senior advisors, K.Y. Amoako, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, and Ibrahim Gambari, Special Adviser for Africa. He then saw the head of the International Department of the Community of St. Egidio before meeting with the heads of United Nations agencies who were attending the African Union summit.
That evening, he had a tête-à-tête meeting with South African President Thabo Mbeki.
On Thursday morning, the Secretary-General addressed an African Union Heads of State prayer breakfast.
“Our faiths tell us”, he said, “that it is possible to cherish what we are without hating what we are not. But our experience tells us that the peoples of the world, as they struggle to earn their daily bread, are sometimes fed a diet of ignorance, fear and brutality”.
“Sadly”, he went on, “so-called men of religion sometimes invoke the name of God to justify violence against their fellow human beings”.
“But I believe we have a duty”, he concluded, “to love those of our faiths, those of other faiths and those of no faith. As leaders, we must summon the moral courage to stand against those who encourage violence and hatred. Instead”, he told the Heads of State, “we must point the way to tolerance, understanding and peaceful resolution of conflict”. (See press release SG/SM/8777.)
He then travelled to the Conference Centre for the opening of the second session of the Assembly of the African Union. After the opening address by the outgoing African Union President, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, and the incoming President, Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, the Secretary-General was invited to speak.
The birth of the African Union, he said, reflects an historic reaffirmation that “Africa itself bears the primary responsibility for shaping its faith and future; and that the best way –- the only way –- for Africa to carry out that mission is to unite around the needs and aspirations of your people”.
He called on the developed countries to do more for Africa, in the areas of aid, lifting tariffs and subsidies, offering greater debt relief and providing yet stronger support for the fight against AIDS.
He urged African leaders to work for an integrated strategy of peaceful settlements and to “convince the young people of the continent that the lives and safety of their fellow Africans are sacrosanct, and that there can be no substitute for the fruit of peace”.
Lasting peace is sustainable, he said, “only if accompanied by democratic transformation and good governance”, he emphasized. “If the term limits are necessary to make this possible, so be it”, he said.
He laid particular emphasis on the lethal impact of AIDS, saying the fight against the disease is vital to the efforts to build a stronger Africa, and urged the African leaders to make “the fight against AIDS a priority second to none”.
He pledged United Nations support for a range of objectives, from African education to governance and from agricultural development to the fight against AIDS. On the political level, he said the United Nations would work in partnership with the African Union as it develops key institutions, strengthening African peace-building and conflict resolution capacity. He also said the United Nations would work to ensure that “the new peace and security architecture for Africa benefits from enhanced African peacekeeping capabilities”. (See Press Release SG/SM/8778.)
On Thursday afternoon, he began a series of meetings in the margins of the Summit, starting with Tunisian Foreign Minister Habib Ben Yahia, with whom he discussed regional issues, as well as the importance of support for the Middle East “Road Map”. They also touched on Iraq.
After that, he met with the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Secretariat, Don McKinnon, talking with him about Zimbabwe, including the land reform plan which the Secretary-General and the United NationsDevelopment Programme had proposed. The Secretary-General then had a tête-à-tête meeting with President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone. They also discussed Zimbabwe.
He then met with the Foreign Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Antoine Ghonda, who was accompanied by representatives of two former parties to the conflict, as well as by a political counsellor to President Joseph Kabila. The Secretary-General congratulated them on the formation of a transitional national Government, but emphasized that the fighting in the DRC has to stop. He added that he was disappointed that President Kabila did not come to Maputo, where he had hoped to have a summit on the DRC. The next opportunity for such a summit could be at the General Assembly in September 2003, he said.
After these meetings, the Secretary-General, in a joint tête-à-tête, discussed the situation in Zimbabwe with the Presidents of Nigeria and South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki respectively.
On Thursday evening, he attended a banquet hosted by President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique.
The Secretary-General began his final day in Maputo with a working breakfast hosted by President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, who called together representatives of the eight Heads of State who two years earlier had formed a group to champion the fight against AIDS in Africa. They reviewed progress to date and discussed a work plan for the coming year.
He then returned to the Conference Centre, where he continued to hold bilateral meetings in the margins of the African Union Summit.
He first had a one-on-one meeting with his Representative for Burundi, Berhanu Dinka.
He then saw the Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), Dr. Peter Piot, to discuss tighter coordination between the United Nations and the Global Fund against AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis for the most efficient and effective use of the increased resources now beginning to flow for the effort to control the AIDS pandemic.
The Director General of the World Trade Organization, Supachai Panitchpakdi, then called on him. They discussed the efforts by multinational pharmaceutical firms to make available at low cost AIDS medication to developing countries and emphasized that there should be no slippage in this campaign. The Secretary-General asked Mr. Supachai to join him at a meeting with pharmaceutical executives that he is planning for later in the year, and Supachai agreed. They also discussed the impact of agricultural subsidies by developed countries on poor economies and problems created by tariffs levied by both rich and poor countries alike.
The Secretary-General then brought together the leaders of Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and President Omar Bongo, respectively, to discuss a long-standing territorial issue. They agreed to settle it amicably with the support of the Secretary-General.
With President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, the Secretary-General discussed the situation in neighbouring Burundi, where a splinter rebel group, the Palipehutu-FNL, which has refused to negotiate a ceasefire, had been shelling the capital, Bujumbura, over the past three days. They considered ways to encourage the group to implement a ceasefire and join the Government.
He later met with the Foreign Minister of Burundi, Terence Sinunguruza. The Minister raised the issue of the bombardment of his capital and the failure of a second group, the CNDD-FDD (Nkrunziza), to honour a ceasefire agreement signed last December.
The President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, raised with the Secretary-General the security situation in his country. They then reviewed the peace efforts in Somalia and the Sudan, where Kenya plays a lead role.
The Secretary-General then met the Prime Minister of Guinea-Bissau, Alamara Intchia Nhasse, who renewed his country’s request for electoral assistance for elections scheduled for 12 October. The Secretary-General assured him that the United Nations would help. They also discussed the role of the United Nations peace-building office in the country.
The Secretary-General and Ghanaian President John Kufuor then held a one-on-one meeting.
His last meeting of the morning was with the Foreign Minister of Liberia, Monie Captan, who thanked the Secretary-General warmly for his efforts to restore stability to Liberia. The Secretary-General said he would be discussing Liberia in Washington on Monday in his meetings with President Bush and other United States officials.
When asked about Liberia at a press encounter on leaving the Conference Centre, the Secretary-General said that there had been a good discussion among West African leaders about that country, and that he was hopeful that the Economic Community of West African States would send in troops in the not-too-distant future.
He also said that he would meet with United States President George W. Bush in Washington, D.C., the following Monday to discuss Liberia, among other issues, adding, “If President Bush were to decide United States troops should join the force, I hope it wouldn’t take them too long either to join”.
In the afternoon, the Secretary-General visited an AIDS clinic at Matola, on the outskirts of Maputo, run by the Catholic Order of St. Egidio, which has done a remarkable job in dealing with mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The clinic houses some 300 HIV-positive pregnant mothers; but, following treatment with anti-retroviral drugs, only three out of 151 babies born at the clinic have been diagnosed as HIV-positive.
A baby boy was born at the clinic as the visit was taking place, and the Secretary-General met with the mother, telling her that his own name, Kofi, means “a boy born on Friday”. The mother decided to name the boy Kofi.
The Secretary-General told the workers at the AIDS clinic, “This is our fight, and let’s all move ahead and win this fight”.
Mr. Annan returned to New York on Saturday, 12 July.