ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN GERMANY, 11 - 13 DECEMBER
Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Berlin on Thursday, 11 December.
He held a series of meetings with top German officials, starting with Foreign Minister and Deputy Chancellor Joschka Fischer.
The Secretary-General was then welcomed with military honours by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder at the Chancellery, where he heard a band of the Federal Armed Forces play the German national anthem and the two men inspected a guard of honour.
In their meeting, they discussed Afghanistan, Iraq, Cyprus, the Middle East, next year’s conference in Bonn on renewable energy, and United Nations reform.
After that meeting, the Secretary-General told reporters at a press encounter that, as he has indicated to the parties in Cyprus, “my good offices are available the moment they show the will, the political will, to move forward and seek a settlement”.
On Iraq, he noted that, in his report issued the day before, he had asked the Coalition and the Iraqi Governing Council for clarity as to what role they expect the United Nations to play in the transition period, and had indicated the political, constitutional and humanitarian areas where the United Nations can help.
In response to a question about the decision taken the previous day to exclude Germany, France and Russia from reconstruction contracts in Iraq, the Secretary-General stressed the need for the actions being taken on Iraq to be unifying rather than divisive. “And in that respect”, he said, “I would not characterize the decision taken yesterday as unifying.”
Later in the afternoon, he held talks with German Defence Minister Peter Struck, which focused on Afghanistan and Iraq.
He and Nane Annan then held talks with President Johannes Rau accompanied by his wife Christina at their residence, Bellevue Castle, where they also signed a visitors’ book.
In the evening, the Secretary-General attended a dinner hosted by the Chancellor with Chief Executive Officers of the Global Compact companies. (See Press Release SG/SM/9074.)
Following that event, he met with Angela Merkel, leader of the Christian Democratic Opposition.
The Secretary-General then met Heskel Nathanial, who is organizing an expedition to Antarctica by four Israelis and four Palestinians in a project called “Breaking the Ice”.
Mrs. Annan, meanwhile, addressed a group of women from political and women’s organizations in a fireside chat hosted by the German United Nations Association.
On Friday morning, the Secretary-General, accompanied by Mrs. Annan, travelled from Berlin to Stuttgart -- where he was met by a group of children wearing national costume from the city’s international school -- before travelling to Tübingen, a medieval university town in south-west Germany.
Everywhere the Secretary-General went, crowds lining the streets broke out in loud applause and people looking out windows waved to the Annans. Just before delivering his lecture on global ethics at Tübingen University, he stopped in several “overflow” rooms packed with hundreds of students who all gave him energetic standing ovations.
He was introduced to the audience first by University Rector Eberhard Schaich and then by his host Dr. Hans Kung, President of the Global Ethic Foundation for Intercultural and Interreligious Research, Education and Encounter.
In his lecture, the Secretary-General emphasized the importance of universal values, including non-violence, respect for life, tolerance and equal rights. He began his lecture on global ethics, titled “Do We Still Have Universal Values?” by saying, “Let me spare you any suspense, and tell you right now that my answer is Yes!” He said that the values enshrined in the United Nations Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are no less valid today than when they were drafted half a century ago.
But he warned that we have allowed globalization to drive us further apart, increasing the disparities in wealth and power, both between societies and within them. It is not surprising that there has been a backlash, he added, in which those values have come under attack at the moment we most need them.
“So”, the Secretary-General asserted, “this is a time to reassert our universal values.” We must not allow those who attacked the United States on 11 September, 2001, to provoke a clash of civilizations between “Islam” and “the West”, as if Islamic and Western values were incompatible, he said.
He said that Muslims should not be persecuted for identifying with Palestinians or Iraqis or Chechens, whatever one thinks of their national claims or the methods used in their name. The Secretary-General added that, “no matter how strongly some of us may feel about the actions of the State of Israel, we should always show respect for the right of Israeli Jews to live in safety within the borders of their own State, and for the right of Jews everywhere to cherish that State as an expression of their national identity and survival”. (See Press Release SG/SM/9076.)
Following a discussion with Professor Kung, the Secretary-General took a few questions from the audience.
He and Mrs. Annan then walked along the Neckar River through the old town to the more than 600-year-old town hall, where Mayor Brigitte Russ-Scherer welcomed him. The Secretary-General signed the Golden Book of the City of Tübingen and in exchange presented the Mayor with “We the People’s...”, which he described as “our golden book”.
At the town hall ceremony, two sixth-grade girls welcomed the Annans. Sophie, 11, said, “We aim to help the United Nations with our projects” and 12-year-old Helen presented Mrs. Annan with flowers and recited a poem in Swedish.
Later that day, the Secretary-General met the cook at the hotel from Ghana whose grandmother has the last name Annan.
The Secretary-General left Germany for New York on Saturday, 13 December.