ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND, 18 - 20 OCTOBER 2004
Secretary-General Kofi Annan flew on Monday morning, 18 October, from Dublin to Londonderry, Northern Ireland, to deliver a lecture at the University of Ulster on the lessons of peacebuilding.
Addressing the audience of about 200 students, professors and members of the local community, he was quick to point out that his observations on peace-building should not be taken as an oblique reference to the problems in Northern Ireland. “You have been managing those without help from the United Nations”, he said. “You have well–established mechanisms to do so.” He added that Northern Ireland efforts to establish peace have been a source of inspiration and hope to others.
Since the end of the cold war, he said, the United Nations has been asked to do more than just keep the peace in fractured and war-torn societies. Increasingly, it is being tasked to engage in conflict resolution, helping people work together to build a lasting peace.
The United Nations’ record in peace-building over the past 15 years has been mixed, with successes in Namibia, Eastern Slavonia, Guatemala and Timor-Leste offset by more highly publicized failures in Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Angola. “So there are no easy lessons”, he observed.
He then laid out nine lessons the United Nations has learned during this period, starting with knowing when to say no. “We should be especially careful not to allow ourselves to be used as a fig leaf for lack of political will by the international community to deal effectively with an issue”, he said.
He elaborated on the other nine lessons –- “know where you’re going”; “know the context”; “never neglect security”; “manage expectations”; “stay the course”; “get the sequencing right”; “keep everyone on the same page”; and finally, “let the local population take responsibility –- it is they who must live with the peace”. (See Press Release SG/SM/9549.)
He then took a number of questions from the audience. One man asked whether, after the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and the ongoing conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, we might not be seeing what Samuel Huntington predicted a few years ago, namely a “clash of civilizations”.
The Secretary-General responded, “We need to be able to explain ... that our quarrel ... is not with Islam or the Islamic world, it’s with certain extremists in Islam”. He emphasized the importance of dialogue; if you have it, he said, “you will be able to avoid the clash of civilizations”.
He concluded: “We need to reach out and talk to each other. We need to get across that Islam is not represented by the killers”.
He then flew via Belfast to London.
In advance of his meeting with Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary-General issued a statement saying that he would discuss with Mr. Brown the following year’s General Assembly summit at which progress would be assessed on meeting the Millennium Development Goals adopted in 2000. In the statement, he also said that he would call on Mr. Brown and the United Kingdom Government to use the upcoming United Kingdom presidencies of the Group of Eight and the European Union to work for the political breakthrough and additional resources necessary to achieve those Goals. He added that he supports serious consideration of the Chancellor’s proposal for an international finance facility capable of doubling aid flows to developing countries to $100 billion a year. (See Press Release SG/SM/9546.)
The Secretary-General initially met with the Chancellor one on one for about 15 minutes before joining the rest of their delegations.
In the full meeting, the Secretary-General and the Chancellor discussed the follow-up to the Doha round of trade negotiations. The Secretary-General explained his plan to come forward with two reports in the spring of 2005, one on the recommendations of the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change and the other on the status of implementation of the Millennium Development Goals.
They discussed other events taking place leading up to the summit during the 60th anniversary General Assembly meeting in September 2005.
They also reviewed the status of funding for the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and ways to increase that funding.
They exchanged views on the current world economy, the impact of oil prices and the role of emerging economies among developing countries.
On Tuesday morning, 19 October, the Secretary-General met with United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. They talked to the press afterwards, saying they had discussed Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Israel-Palestine, and United Nations reform, among other topics.
One journalist asked the Secretary-General whether, given what he had said about the illegality of the Iraq war, if he now thinks Iraq is a better place since the fall of Saddam Hussein. He replied, “I think what is important is that, as an international community, we all have an interest in the stability of Iraq, regardless of where we stood before the war or what we think about the reasons for the war. I think all our efforts should go into stabilizing Iraq and helping the Iraqis take charge of their own destiny, economic and political, and move forward”.
He went on, “I think no country, regardless of its political philosophy, its position on this, can afford to see a problematic Iraq in the middle of that region. So all hands on deck; let’s do whatever we can to support the Iraqi people”.
In answer to a question on concerns he might have about military action in Fallujah, the Secretary-General opined that “in these kinds of situations, you have two wars going on; you have the war for the minds and hearts of people, as well as efforts to try and bring down the violence and the two have to go together”.
The Secretary-General then returned to his hotel, where he met with roughly 17 leaders of non-governmental organizations. They asked him what they could do to further his agenda to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The Secretary-General urged them to press governments to coordinate their aid, trade and debt policies to try and reach those Goals. They discussed ways to hold governments accountable for commitments of assistance that they make and too often do not keep. And they touched on security and development, stressing the need to preserve “humanitarian space” to allow aid workers to function in conflict zones.
The Secretary-General next went to BuckinghamPalace for an audience with the Queen.
At midday he had a working lunch with Prime Minister Tony Blair. They discussed Iraq, Sudan, African development, climate change, Iran, and the Middle East. The two of them met briefly with the press afterwards. When asked if he was disappointed that more countries had not offered troops to secure United Nations personnel, the Secretary-General responded that he hoped more governments would, noting that “it’s the same governments who are asking me to send in my civilian staff who are not going to give any troops to protect them”.
He then attended a meeting with Secretary of State for International Development, Hilary Benn. They discussed the Sudan from both the humanitarian and political point of view, the security situation in Iraq and the impact on the delivery of assistance, the Millennium Development Goals and the 2005 General Assembly summit to assess progress and finally, Somalia.
Following that meeting, he met with about a dozen Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament. They discussed a wide range of issues, including Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East, United Nations reform, Haiti, Sudan, and Kosovo.
The Secretary-General traditionally meets with opposition figures on his official visits. His last appointment of his visit to the United Kingdom was with Charles Kennedy, leader of the opposition Liberal Democrats. They discussed Iraq, the Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, Afghanistan, Iran and the Darfur region of the Sudan.
The Secretary-General departed London for New York on Wednesday, 20 October.