Kofi Annan, UN chief who won Nobel Peace Prize, dies at 80
Snippets:
Mr Kofi Annan, the soft-spoken Ghanaian diplomat who served as the first United Nations secretary-general from sub-Saharan Africa, has died. Mr Annan died on Saturday (Aug 18) after an unspecified short illness, according to a statement from his family and the Kofi Annan Foundation. He was 80.
Peacekeeping Push
“A lot of his time as secretary-general was devoted to redeeming both the UN’s battered reputation and his own,” said Mr Richard Gowan, a fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “Annan and his advisers managed to nurse UN operations back to life, and launch new blue missions in trouble spots like Congo and Liberia.
Syrian Uprising
In his 2012 memoir, Interventions: A Life In War And Peace, Mr Annan wrote that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s response to the popular uprising “confirmed my more troubling suspicion that he was a man beholden to a small group of Alawite security officers and willing to employ any means to retain power”.
Joins UN
After graduation in 1962, Mr Annan joined the World Health Organisation, a UN agency, as a budget officer before leaving to earn a master’s degree in management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1971.
Accepts Responsibility
In his memoir, Mr Annan accepts responsibility, and writes that the UN “had no genuine, deep expertise on the country”. Months after the Rwandan massacre, UN troops stood by as more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Serbian paramilitary units in the town of Srebrenica. Mr Annan later apologised.
Volcker’s Inquiry
An inquiry led by former US Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker found in September 2005 that Mr Annan knew about Saddam Hussein’s corruption of the almost US$70 billion (S$96 billion) programme and did little to stop the illegal activity. Mr Annan “maintained a passive attitude and made no serious effort to curtail the surcharge scheme”, His response to the smuggling “reveals a pattern of inaction and inadequate disclosure”. He finished his term at the end of 2006. After the UN, Mr Annan, set up the Kofi Annan Foundation, which works to promote good global governance and peace.
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/former-un-chief-kofi-annan-dead-at-80
I wonder how many foundations we can find from individuals in these world organizations, interesting.