Tributes pour in for peace champion
FORMER UN secretarygeneral and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Kofi Annan has been hailed as a great leader and diplomat extraordinaire who advanced the African agenda within the UN and had “flown the flag for peace” around the world.
Annan, who became the seventh UN secretary general, died on Saturday. He was 80.
The Ghanaian diplomat was awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and was the first black African to head the UN.
He served as secretary-general from January 1997 to December 2006. UN Secretary-General António Guterres described his predecessor as a man who personified the UN and its values.
“Kofi Annan was a guiding force for good. It is with profound sadness that I learnt of his passing. In many ways, Kofi Annan was the United Nations,” said Guterres in a statement.
“Like so many, I was proud to call Kofi Annan a good friend and a mentor. He remained someone I could always turn to for counsel and wisdom, and I was not alone.”
Annan was founder and chairperson of the Kofi Annan Foundation.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said Annan’s death was a great shock and loss to the global community. At the time of his death, Annan formed part of the group of eminent persons – The Elders – whose mission was working together for peace and human rights.
Among his many passions was silencing the guns on the African continent and delivering universal health coverage.
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu said: “His passing is an unexpected and devastating loss, and Leah and I send our warmest love and deepest, deepest condolences to the Annan family.
“It was a tremendous honour and privilege to have Kofi serve as a member of The Elders during my period as chairperson, and to be succeeded by someone of his calibre.”
The Thabo Mbeki Foundation also sent condolences.
“It was with great shock that the patron of our foundation, former president Thabo Mbeki, and the rest of the foundation heard the news that the former secretarygeneral of the UN, Mr Kofi Annan had passed away,” it said.
“As the 7th UN secretary-general, Annan painstakingly used his tenure to advance peace and sustainable development while working determinedly to push back the frontiers of poverty and underdevelopment.”
KOFI Annan, the soft-spoken, consummate diplomat and highly respected former secretary-general of the United Nations, has in death managed a rare feat – to bring many world leaders to an agreement. Major international leaders – from Russia’s Vladimir Putin, the US’s Mike Pompeo, Iran’s Mohammad Javad Zarif, to Angela Merkel and Theresa May – have paid glowing tributes to a man who was the first from sub-Saharan Africa to occupy this exalted position.
Annan died on Saturday, aged 80, in Switzerland. He devoted virtually his entire career to the UN, where he served two terms as secretary-general between January 1997 and December 2006. He will be remembered as a humanitarian who spent his career trying to defuse ugly conflicts, some of which spun out of control.
The Kofi Annan Foundation summed up his legacy: “Kofi Annan was a global statesman and a deeply committed internationalist who fought throughout his life for a fairer and more peaceful world. Wherever there was suffering or need, he reached out and touched many people with his deep compassion and empathy. He selflessly placed others first, radiating genuine kindness, warmth and brilliance in all he did.”
He was no stranger to our shores, having been chairperson of The Elders – an elite group of former leaders founded by Nelson Mandela – which played a prominent role in furthering the cause of peace in many regions. Annan was in South Africa with The Elders last month to celebrate what would have been Mandela’s 100th birthday.
Among his most notable peace mediation roles on the continent was the part he played to halt the 2007 violence that tore Kenya apart during elections. As ethnic mayhem escalated, with two sides laying claim to the presidency, Annan put the combatants – Mwai Kibaki and Raila Odinga – in a room and told them: “There’s only one Kenya.”
He persuaded them to work together in a joint government, a compromise that ended the violence that had claimed more than 1 200 lives.
His enduring moral rectitude – which helped him win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001 – remained undented.