Kofi Annan, UN chief who condemned Blair’s Iraq War, dies aged 80
KOFI ANNAN, the former UN Secretary-General renowned for his soft-spoken diplomacy with world leaders in times of crisis, died early yesterday at a clinic in Geneva, Switzerland, at the age of 80.
His last public appearance was in Harare, Zimbabwe, last month when he appealed for a peaceful poll before the general election. Observers said at the time that Mr Annan seemed hesitant as he delivered a speech and appeared unwell.
It was said he had flu-like symptoms. As chairman of The Elders, an international group of diplomats brought together by Nelson Mandela, Mr Annan was there to urge Zimbabweans to bring lasting peace to their country.
He said a new wave of freedom was possible. ‘We can all feel the swell. Catch this wave,’ he said.
Mr Annan was an outspoken critic of Tony Blair’s decision to join US forces in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. A week before the invasion he warned that military action would violate the UN Security Council’s charter.
He had earlier said that an invasion would lead to a breakdown in international order and that there should have been a second UN resolution authorising war on Iraq.
In September 2004 he went further and condemned the invasion as illegal. In an interview with the BBC World Service he said: ‘The invasion was not sanctioned’ and ‘not in accordance with the UN’s founding charter.’
Asked outright if it was illegal, he said: ‘Yes, if you wish. I have indicated it was not in conformity with UN charters. From our point of view and from the charter’s point of view it was illegal.’
Mr Annan was born into an aristocratic family of Ashanti tribal chiefs in Kumasi, Ghana, in 1938. He is still revered there as a Ghanaian who never forgot his roots and who maintained contact with his local community throughout his life.
He attended college in Kumasi, then won a Ford Foundation scholarship to Minnesota, in the US, where he gained a degree in economics in 1961. He started his career at the World Health Organisation, going on to join the United Nations in New York where he was to serve as a diplomat for most of his adult life.
In 1990 he negotiated the release of hostages in Iraq after Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait.
He persisted in efforts to achieve peace in Iraq and was appointed Secretary-General of the UN in 1997, the first black person to take the top job. Two years later he held talks with Hussein.
He is widely acknowledged as having revolutionised the UN’s top-heavy bureaucracy and prioritised human rights, climate change and the need for equality in the world economy.
In 2001 Mr Annan was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the UN for bringing new life to its peacekeeping initiatives.
He was given an honorary knighthood by the Queen in a private audience at Buckingham Palace in 2007, the year when he left the UN and set up his Kofi Annan Foundation dedicated to promoting better governance in ‘a fairer, more peaceful world’.
He headed talks to establish peace in Kenya after post-election violence in 2017 when more than 1,000 people were killed. Elsewhere in Africa Mr Annan worked to combat an HIV/AIDS epidemic, urging the free distribution of anti-retroviral medication.
Two years ago he led a UN commission investigating the Rohingya massacres in Myanmar.
Mr Annan published his memoirs, Interventions: A Life In War And Peace in 2012.
He married twice and leaves two children, a daughter Ama and a son Kojo.
A statement from the Kofi Annan Foundation yesterday said: ‘Wherever there was suffering or need he reached out and touched many people with his deep compassion and empathy.’
‘He touched many with his deep compassion’