World mourns passing of Koi Annan
ANNAN PASSES AWAY
GENEVA: Former UN chief and Nobel peace laureate Kofi Annan died on Saturday at the age of 80, triggering a flood of tributes from around the world for the “diplomatic rock star.”
The Ghanaian national was a career diplomat who projected quiet charisma and was widely credited for raising the world body’s profile in global politics during his two terms as head of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006.
“It is with immense sadness that the Annan family and the Kofi Annan Foundation announce that Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Laureate, passed away peacefully on Saturday 18th August after a short illness,” the foundation said in a statement.
“His wife Nane and their children Ama, Kojo and Nina were by his side during his last days.”
Annan, who lived not far from the UN European headquarters in Geneva, died in hospital in the German-speaking part of the country, Swiss news agency ATS reported.
The UN said it would fly flags at half mast at all of its locations around the world through Tuesday.
And Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-addo announced a week of mourning for “one of our greatest compatriots.”
Current UN chief Antonio Guterres described his predecessor as “a guiding force for good.”
“In many ways, Kofi Annan was the United Nations,” he said.
“He rose through the ranks to lead the organisation into the new millennium with matchless dignity and determination.”
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said Annan was “a friend to thousands and a leader of millions.”
Another Nobel laureate, retired South African archbishop Desmond Tutu, described Annan as “an outstanding human being who represented our continent and the world with enormous graciousness, integrity and distinction.”
GENEVA: Former UN Secretarygeneral and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Koi Annan DIED on Saturday at the age of 80, his foundation said, after decades of championing efforts to try to END protracted Conlicts In Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Annan, a Ghanaian national, died in hospital in Bern, Switzerland, in the early hours, his close associates said.
In GENEVA, THE Koi Annan Foundation announced his peaceful death after a short undisclosed illness with “immense sadness”, saying he was surrounded in his last days by his second wife Nane and children Ama, Kojo and Nina.
After rising through the ranks of the United Nations, Annan served two terms as UN Secretary-general in New York from 1997-2006 and retired to live in a Swiss village in the Geneva countryside. His 10-year-old foundation promotes good governance and the transformation of African agriculture.
“In many ways, Koi Annan was THE United Nations. He rose through the ranks to lead the organisation into the new millennium with matchless dignity and determination,” UN Secretary-general Antonio Guterres, whom Annan had chosen to head the UN refugee agency, said in a statement.
Annan and the United Nations shared the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize for efforts to reform the world body and give priority to human rights issues.
As head of UN peacekeeping operations, Annan was criticised for the world body’s failure to halt the genocide in Rwanda in the 1990s.
As UN boss he was linked to peace efforts to reunite the divided island of Cyprus, submitting A reuniication blueprint which was rejected in a referendum by Greek Cypriots in 2004.
He staunchly opposed the Us-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and later served As THE irst UN Envoy At THE start of Syria’s war, but quit after world powErs FAILED to Fulil THEIR Commitments, saying: “I lost my troops on the way to Damascus”.
“The UN can be improved, it is not perfect but if it didn’t exist you would have to create it,” he told the BBC’S Hard Talk during an interview for his 80th birthday last April, recorded at the Geneva Graduate Institute where he had studied.
“I am a stubborn optimist, I was born an optimist and will remain an optimist,” added Annan, who often joked about having learned from locals to wear earmuffs against the freezing cold during his undergraduate years at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, in the United States.
Raila Odinga, Kenyan opposition leader and former prime minister, said on CITIZEN TV: “WE DIDN’T Expect Koi to pass that Abruptly. Koi Annan Is a man of integrity; a great African, a great leader of the world.” The Elders, a group of former leaders including Gro Harlem Brundtland and Mary Robinson, paid tribute to their inspiring chairman, noting his visits to South Africa and Zimbabwe in July.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-hussein, paid tribute to Annan as “humanity’s best example, the epitome, of human decency and grace”.
Zeid, who has criticised major powers and other countries during his four-year term that ends later this month, said that whenever he felt “isolated and alone politically”, he would go for long walks with Annan in Geneva.