Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
| ||||||||||||
Africa Leaders Greedy - Annan
Agence-France Presse
April 2000
London - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has made a stinging attack on Africa's political leaders, accusing them of avarice, megalomania and failure to work towards better living conditions in their countries.
"The quality of the leaders, the misery they have brought to their people and my inability to work with them to turn the situation around are very depressing," Annan declared.
"Unless we find a way of getting them to focus on resolving conflicts and turn to key issues of economic and social development, the efforts that we are all making will be for naught."
The UN boss made the attack in an interview with the Sunday Times while reacting to complaints by Ethiopia that the International Community has been slow in assisting its famine stricken people. Annan defended the international community and alluded that Addis Ababa may be partly to blame for delays in food relief. He maintained that a swift response was made but distribution impeded by a sporadic border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
"The World Food Programme wants to use the Eritrean port of Massawa for supplies, but it is closed by war," he said. Around 8m people in Ethiopia are estimated to be facing starvation. According to UNICEF, around 900,000 tonnes of emergency food supplies are urgently needed.
More Information on the Secretary General FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C ß 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
