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Security Council Nominates Secretary General Kofi Annan for Second Term as UN Chief - UN Secretary General - Global Policy Forum Security Council Nominates Secretary General
Kofi Annan for Second Term as UN ChiefBy Edith M. Lederer
Associated Press
June 27, 2001
The U.N. Security Council nominated Secretary-General Kofi Annan by acclamation for a second term at the helm of the United Nations on Wednesday, paving the way for his election by the 189-member General Assembly. ''The Security Council at a private meeting has decided to recommend Mr. Kofi Annan for a second term for appointment by the General Assembly,'' council president Anwarul Chowdhury of Bangladesh announced. ''The decison was taken by acclamation with support of all members of the council.'' Annan's nomination was a far cry from 1996 when the United States blocked his predecessor, Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt, from serving another five years.
Rich and impoverished nations on the 15-member council joined in supporting Annan, whose term expires Dec. 31, months earlier than usual. The General Assembly is expected to formally elect him on Friday. Chowdhury called it ''a very momentous decision'' and a ''recognition of the very excellent work that Kofi Annan has done.'' Traditionally, the U.N.'s top job rotates every 10 years by region, and Africa should in theory be handing over the spacious office on the 38th floor of the U.N. Secretariat building to Asia on Jan. 1. But Annan will remain in the job, giving Africa an unprecedented 15 years at the helm of the world body.
In an organization renowned for legendary battles over the choice of secretary-generals, the 63-year-old son of a Ghanaian businessman has had a remarkably easy ride on the road to a second term. The 53-nation African group after testing the waters for any signs of opposition, especially from one of the five veto-wielding Security Council members announced in March it was backing him for another five years. A week later Annan announced his candidacy. The 50-nation Asian group badly divided on a candidate of its own then praised his ''exemplary leadership,'' all but clearing the way for this week's vote.
When Annan became the seventh U.N. secretary-general on Jan. 1, 1997, the world body was under attack on many fronts and at odds with the United States, which viewed Boutros-Ghali as anti-American. ''When he arrived, there was the idea that the U.N. had reached rock bottom,'' said Mats Berdal, director of studies at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The United Nations had failed to prevent or stop the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the July 1995 Serb slaughter of Muslims in the U.N.-declared ''safe zone'' of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia. The legacy of the failed U.N. peacekeeping mission on Somalia also lingered, particularly in the United States, which lost 18 soldiers in a botched U.S. raid in the capital Mogadishu in 1993, he said. But nearly five years later, the United Nations is playing major peacekeeping roles on several continents with missions in Ethiopia-Eritrea, East Timor and Kosovo. Elsewhere in Africa, U.N. peacekeepers are trying to help the government of Sierra Leone enforce a cease-fire, and to end the continent's largest war in Congo.
While Boutros-Ghali asked tough questions and was ''very undiplomatic, causing all sorts of offense left, right, and center,'' Annan is ''a consensus builder'' and has been more effective, Berdal said. ''I think he's been a good secretary-general,'' said Jeane Kirkpatrick, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under former President Ronald Reagan. ''I think he's a reasonable and a sensible man, and he's not anti-American.''
Annan used his first term to focus global attention on Africa's conflicts, poverty and the AIDS epidemic now the focus of an unprecedented three-day AIDS conference which concludes Wednesday. He has also trimmed U.N. bureaucracy and spearheaded an overhaul of peacekeeping operations. He won praise for those initiatives, but has also been criticized for trying to negotiate with Saddam Hussein and for standing by as U.N. peacekeepers were kidnapped by Sierra Leone rebels, among other things. Still, his calming style of leadership has been a welcome force at the United Nations. He was the first secretary-general elected from the ranks of the U.N. staff, having served as undersecretary-general for peacekeeping when he was tapped for the top job.
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