Kofi Annan
Kofi Annan
Kofi Atta Annanis a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1997 to December 2006. Annan and the United Nations were the co-recipients of the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world." He is the founder and the Chairman of the Kofi Annan Foundation, as well as being the chairman of The Elders, a group founded by Nelson Mandela...
NationalityGhanaian
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth8 April 1938
CityKumasi, Ghana
CountryGhana
Today let us hear the bell ring loud and clear and true to our conscience, ... Let it ring out a century of cruelty and destruction and let it ring in a millennium of hope and peace.
Over eight years, we developed very good relations with President Clinton and Vice President Gore, and I look forward to developing the same relations with President-elect Bush,
Our systems have not kept pace with the operational demands being placed on us. This is an opportunity which may not occur again until another generation has passed.
I think we need a clear global understanding of the threats and challenges that we all have to face, because to neglect any one of them might fatally undermine our efforts to confront the others.
I think we can rein in the situation,
I think we should see a clear message in the overwhelming success of women in presidential elections over the past year: the world is ready for a woman as secretary general of the United Nations.
I think it was essential that he paid the money.
I thank you for your efforts, especially in calling for an end to agricultural subsidies and trade barriers that actually impoverish African farmers and producers,
I think this is progress, and I hope it can help us move peace processes around the world,
I think they are beginning to wake up. I will be able to make that judgement, let's say, by the end of Wednesday,
I think (the US government is) positive to our assistance from the UN and the international community ... We are prepared to do whatever we can,
I think the United States government is working very hard with the parties to move the process forward, and I urge and encourage the parties to really work with the United States government to make the compromises necessary and move the process forward,
It is a problem that is solvable, ... They (Iraq) had a chance to do it and missed it. But I hope that they are serious about solving it through diplomatic means, that they will make the right gestures.
It is a serious matter. And we shouldn't forget that the council as a whole got the resolution only last Monday, ... For them to take time and discuss this issue seriously is something we should be grateful for.