Soft-Spoken Ghanaian Could Deliver Diplomatic Solution on Iraq

February 18, 1998 - 0:0
UNITED NATIONS - Kofi Annan, the soft-spoken Ghanaian UN secretary-general who is preparing for a Baghdad mission, is the man on whom the world's hopes now rest for a diplomatic solution to the UN crisis with Iraq. Annan, 59, has gained a reputation as a cautious and pragmatic diplomat since taking over from Boutros Boutros-Ghali as UN chief in January last year.

Where the abrasive Boutros-Ghali was not afraid of direct conflict with the United States, the main UN contributor but also its biggest debtor, Annan is a consensus-builder. He acts at crucial moments only with the blessing of Washington, where his friend Madeleine Albright, the former UN ambassador, is now secretary of state. In the two most serious crises for the United Nations since last year, Annan endorsed U.S. proposals to end a standoff with Democratic Republic of Congo to ensure acceptance of a UN human rights probe, and awaited Washington's answer before deciding on his mission to Baghdad this week.

However, he has also taken pains to avoid alienating Iraq, and stressed last week in a pointed remark directed at Washington that we should not insist on humiliating the Iraqis. Annan has had previous experience in dealing with Baghdad. He negotiated the repatriation of over 900 international staff and the release of Western hostages in Iraq following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

And in 1991, he persuaded the Iraqi government to agree to discussions on an oil-for-food humanitarian arrangement which would ease the impact of UN sanctions on the Iraqi population. One month after taking office, Annan said that he had started the job imagining that the secretary-general was chief administrative officer with a diplomatic role and a moral voice. But, he has since discovered, I am a cheer leader, I am a promoter, I am a salesman, I am a debt collector, I am a father confessor and there are aspects I still have to discover.

Boutros-Ghali used to say that the UN chief's role was also as scapegoat, when the Security Council big powers needed somebody to blame. Annan is the first UN chief to have risen through UN ranks to become the world's top diplomat. As a manager, he had experience in administration, budgetary matters, finance and personnel. As a diplomat, he was involved in refugee issues and served as head of the UN Peacekeeping Department from May 1993 until his appointment as UN chief.

Although as undersecretary-general for peacekeeping he was in charge of the biggest UN peacekeeping effort in UN history in Bosnia, Somalia and Angola he also presided over the biggest UN peacekeeping failures. But in an indication of Annan's diplomatic skills, nobody sought to pin the blame on him. Annan is a popular figure at UN headquarters, where his warm personal style has won fans.

But detractors say that he lacks the vision of his predecessor at a time when the United Nations is increasingly marginalized as a player in major crises. Annan held back until this month before taking an active role in attempting to resolve the four-month old Iraq-UN crisis over weapons inspections. He offered his good offices on February 2 to the 15-nation Security Council, which is the master of the UN Special Commission tasked with disarming Iraq (UNSCOM), after assuring himself that the United States would not object.

Aides say that he had in mind his predecessor Javier Perez de Cuellar's fruitless last-ditch mission to Baghdad in January 1991, in which the Peruvian diplomat failed to avert the Persian Gulf war. Annan has made it clear that he will travel to Baghdad only if he is sure he can negotiate a workable solution acceptable to the big powers and to Iraq. (AFP)