An hour with Kofi Annan

from the truman presidential library and museum in independence missouri kbr present an hour with kofi annan i'm kate mcintyre kofi annan is secretary general of the united nations he began his tenure in january nineteen ninety seven making him the first un staff member to be appointed secretary general in december two thousand one secretary in and receive the nobel peace prize in part for his work and bringing new life you've now the end of the second half of the fifty fifth of the fifth fleet for the family love and fifty fifty for the third fourth fifth generation and family outfits here for freedom and for it is a pleasure and a privilege to be here in missouri this almost homecoming for me nearly half a century ago houses didn't about four hundred miles north of here in minnesota

i arrived there straight from africa and i can tell you minnesota some taught me the value of overcoats and the warm skies and even that we had looking ear muffs best to an african identities when you leave home for another one home for another they're always listens to prevent and i have had morton then when i moved away from minnesota moved on from minnesota to the united nations the indispensable common outs of the untapped human family which has been my main home over the last forty four years today i want to talk to critically about five lessons which i mentioned the ten years during which i had a difficult and it seriously as eliminating jobs or pacific region

i think is especially fitting that jim i do that here in the house that honors the legacy of harry s truman it's empty out was the architect of the united nations and then president truman was the master builder and the faithful a champion of the organisation and his alias when it hot to face quite different problems from the ones that giap had expected truman's name will always and forever be associated with a memory of a farsighted american leadership integrate global and then you would see that every one of my five lessons brings me to the conclusion that says leadership it's no less sorely needed now than it was sixty years ago

my first lesson is that in today's world security of everyone the bus this link to that of everyone else that was already true in truman's time the manhole in nineteen forty five gave order for nuclear weapons to be used for the first time and lettuce hope the only time in history one distinct that security of the sun could never come all be achieved it escapes of insecurity for others and he was determined as he had told a pond and conference of the united nations in san francisco to prevent human mind heart and hope can prevent it their petition of the disaster looming in the warm from which the

entire world was some fire for years to come he believes strongly that has forced security must be collected and indivisible that was why for instance he insisted when faced with aggression by north korea against the south in nineteen fifty on bringing the issue to the united nations and placing us troops on that the un flag on the head of a multinational afford polls but how much more than two inches today to open up open world which didn't world in which we live that world where deadly weapons can be obtained novel made by rogue states but by extremist groups there were less ice or avian flu can be carried across oceans let alone national borders in a matter of hours the world where failed

states in the heart of asia or africa can become havens for terrorists a world where even the climate is changing in ways that will affect the lives of everyone on the planet against such threats it sees no one nation can make yourself sick he'll by seeking supremacy over all this we all share responsibility for each other security and only by waken to make each of their security can we hope to achieve lasting security ourselves and i want that that this responsibility to smile simply a mater of states states being ready to come to each other's aid when attacked important though that is it also includes our

shared responsibility to protect populations from genocide war crimes ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity that responsibility solemnly accepted by all nations at last year's un was something that means they're respectful national sovereignty can no longer be used us issued by government's intent on massacre in the on people or as an excuse for the rest of us to do math and twenty s crimes committed but ostrom and said if we should pay me a lip service to inspire and ids and later do violence to some protesters we would draw down upon us the bitter out of generations yet unborn and when i look oh the manta ray

starvation to with the people about for being subjected i fear that we have not gotten far beyond that said this the lesson here is that high sound and the koreans like the responsibility to protect we remain pure atomic or listen on two of those with power to intervene effectively back to certain political economic or in the last resort manager masai are prepared to take it and i believe we have a responsibility not only to our contemporaries but also to future generations a responsibility to preserve resources that belonged to them as well as to us and without which none of us can supply that means we must do much more

an agency to prevent hostile and on climate change every day that we do nothing or too little imposes higher cost on our children and our children's children medical center myself up another composer that say so but that is not ours it's a treasure withholding trust for future generations i hope my generation will be aware of that trust my second lesson is that we are not only all responsible for each of the security we got also in some measure responsible for each other's wealthy global solidarity is both necessary and possible it is necessary because without a measure of solidarity no society can be truly stable and no one's prosperity truly secure

that applies to national societies us all the great industrial democracies mention the twentieth century but it also applies to the increasingly integrated global market economy that we live in today it is not realistic to think that some people can't go on deriving great benefits from globalization while billions of the epidemic human beings i left in abject poverty or even thrown into we have to give our fellow citizens not only would they each nation but in the global community at least a chance to share in the prosperity that is why five years ago the un millennium summit adopted a sitter goes the millennium development goes to be rich by

twenty fifteen goes such us reduce them by fifty percent the proportion of people in the world who don't have clean water to drink making sure poor girls than boys received at least primary education such an infant and maternal mortality and stopping the spread of a jedi alliance much of that can only be done by governments and people in the countries themselves but richer countries to have a bite her role to play here to harry truman prudence at the pioneer proposing in nineteen forty nine in his inaugural address the program off what came to be known as development assistance our success in mobilizing done the countries to support the millennium development goes through debt relief increased foreign aid compound sits me the global solidarity

is not only necessary but possible of course foreign aid by so it is not enough today we realize that my kit taxes their terms of trade and a nondiscrimination financial system are equally vital to their chances of poor countries even in the next few weeks and months americans can make a crucial difference to many millions of people if you are prepared to save the doha round of negotiations you can do that by putting your broader national interest and that of some powerful section or lobbyists while challenging iran and allies developing countries to do this you know my dad lesson is that both security and development ultimately depended on respect for human rights and the rule of

law hold though increasingly depend interdependent all was and continues to be divided not only by economic differences but also by religion and culture that is not in itself a problem throughout history human life has been enriched by diversity and different communities have learned from each other but if five different communities how to live together in peace we must stress also what unites us our common humanity and our shared belief that human dignity and rights should be protected by law that is vital for developments to both foreign investors and that and the country's own citizens are more likely to engage in productive activity when their basic rights

are protected and they can be confident of fair treatment under law and pollitz says that generally favored economic development are much more likely to be adopted if the people most in need of development can make the other voice in short human rights and the rule of law of fighters two global security and prosperity ostrom and say and i could again we must once and for all prune by i'm scott grew city that right this might write this might thus why this country has historically been in the bomb bag of global human rights movement but that he'd come on the demented if america remains true to its principles included

in the struggle against terrorism when it appears to abundant its own ideas and objectives as friends abroad and naturally troubled and confused and states need to play it by their roots to a secure password listen to was their own citizens that can sometimes be inconvenient but ultimately what matters is not inconvenience that is doing the right thing no stage can make his own actions that it admitting that i support this and pop especially militia forces is used the world will consider a legitimate only one company is that it is used and is being used for the right picks for broadly shared claims in accordance with broadly accept it now it's not common is it anywhere selfless from too much rule of law

and many do so far from too little and the international community is someone from this must change at the us has given the world an example of democracy in which everyone including the most part from the subject today to restrict its current moment of was supremacy gifts it's a priceless opportunity to entrench the same principles of the global level as harry truman said we all have to recognize no matter how great australian that we must deny ourselves the license to do always a sweet it's my fault listen closely related to the last one is that governments must be accountable for the actions in the international recovery in the us where less in the domestic

one to david actions of one state can have a decisive impact on the lives of people in other states so does it not pose some up to those other states and the us citizens us where the strength so in i believe it does ask us things that the accountability between states this highly skewed paul andry countries are easily have to account because any foreign assistance it needs help but large and powerful states whose actions have the greatest impact or not this can be constrained only by dr cone people what i can to be a domestic institutions that gives the people in his decisions of such outpost is this special responsibility responsibility to take account of mobility

use an interest us were last national office and today they need to take into account all said that the use of what he knew and jacqueline we call non state actors i mean commercial corporations charities and pressure groups labor unions the nonprofit foundations universities and think tanks all the myriad forms in which people come together for lunch really to think about or try to change the world none of these should be allowed to substitute to serve for the state or for the democratic process by which citizens choose their government and decide policy but they all have the capacity to influence political processes and

international us well as the national level states that tried to ignore this haydn decades in this and the fact is that states can no longer if they ever could confront global challenges i do in increasingly we need to enlist the help of these other activists both unlike a notch global strategies and input in those strategies into action once agreed it all that has been one of my guiding principles of psychiatry john to get them to have to get the un to help achieve its objectives for instance to the global compact with international business which i initiated in nineteen ninety nine all the worldwide fight against polio which i hope is now in his final chapter thanks to wonderful partnership between the un family the us

centre for disease control encryption a rotary international so that says four lessons that made briefly remind you of them first we're all responsible for each of the security second we can and must give everyone a chance to benefit from global prosperity said both security and prosperity depends on human rights and the rule of law all four states must be accountable to each other and to a broad range of non state actors in the uk international conduct my fifth and final lesson that's inescapable is from those wonderful we can only

do all pieces by weight and to get them through the multilateral system and by making the best possible use of the unique instruments created to pass by harry truman and his contemporaries namely the united nations in fact it is only through multilateral institutions that states can hold each other to account and that makes it very important to organize those institutions in a fair and democratic way given the poor and the weak some influence over the actions of the rich and the strong that applies particularly to the international financial institutions such as the world bank and international monetary fund development countries should have a stronger voice in these borders whose decisions can have to live or big impact on the athlete and it also applies to un security council whose

membership still reflects the reality of nineteen forty five not of today's world that's why i have continued to press the security council reform but reform involves two separate issues one is that new members should be gotten on the feminine or long term basis to give greater representation to parts of the world which happened admitted voice today the other perhaps even more important is that all council members and especially the major parties who are permanent members must accept this pressure and responsibility that comes with the upriver gauge the security council is not just another stage on which to act out national interest that is a management committee if you were

off of legend collective security system as president truman says the responsibility of grey states is just said and not dominate the peoples of the world he showed what can be done and what can be achieved when the us seems that responsibility and still today none of our global institutions can accomplish much when the us remains and we've won when it is fully engage the sky is the limit these five lessons can be summed up as five principles which i believe isolation for the future conduct off international relations collective responsibility global solidarity the rule of small mutual accountability and more celebrities let me leave them with few insolvent trust us i hand over

to a musical treated in three weeks' time my friends we have achieved much since nineteen forty five when the united nations was established but much remains to be done to put those five principles into practice standing here i am reminded of winston churchill's last visit to the white house just before truman left office in nineteen fifty three check to record their previous meeting opposed un conference in nineteen forty five and he said i must confess and he said bo diddley i held you in very loaded got then i don't know if you're taking the place a franklin roosevelt then he paused for a moment and continued and this giant you i'm as jack your body says that time you're

more than any other mine i've saved the western civilization my friends our challenge today is not to save western civilization or houston for that matter all civilization is sestak and we can save it upon native old people's joined together in the task americans does so much you do so much in the last century to build an effective multilateral system with the united nations but his hat do you needed to investigate and doesn't need you less than sixty years ago but surely not more than ever today americans by the rest of humanity need to function in global system through which the world's people can face global challenges together and

in order to function more effectively have a system so that cries out for far sight of the american leadership in the truman tradition i hope and pray that american leaders of today and tomorrow we provided thank you very much that's been the peak to peak thank you so much secretary general ladies and gentlemen we'd like to open this up now to some of your questions that you have specifically for the secretary general if you don't mind i'd like to take the liberty to ask you the first question surgeon gen you criticize us foreign policy before and past and some of the a word said today

were especially biting in that regard one ladies you to choose your final speech as secretary general for what some are seeing as a friend pointed attack on us foreign policy particularly here in this venue that presidential life nothing could be further from the truth i think those who listen to me and anyone who resists speech simply honestly and sincerely come up draw that conclusion the peak what i have done here this morning is to look back into history where the un came from leaders who created the un interim un obviously was one of the giants and the poet and propose some fish you come out of a

sense of they cannot have edition without a sense of history what i'm saying here is that when the us works with other countries and much larger system we do is truly what we need us leadership us provided that leadership in the past and now worth this and that sort of state we have lots of problems along that road and we require that natural leadership role in us played in the past and come play and today and so too appealing for corporation in leadership should never be seen as an attack fb question number of the audience as a member of congress a lot of my colleagues and this morning we

struggled each day with what solution there is for the conflict the ongoing conflict and rat you know about or flew with the iraq study group's report which we have a riot oh it has been criticized in some quarters in support of others because they're so component of that report you would say just the president who sets foreign policy we don't but then the masses can send the president can work together on that would begin to create the atmosphere for us withdrawal from i say a difficult question now let me give you my abuse without being presumptuous asked to

give that advice to the us government and the us congress i think we i and then in a very difficult situation it's a very tough issue and i would want to applaud the iraqis to be true for that they'll use wearable good and we use one report that they have produced which i think clarifies many issues but i believe in iraq today we need to find a way of getting the iraqis to record so we need to be as active on the political front as we out on the military front we need to find a way of getting the iraqis to come together to settle their differences and review the constitution a syndicated it they can reconcile they can come up with their revenue sharing share enough oil and taxation revenues sharon of pop we may be able to

reduce the tension indeed each group is fighting play spades and future iraq so we need to fulfill some attention on the political process as well as a military i also believe that we need to get the regional countries to corporate and to work with the iraqis but you also need to bring in the broader international community at least the permanent members of the security council maybe the un and the arab league to work together and also to support the process and i think that'll be a really helpful it you mean you may know that i've suggested and international conference which would not be one of understand and conference which can result issues all issues could be affected their problems i know not everybody that has accepted the idea yet but i believe that there's such an approach would be a helpful i have also indicated that

it is important to touch everyone who's in a position to influence is the solution including iran and syria we should make them part of the solution we should make them responsible by putting them into work with the international community and tell them what the international community and specs of them i don't think like that country would want to remain isolated for and if you would make them responsible and put them into work with you i think it would be in everyone's interest we should also not forget that tip gets an iraq right is not only in the interest of the us and the broader international committee but even more so for the countries in the region to address my condition on for coming to kansas city of acres available remarkable examples of citizenship and

from it martin admissions deans of those especially desirable to what the new year so they were much we're a contribution toward history as a teacher i have several students that are all immigrants and since we've been inured from an officer times with as many as fifty million refugees in our world and i have one of those as one incident with me today i would appreciate if you would address both the refugees and especially those that are looking to you for leadership how can we help to provide state a state for those that are stateless and how can we help those that are in the process as you were of crossing from one cultural divide to another in order to develop models thank you very much as you may know both my wife and i wait for that as human rights and known for high commission for refugees as some time ago and i've always taken a keen interest in refugee issues and when i

became sick at regional one of the first since i did realize and that we need to strengthen our humanitarian activities what to create the new office for humanitarian coordination because in all these prices the key is coordination because if you do not have effective coordination and the crisis the moment the crisis track your york they're forced to deal with it is likely to go wrong and i think that we have shown how effective this office they can be not unaware can with refugees and we live this and i'm in recovery we met at the coronation of a ship actually had an earthquake and on the refugees you're absolutely right that we have millions of refugees in the world today not only millions of refugees we define refugees as people who are forced to live outside their country to protect them so the casa

feel their lives but we also have millions of people who are internally displaced within the island country and five when we look at the fore and we've been feeding three million internally displaced people who have fourteen thousand humanitarian workers working in the theater but with the refugees festival we need to resolve some of the conflicts national conflicts that force them to leave home in the famous place and help them return i've always felt that if we could focus and result in all of these conflicts with enough accommodation and get people to focus on the session work of economic and social development we will all be better but for the refugees it means a get a blow to return home get able to make choices whether they stay where they are on to go and then from my experience when the situation at home changes

refugees go back very quickly we saw it last and last summer in lebanon about a million people were displaced the moment the cessation of hostilities to call almost all of them went by collaboration in some situations that the wall of the conflict may end of that insecurity may persist and that refugees may not wish to go by the time what i wanted edge is that governments should be generals they should be kind to these refugees take their name and some of those who are not able to go back and may not be able to go or should begin to create it but we need to continue solving the sprocket the conflicts to send them back home in the meantime we need millions of dollars a high commissioner for refugees to support these millions of refugees who are unfortunately have been forced out of the

homes and i hope the international community when the generals we often have to struggle to get the money to support them so i let you use your influence to get those same position to contribute to do so and so generous generously one more question my name is splendid fellow called i'm on the board of the international relations council and regional health administrator at the us department of health and human services thank you for mentioning cdc they're wonderful but my question has to do with un peacekeeping forces that it may be in various countries and there have been allegations in the press and about on the role that these forces have sometimes played in and be using local individuals and particularly women i and so in effect they become part of the problem i do feel that there are some

practical solutions to this you have made this a vase that by saying that we have them ninety thousand un troops deployed in making operations around the world the security council has set quinn student all that additional operations and if that were to be approved the numbers could go up two hundred and twenty two hundred and forty thousand the boss majority of these peacekeepers these men and women who have gone into situations of conflict to help pocket themselves admirably honestly a decent tended to be awake without blemish but we have a few peacekeepers an iraqi who have been engaged in sexual exploitation of women and in some situations tragically hip and children we have we have a policy of zero tolerance

and we've been very unfairly cut over the last year we've investigated over three hundred cases and more than sixty percent have been dealt with discipline some of the soldiers have been evacuated and gone on the civilians have been and they're dismissed or dealt with we had a compromise last week his interest me as on this very topic at new york which i opened which brought together and use it to monitor it and jules was awakened defeated un peacekeepers and a un agencies for us to discuss and share experience how do we work together to deal with this problem three no trips you and doesn't understand the man we need to put them from governments so when they think they do something wrong we don't have the authority that we can the only way we can discipline them is to send them back over and

repressive government to discipline them and to deal with them and that i think that maybe the measures that we have taken and the peach peacekeeping operation today we have an advisor who works with the head of the mission to ensure that that the peacekeepers understand what is required of them and to monitor to ensure that the un not getting involved in situations where they take advantage of those we are there to help what often the most vulnerable and it's inexcusable and cannot be tolerated time for two more questions unser none of the me start by saying that it is an honor to hear you speak in person on my name as their backers i am here with my money than director mr gates from a nearby high school and down from their perspective maher united nations delegates i was i mean from your point of view what's millennium development goal we're closest to achieving better person getting and what will still needs to be put forth ahead of the others we monitor

the implementation of the millennium development goals let me say very honestly that the results are mixed if you look up at her off figures you would say that we are achieving the millennium development goes but this is because a shia has been able to lift millions out of poverty china india they really had done work we're doing well and medication of get its enrollment has gone out in most countries in the primaries to that is mainly because of enrollment abysses cruz we didn't pick that up on clean drinking water whether that countries that were not meet the pope and the millennium development goes on the current pace on this we do something dramatic to accelerate their implementation and give them the support necessary to be able to achieve that i think one of the major contribution of them in a

new millennium development goals apart from the clothes themselves it has been accepted as common framework for development conrad framework to fight inequality and poverty on the un agency's international organizations ngos government and the man and woman in the street understand what it means and the uk before lyn christian says given us a new energy and impotence to press on an unfocused and development and i hope that in the country is a tough one and began quite a few up most of them in the least developed countries in africa and elsewhere will be given the necessary support and to catch up una jesus out working with them waking with them to drop the appliance but once those plans are drawn up we need the donor community had to work with them and ice to pay means those votes

my name is dennis moore represent the third congressional district cancer across the state line and a lot of follow up and congressman cleaver says question about the situation in iraq it seems in retrospect that the easy part was the military victory that is taking us about the same and i heard our state and i certainly agree with you that we need to involve the international community and spice late iran and syria but there are there is a history interacting of centuries of their parents political religious differences between the shiites in essence how we resolve those centuries of differences to bring in together because my fears we don't find a political solution with interact as not one united states can impose that's going to fail it has to be by the people or arachnid we get the student shiites sunnis to come together how do you make that work for will work no and that they say that if peace indeed must come from the people their consent must come eventually from the iraqis

one cannot impose speeds one cannot make peace for them and one cannot want peace more than they do so they really up to tehran become energized to like to engage in this process or and that by the international community can help them and work with them in doing this he remembered his uncle a propagandist withdraw them on out and sat with them in bonn germany where the un representative envoy that time reading we work with them to get a political agreement and then they went home to implement i think the iraqis up to talk to the possible for them with the isis i believe that that third party assistance although that this to john marshall all of them accept this pay to get it resolve their differences i also believe that the shia sunni divide that you refer to

and it's not limited to iraq this the region and i mention unplanned day in the region over the past fifty years or so i slept with this side by side dish in the senate of course i'll come to run all the other regions in the region are sunni that and i think that we need to us or bring them in to work with us in anchorage in the iraqi political forces to move in the right direction and reconcile with african reconciliation and a political give and take is going to be very very difficult and this is why i believe if we engage the region with the support of then to match up because everyone has an interest in it if we went to get him wrapped wrong and god forbid where the conflict to spread to the region to have incredible economic impact process is one of the main sources of water supply it will not only affect the region affect

the global economy and so that nobody's june and ability of fear by coming together to try and work to resolve this and then as i said even with the iranians and the syrians a sickly is in their self interest they would want a peaceful iraq on the border see her seven hundred and fifty thousand refugees from iraq joined a house that thousands of refugees and this is why it often turns governments you come out of the crisis in your country and teddy and mavis and international community don't get involved says having turned up on these problems in today's world do not remain in tandem along and they're relatively short time the crop refugees they destabilize a neighborhood and they discuss the window states and so we all have an interest in trying to ensure

that the kinds of as a complex role biden complex that ok in a country he's dealt with very quickly preferably before disputes but even after it has exploded we should not shy away from wanting to work with them in his element you've just heard athletes that kofi annan secretary general united nations reported the number eleven thousand things at the reagan presidential library and museum in independence missouri the recording engineer was chubby smith i'm kate mcintyre k pr presents is a production of kansas public radio at the university of kansas it's b he's been to pay

it ek we can

do it the peak is be these

in return the piece by piece it's

been he's been it's

b