Kofi Annan: Life, UN and Rwanda

While he may be in the news these days for his work as the UN-Arab League's special envoy to Syria, Kofi Atta Annan has a far richer personal history. Spanning a life of privilege in British occupied Ghana, Masters degrees from MIT as well as the Graduate Institute of International Relations in Geneva and more than 50 years of international administration and diplomacy at the United Nations. Kofi Annan was born on the 8th of April 1938, in the city of Kumasi, located in what was then the British Gold Coast. His parents Victoria and Henry Reginald were both members of powerful aristocratic dynasties, with no less than three tribal chiefs in their extended families. He received a first rate education at the Methodist Mfantsipim School from which he graduated in 1957, the same year his nation gained independence from the United Kingdom; he was 19. One year after starting his economics degree at the College of Science and Technology in Kumasi he was awarded a Ford Fellowship, taking him to Macalester College in Minnesota, where he finished his degree three years later in 1961. Annan travelled to Switzerland to complete a DEA or Master of Advanced Studies in International relations at the prestigious Institut Universitaire des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Switzerland which he completed a year later. Whilst in Geneva, Annan took up a position at the World Health Organisation's offices in the city. He stayed with the organisation for over 10 years, working as a budget officer and an administrator during which time he was appointed a Sloan Fellow of MIT's Sloan School of Management, he received a Masters of Science from the school in 1972. Rather than returning to Geneva after his graduation, Annan began work at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. In 1974 he was posted to Cairo, Egypt, as part of the UN Emergency Force, he served as chief civilian personnel officer there for a time before leaving the UN to work for the Ghana Tourist Development Company. This was the first and only time Annan left the UN, he worked for his country's tourism industry for two years as managing director, before international diplomacy's irresistible allure pulled him back in 1976. For the next 20 years he filled a number of senior administration and policy determination roles. He negotiated the emancipation of hostages from Iraq after the first Gulf War and served as the Assistant Secretary General of Peacekeeping Operations from 1993-1996, it was in this position that Annan would have his darkest hour.

In 1994, amid economic travails, mass racial hatred and a media-incited blood frenzy, the disenfranchised Hutu majority of Rwanda rose up and slaughtered the dominant Tutsi minority in 100 days of bloodshed. Government offices and weapons dealers poured machetes and firearms into the country after a civil war in 1992. As the violence escalated and the death toll rose, Lieutenant General Romo Dallaire advised the UN to deploy a peacekeeping force to the country but his plea fell on deaf ears, the UN's policy was to not engage in the internal politics of a country unless genocide was being perpetrated. The then Assistant Secretary General of Peacekeeping Operations, Kofi Annan used this clause to stop the force from being deployed. Once the racial violence became apparent he again backed out, claiming that it was too risky to attempt a peacekeeping mission to the war-torn nation. Eventually France sent an unauthorised contingent of soldiers to establish a safe zone in the south of the country but their impact was not truly felt. In a press conference, Annan said: "The international community failed Rwanda and that must leave us always with a sense of bitter regret." He was openly criticised by Dallaire for his overly passive treatment of the massacre and that his intervention lead stopped the UN forces from effectively resolving the crisis. In 2004 Annan admitted personal failure "I could and should have done more to sound the alarm and rally support." Even though he failed miserably during the Rwanda genocide, Kofi Annan's UN career was far from over. In 1996, he was recommended by the Security Council to take up office as Secretary General of the United Nations due to the United States' aversion to the incumbent Secretary, Dr. Boutros Boutros Ghali commencing a second term the next year. He started his first term in the office on the 1st of January, 1997. He served two terms as Secretary General, during which time he was instrumental in the establishment of the Global AIDS and Health Fund, for which he received a joint Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. His long term of service also saw him deal with several high profile scandals including a family corruption charge and a sexual harassment scandal involving the High Commissioner for Refugees. He will always be remember for his pioneering work in UN reform, that lead to a reduction of bureaucratic costs and myriad reforms to the processes of decision making and action.