Within the last week, the world has lost two stalwarts who had left their own footprints on the sheets of history. First was our own former Prime Minister who was revered across the world. And even before the last embers on his funeral pyre were burnt out, the world lost a charismatic leader in Kofi Annan who presided over the United Nations through its turbulent times when blood thirsty hounds were killing their fellow human beings in millions in Africa and East Europe. Not many would have loved to be in his boots then. And not many people are allowed a second chance in life to fix the mistakes they made in their career on the most prominent international platform.

Former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who died on Saturday at 80, was the first and so far only secretary-general to have risen from the UN’s ranks. He owed his 1997 appointment to political circumstances. The Clinton administration was determined to get rid of then-Egyptian Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali due to his anti-American speeches. But the US needed to mollify the African nations, who were up in arms at the first secretary-general from their continent not being allowed to serve the customary second term. An alternative African candidate was called for. Under-Secretary Annan, a native of Ghana, was in the right place at the right time.

This unexpected promotion gave him the opportunity to try and draw the lessons from the string of massacres that took place while he was in charge of the UN’s peace-keeping forces across the globe. The civil war in Somalia, including the deaths of  US and UN troops in the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu; the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, during which nearly one million Tutsis were hacked to death; and the massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995. In every case, serious criticism was levelled against Annan’s office, the way it had guided the UN peace-keeping forces and the information that was relayed back from the field by Annan to the UN Security Council. The promotion gave him a chance to give more teeth to UN peacekeeping forces and Indian peacekeeping forces in Somalia received many accolades.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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