ANNAN, KOFI

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06813852
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: August 12, 2020
• Case Number: F-2018-02369
• Publication Date: July 21, 1999

Approved for Release: 2020/07/29 C06813852
Kofi ANNAN
(Phonetic: ANen)
Secretary General, UN (since 1997)
Addressed as: Mr. Secretary General
Kofi Annan has significantly boosted the
prestige and influence of the office of the
secretary general in his first two and a half years
in the post. Annan' s sophisticated representation
�of the UN to the public has increased
international support for the organization's
activities, while his efforts to stave off war with
Iraq and win extradition of the Pan Am 103
bombing suspects�although severely criticized
in some quarters�has led to renewed calls for
UN intervention in other difficult or longstanding
disputes. He has stripped much of the fat from
the organization by cutting personnel and
streamlining the UN Secretariat, as well as lit a
fire under the organization's lethargic
bureaucracy by bringing in dynamic new
personalities from both government and the
private sector to fill key leadership positions.
Annan also has articulately advocated the UN's
humanitarian and internationalist ideals, pressing
for new programs to educate the world's poor and
to ease Third World debt, but the UN has had
much less visible impact in these areas under his
stewardship. Moreover, many countries criticize
Annan for following Washington's lead too often,
particularly in view of continuing US arrears.
They also question the need for continued reform
and budget cutting, efforts that have failed to
produce any tangible benefits as far as they are
concerned.
while Annan will continue
push an agenda thti.t he believes promotes the
UN's best interests, he is likely to increasingly
slant that agenda to assist his reelection bid. This
will include putting the breaks on reform and
budget cutting, expanding peacekeeping
operations outside Europe�particularly in
GHANA
Africa�and trying to curtail the use of sanctions.
A Growing Challenge
Annan will
adopt an increasingly independent posture toward
the P-5 countries to garner support for his
reelection from the G-77 and the NAM, a trend
that has become increasingly evident in recent
months
He also appears particularly concerned
about the reaction within the UN Security Council
(UNSC) if the United States fails to keep its
commitments regarding peacekeeping operations
in Africa:
� Annan noted in his 1998 yearend press address
that he has finished downsizing the UN and
wants to concentrate on the organization's
essential tasks.
(continued)
LP 99-106195
21 July 1999
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Career Highlights
1963 Began UN career, WHO, Geneva.
1965-71 Administrative officer, then chief of
personnel section, Economic
Commission for Africa, Addis Ababa.
1974-76 Left UN to manage government-owned
Ghana Tourist Development Company.
1976-80 Returned to UN as deputy chief of staff
services, Office of Personnel Services.
1980-84 Deputy director of administration
directorate, UN Office of the High
Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva.
1984-86 Named director of the budget, UN
Office of Financial Services.
1986-90 Assistant secretary general for human
resources management.
1990-92 UN comptroller and director, Office of
Program, Planning, Budget, and
Finance.
1992-93
1993-96
Assistant secretary general, Office of
Peacekeeping Operations.
Director, De artrnent for Peacekeeping
Operations.
� The Secretary General issued a report in early
July that said it was too soon to determine
Libyan compliance with UNSC resolutions,
which is a prerequisite for the lifting of
sanctions, but noted that the United Kingdom
was satisfied with Tripoli's response to date.
� Annan wants to expand the UN peacekeeping
mission in the Central African Republic, whose
mandate is set to end in November, as well as
enlarge the peacekeeping mission in Sierra
Leone and establish a new and costly mission
in the Democrapc Republic of the Congo.
� The Secretary General told the press in mid-
July that the UNSC's inability to overcome
internal divisions to deal effectively with the
Kosovo crisis demonstrated the need for reform
inthe Council that would enable it to override a
veto by one of the P-5 states.
On the other hand, while Annan is offering no
apologies for going the extra mile to talk with
tyrants like Saddam Husayn and Muammar al-
Qadhafi to obtain peaceful compliance with
UNSC resolutions, these efforts, along with
renewed divisions in the UNSC, have raised
doubts in this country about the diplomatic
credibility of the UN, particularly with regard to
Iraq. US newspaper editorials and magazine
articles have attacked Annan personally and
professionally over the past year, chafging that he
appeased Saddam and undermined UN weapons
inspections. Annan and his supporters have
responded that his goal has always been to make
Iraq obey UNSC resolutions, that the UN charter
commits him to seek such ends through peaceful
diplomacy, and that the allegations against him
were triggered by frustration that Iraq has not
obeyed UN resolutions. In fact, Annan's latitude
in dealing with countries such as Iraq is severely
limited by the need for the Secretary General to at
least try to deal equitably with the demands and
interests of all UN member states and by a lack of
executive power and enforcement capacity
beyond the Secretariat.
Personal Notes
Annan was born a twin on 8 April 1938 near
Kumasi, Ghana. He has studied at the University
of Science and Technology in Ghana (1958-59),
Macalester College in Minnesota�(1959-61), the
International Institute of Higher Studies in
Switzerland (1961-62), and the Sloan School of
Management at MIT (1971-72). Annan speaks
excellent English, French, and several African
languages, including Twi and Fante. His first
marriage to a Nigerian ended in divorce. In 1994
he married Nane Lagergren, a Swedish national,
who is the niece of Raoul Wallenberg. The
couple has three adult children from previous
marriages.
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