Annan reflective as UN term ends

By Lyse Doucet
BBC News

Mr Annan is preparing to step down on 31 December

Kofi Annan has now uttered the phrase many still try to avoid when it come to the violence in Iraq.

In a BBC interview in New York, the outgoing UN secretary general warned that Iraq had descended into civil war.

"When we had the strife in Lebanon and other places, we called that civil war - this is much worse," he said.

And what of those Iraqis who say life is now worse than under Saddam Hussein?

Speaking in his trademark quiet measured tone, the 68-year-old Ghanaian said: "I think they are right in the sense of the average Iraqi's life."

'Critical review'

His blunt verdict may not go down well in Washington which only speaks publicly of a "new phase" in Iraq.

This week the US' Iraq Study Group, led by James Baker and Lee Hamilton, will publish its report. Mr Annan called it a recognition "things are not working the way they had hoped and its essential to take a critical review and, if necessary, change course".

I really believed we could have stopped the war... it divided the world Kofi Annan UN Secretary General Excerpt from interview Profile: Kofi Annan

He said Iraqis had failed to bring the violence under control and needed help from their neighbours and the international community.

With only weeks to go in his job, Mr Annan called the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq one of the most difficult times of his 10 years at the helm.

"I really believed we could have stopped the war," he said. "It divided the world... we feel the tension still in this organisation."

Some senior UN officials told me they believed Mr Annan could have spoken out more boldly at the time. Why did he wait until a BBC interview in 2004 to say the war was "illegal"?

The secretary general protested he had warned the war was not in conformity with the UN charter. Besides, he was not sure it would have made much difference if he said it in a more brutal way.

'Black cloud'

Iraq haunted Mr Annan in his second term.

The Oil for Food scandal and allegations of his son Kojo's involvement erupted at the same time as reports of sexual abuse among UN peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and accusations of corruption elsewhere in the UN system.

No wonder Mr Annan calls 2004 his "annus horribilus".

One aide, reflecting back on that time, said "a black cloud hung over the secretariat", created partly by a barrage of criticism from right-wing US Republican senators and media who called on the secretary general to step down.

Twenty-three people died when the UN office in Iraq was attacked

Mr Annan called this "vicious campaign against the UN" part of "payback time on Iraq".

But he admitted the UN "took a hit" when the independent inquiry headed by Paul Volcker concluded there had not been enough oversight of the $60bn Oil for Food scheme.

He was also faulted for not carrying out a more thorough investigation of his son's involvement through a Swiss-based company.

Iraq also inflicted his greatest regret: "Twenty-three wonderful colleagues and friends I sent to Iraq got blown away."

Reflecting on the bombing of the UN compound in Baghdad in 2003 which killed his popular envoy Sergio de Mello and many others, Mr Annan said sadly he had to ask himself painful questions: "Would they be here if I hadn't asked them to go?"

Ties with Washington

Even though he will step down in weeks, there is still a buzz of activity on the 38th floor, including a lot of fretting and waiting for faxes from Khartoum. His aides say "sorting Darfur" is one of his main priorities before he leaves on 31 December.

Darfur looms large for the man who served in other senior UN roles during the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and the slaughter in Srebrenica in 1995.

Mr Annan said it was "deeply, deeply disappointing and tragic that we do not have the resources or the will to confront the situation" in Darfur. He insisted he had done all he could to try to get UN peacekeepers into Sudan to stop the killing there.

Mr Annan with his successor, South Korea's Ban Ki-moon

Running the UN during an aggressive US unilateralism also tested the skills of a cautious diplomat.

Mr Annan said he and President Bush understood they had different roles. But he conceded that had there been a more harmonious relationship with the United States, and between Washington and other member states, his job would "no doubt" have been easier.

And did he have advice for his successor, Ban Ki-moon, already busy putting his team in place? "I did it my way, my predecessors did it their way, and he should do it his way."

It has been a punishing roller coaster for the first secretary general to emerge from within UN ranks.

From a high of global acclaim and a Nobel peace prize in 2001 Kofi Annan went on to confront crises which still clearly pain him to this day. At his most depressed moments he lost his voice, a metaphor for the powerlessness he sometimes felt.

"I hope," he said, "when historians look at my record, they will look at the totality of the achievements... in historical terms, you will discover that the Oil for Food issue will become a footnote."

He believes the UN is in better shape today than it was 10 years ago.