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Journalism of Courage
SEPT 6: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan challenged the largest ever gathering of world leaders on Wednesday to protect their people from misery and develop an agenda to eradicate poverty, wipe out disease and forge peace.
"They look to you to protect them from the great dangers of our time; and to ensure that all of them can share in its great achievements," he told more than 150 kings, presidents and Prime ministers at the U.N. Millennium Summit.
"Let us not disappoint them," he said at the opening of the three-day summit, according to his prepared remarks.
Annan said no mother in the world could understand why her child should be left to die of malnutrition or preventable disease. And no one could understand why people "should be driven from their homes or imprisoned and tortured for expressing their beliefs," he said.
Annan said the leaders had to set priorities and adapt the 55-year old United Nations so it could do what people expected of it in the 21st century.
Germany’s chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, in his prepared remarks, said the first U.N. body to set priorities should be the 189-member General Assembly, which has overloaded its agenda with repetitious resolutions for decades.
Annan, in his news conference on Tuesday, said he had no illusions that the summit would by itself cure the world of its problems of poverty, wars, environmental destruction and the AIDS epidemic.
"But in today’s world, given the technology and the resources around, we have the means to tackle them. If we have the will, we can deal with them," he said.
"You may think I am a dreamer. But without the dream you do not get anything done," he added.
Specifically, the world leaders are to sign a declaration on Friday based on calls for strengthened peacekeeping structures, targets against hunger, disease and illiteracy and a benevolent globalization.
President Bill Clinton kicks off the parade of five-minute speeches on Wednesday after which the United States is bound to get its share of criticism from friends and foes alike, beginning with its $1.7 bn debt to the world body.
Without mentioning Washington by name, Schroeder intends to call on every member state "to pay its contributions on time and in full." Germany is the third highest contributor to the world body, following the United States and Japan.
Clinton then meets Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, his first crucial sessions with the two Middle East leaders since they left Camp David in July without a peace deal.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin, who speak on Wednesday are likely to use the occasion to rally support against plans for a U.S. National missile defence. Clinton has said he would leave a decision whether to deploy the system to the next administration.
Cuban President Fidel Castro, who arrived in New York on Tuesday, his first U.S. Trip in five years, usually has one objective: to convince Americans to recognise Cuba and lift the 30-year-old embargo against his country.
Beyond U.S.-Cuba politics, the mainstay of his career, Castro was also sure to use a rare trip to what Havana calls the "heart of imperialism" to promote his view that radical reform is needed to save the world from doom.
North Korea has already castigated the United States for sending "hooligans" to Frankfurt airport where American airline security guards allegedly ordered a body search of Pyongyang’s delegation en route to New York.
The delegation cancelled its trip in anger, meaning there will be no meeting in New York between North Korean designated head of state Kim Yong-nam and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
With wars in the Congo, Sierra Leone and Angola, African leaders conducted a series of meetings among themselves immediately.
In one session, Annan gave Zimbabwe conditional support for its controversial land reform programme. But he said Harare must settle differences over the issue with former colonial power Britain and its own citizens. Annan met Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe along with Presidents Bakili Muluzi of Malawi, Sam Nujoma of Namibia and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.
"It was an African initiative to try to end Harare’s isolation. It was also an initiative to try to get international Financial help for land reform in Zimbabwe," said one participant.
