ANNAN VISIT: Some elements of the international community were reluctant to intervene in Sudan because of the continuing war in Iraq, the United Nations Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, has said.
"The international community has been reluctant to send in another force to Sudan, another Islamic country, and there is a feeling in some [ parts of the] Arab world that one is going to repeat what has happened in Iraq, regardless of the objectives and the intentions," he told an audience at the University of Ulster's Magee campus in Derry yesterday.
"So there is a sense among the [ Security Council] membership that it is best to send in African troops. Having said that, I think we have a responsibility to give them all the support and all the means to do it and hopefully it will be forthcoming."
Asked to comment on predictions of a "clash of civilisations" between Christianity and Islam, Mr Annan said, "We need to redouble our efforts and talk to each other in dialogue. We need to be able to explain in our own daily communication and our own policies that our quarrel, if any, is not with Islam or the Islamic world, it's with certain extremists in Islam."
Everything possible should be done to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict because quite a lot of the extremist organisations used that in order to gain support. It would also be helpful "if, eventually, the war in Iraq were to end and subside and Iraq were to be able to stand on its own, take charge of its political and economic destiny".
The UN chief was answering questions after delivering an address entitled, "Learning the lessons of peace-building".
He was introduced by his fellow Nobel laureate, Mr John Hume. Mr Annan was making the first official visit to Northern Ireland by a UN Secretary General. He stressed that he was not making "oblique comments" on Northern Ireland. "For some years now you have been spared the large-scale violence and terror that used to disfigure your beautiful part of the country and seemed to blight its future. Your efforts to create a better world for your children have been a source of inspiration and hope to people in other countries."
He said the UN had learnt nine main lessons in peace-building. These were: 1) If the Security Council sought to give the Secretary General a mandate which was not achievable and had inadequate means, he should say so in advance; 2) A clear understanding of aims, accepted by all parties, was required; 3) The Council must be "attuned" to the specific circumstances and context of each conflict; 4) Without establishing physical security, through negotiations or intervention, "almost everything else is impossible"; 5) People's expectations needed to be sustained because "the road to peace often proves long and hard"; 6) Political and financial support must be given on a long-term basis, because "nearly half of all peace agreements collapse within five years"; 7) Do things in the right order, e.g., before there can be elections there must be "some shared understanding of what the result will mean"; 8) Keep everyone "on the same page" by co-ordinating the efforts of all interested parties, local and international; 9) Local populations must have "a real part" in taking decisions because they will have to live with the consequences.
Mr Annan's lecture was described afterwards as "excellent" by the Democratic Unionist Party deputy mayor of Derry, Mr Joe Miller. There were lessons for Northern Ireland, he said.