NPP’s SUCIDE

By Ekow Mensah.

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is slowing but surely committing political suicide and if it fails to change its course, history will repeat itself.

NPP Chairman Jake Obetsebi Lamptey

Indeed from 1951 to 1969, a period of 18 long years, the Danquah-Busia tradition failed to win any election.

It’s first election victory was in 1969 and even then, the National Liberation Council (NLC) banned the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) to pave way for that.

Throughout Ghana’s post colonial history, the NPP has won only three elections, 1969, 2000 and 2004.

It is this history which is ringing the alarm bells in the NPP and forcing the moderates in the party to speak out against the suicidal moves by the hardliners.

 Even hardliners like Kenedy Agyagpong and Charles Wereko- Brobby have broken ranks and warn of disastrous consequences if the NPP continues on the path of recklessness and irresponsibility.

Both Kenedy Agyapong and Wereko Brobby agree that the boycott of the vetting of ministrial nominees could not be in the interest of the party.

 Dr Wereko-Brobbey also argues that the election petition filled by the party at the Supreme Court has no merit.

Earlier, Dr Arthur Kennedy another leading member of the party had said that there could be no point in going to the Supreme Court if the NPP did not have concrete evidence.

Mr Appiah Menka

Mr Appiah- Menka, the business magnate and founding member of the NPP has urged restraint in the handling of the party’s complaint about the declaration of election results.

 Interestingly the NPP has no plans for reviewing the 2012 elections as part of the preparation for the 2016 elections.

 Some of the questions the NPP has to ask are; Why did it lose the elections? Did it present the right message to the electorate? Can it improve on its election strategy? Why has the NPP won in only two regions in the last two elections?

Party watchers say that for as long as the NPP’s petition is pending at the Supreme, the re-organisation of the party for the 2016 elections will remain on hold.

The party needs to organize elections for polling station executives, constituency executives and regional executives before it can elect a new flagbearer for the 2016 elections.

Nana Akufo-Addo, the presidential candidate for the 2012 elections argues that the early election of a flagbearer for the party will maximize its advantage.

However, for as long as the NPP claims that Nana won the 2012 elections, the party won’t be able to elect- a new presidential candidate.

Another worrying development is the public calls for violence by some members and sympathizers of the party.

At a rally in Dome-Kwabenya, a member of the party who was given the platform said “It is time to make bombs, to explode them in schools, to smash cars and to kill people to show that the NPP is serious”.

Such calls for violence easily remind Ghanaians of the NPP’s campaign of violence against the Nkrumah government.

EDITORIAL

BOMBS!

Recently, a member or sympathizer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) called on the party to start manufacturing bombs to explode in schools, smash cars and kill people to show that all is not well in the country.

This call was extremely reckless and was very easily dismissed as the ranting of an insane criminal by right thinking members of the Ghanaian community.

The shock of it all is that the NPP and its leadership have still not condemned this raving lunatic and his dangerous utterances.

Only yesterday, Ghana awoke to the diffused a bomb planted at a facility for the supply of electricity.

The link between the call for bombs and the real planting of one could be coincidental but it must still be very worrying.

Who planted the bomb and what was the objective?

The Insight warns that bomb explosions start, they can only end in mayhem in which women and children will suffer most.

Perhaps, it is time to learn the lessons of the Nkrumah era when an irresponsible opposition took Ghana on this dangerous path.

We urge the security agencies to act quickly to protect the people of Ghana from demented politicians.

WHO OWNS THIS NUMBER

Three weeks ago, somebody called a young man who goes by the name Seidu Yahaya and claimed that was an officer from National Security.

He did not give his name but invited Seidu to report to him in Accra.

His instructions were that on arrival in Accra said should call him and he would arrange to pick him up.

This unknown person called from the number 0240961819.

He was trying to interfere with a case of visa fraud which is being handled by the Medina Police in Accra.

A very popular person had demanded and received Gh ¢8,000.00 (Eight thousand Ghana cedis) from Karim Yahaa a brother of Seidu to secure a UK visa for him.

After years of waiting it has become obvious that Karim has been defrauded and he has reported the matter to the Madina Police.

So far the Madina Police has only managed to retrieve Gh ¢500.00 (Five hundred Ghana cedis) of the amount.

The unknown caller told Seidu that he is dealing with the case and that Seidu has allegedly threatened the fraudster with death.

We ask, who owns mobile phone number 0240961819?

This may be the clue to an interesting riddle.

I Love-Hate Your Writing!

Sodzi Sodzi Tetteh

After 17 years of various features in the Ghanaian media including the past year as a columnist in the one of the national dailies, it is the ‘love-hate’ relationship with some of my readers that most fascinates me, especially the oxymoronic emotional conflicts afflicting that same individual reader! Today, I would like to reflect over this extended period of affirmatively disruptive write ups.

Does the writer then write to please his committed readers or does he simply stay true to his convictions? Does the writer avoid potentially controversial topics in the hope of retaining his readership with benign topics? Will the writer ever succeed in pleasing all men at all times with every write up? How concerned should a writer be about the image he spawns with what he writes and should he be overly concerned lest he disappoints with a certain unanticipated opinion piece?

Over a decade ago, a book I read on effective writing proffered some useful advice; a unique and distinctive writing style would develop with time with the absence thereof not preventing the young writer from borrowing unashamedly from creative expressions from more experienced writers. Further, that the writer, if he is to be significant, ought not to be afraid of taking on controversial issues which may well be the burning issues on the minds of readers which through careful observation and reflection can spawn a thoughtful and engaging piece that would touch people at the innermost core of their values, leading possibly, to significant reframing. 

These words of wisdom have proved invaluable over the years. And in looking up to others, I have been in awe of the BBC’s Alistair Cooke whose Sunday mid-morning “Letter to America” became a regular staple in medical school: deep, poetic with the right tinge of humor. Mention must also be made of James Ariel Ringo Djarbeng, my literature teacher in Achimota, who, true to his word, taught us word craft  for life and not simply, to pass examinations. 

My first published article was in 1995 in a newspaper called “People and Places.” It was an exciting experience and an affirmation of the appreciative praise I had previously received for written school essays.I quickly transitioned into the ‘Mirror’, arguably Ghana’s best weekend weekly featuring fairly consistently in the “My Turn” column. It was only near the final years of medical school and in my immediate posting to Dzodze in the Volta region that it suddenly dawned on me, that for almost two-three years, I had been experiencing the writer’s drought; nothing written. I felt overwhelmed with work and many resolutions to start writing again failed over and over again.

Kwesi Pratt Jnr, The Insight Managing Editor

Late one night in 2005, Dr. Omane Boamah and Kwasi Pratt Jnr offered me a life line. They asked that I share my experiences of the practical early workings of the National Health Insurance Scheme from my perspective as a district medical practitioner. Having always held Mr. Pratt in very high esteem, and given my brotherly relationship with Omane, no, did not seem to be an option. When I asked Mr. Pratt how soon he wanted it, he unrepently said “Massa, I need it now!” I would therefore attribute what I have thought of as the second phase of my writing to these two individuals primarily because since I wrote that piece in 2005, I have never stopped writing, not even during those times when I could not get published as often as I wanted in the Graphic and was at times afflicted with doubt about the integrity of the pieces. 

There was something else that the Kwasi Pratt experience taught me. I know my writing is a bit quirky with sometimes unusual turns of phrases. On some lonely nights, I often wondered whether people really understood what I was trying to communicate. Kwasi Pratt cured me totally of that burden when on radio one morning, he gave the kind of eloquent explanation to my written piece that left me in absolutely no doubt that not only had he had fully understood what I was trying to communicate, he had also through his enhanced analysis shown a deep appreciation of what I had only implied. It was a really calming experience for me that day and in jest, I said to my myself that if Mr. Pratt could argue so convincingly with my words on paper, then I would never speak again. Let me write and let Pratt talk. 

Dr Omane Boamah

Do I write to support any political party? To this, I would say that if Biko wrote he liked, then I write what I believe. And if my convictions attract praise and opprobrium from some in equal measure, then so be it. I cannot however claim naivety about the political undertones of some of my pieces. Indeed, in one piece congratulating my school mate Samuel Gyimah’s rise as an MP in Britain’s Conservative Party, I was bold enough to reflect on how he had moved to the right while I had moved more to the left of centre in political ideology. Given that my articles remain an everlasting testament however, I have sought at all times to remain fair and true to my personal convictions.  

Through it all, my aim is not and has never been to become the perfect writer. And neither has it been to succeed in pleasing all men at all times. I have simply seen myself as someone sitting by the roadside of life, reflecting our passions, fears, contradictions and our fight to lift ourselves from our development morass unto a higher pedestal of dignified livelihoods for all our peoples through our individual and collective leadership.

After two weeks of writing in praise of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, an avid reader of the column walked into my office and said with some disappointment, “I never realized that you liked Kwame Nkrumah so much. I am going to give you a book written by a man who lived through the Nkrumah regime and I am quite sure you will change your views about him. Some terrible things happened in Nkrumah’s regime” I thanked him, told him that I felt Nkrumah was a great leader and looked forward to reading his book. At the same time, another good friend called with the burning question, “Are you CPP or NDC?”

Not too long after this came what was interpreted at the time as a blistering attack against the Honorable Alban Bagbin, then Minister of Health. To some, this was as anti-NDC as it got. Portrayed by some as a premeditated attack against my now good friend, the Ministry’s Chief Director wrote a stinker back. What was perhaps not appreciated was that it is difficult to see the same problem festering for decades and hearing the same solutions, failed ten years ago, being offered once again. Of course it was nothing personal as I personally explained to Bagbin who proved far more tolerant as he explained what he thought of as “broad range of interventions” to solve the problem of inequitable distribution of health workers.  

NPP Logo

I have received my fair share of being anti-NPP too in the past year. Through it all, I have reflected thus, if a senior member of a credible political party incites people to attack other tribes in Ghana and so called enlightened people do not have courage to condemn it, but rather find it in them to point fingers at me for slamming it, is it my cry or your silence in the face of obvious outrage that should provide cause for concern? Whose values should worry us more?

When I analyzed the final Presidential debate and concluded that John Mahama had been the most Presidential on the night, that immediately put me in the NDC corner of Ghana’s unyielding political space. And then two weeks ago, I challenged President Mahama in a blistering piece to tell us how much of our problems he intended to solve and by which time within the four year mandate? A nine year old girl is reported to have read it and asked the mother, “Mommy, is your friend NPP?” On the same article, a good pro NDC friend accosted me last week and lashed out, “You! How could you do that to the President?  Your attacks were totally unwarranted. Isn’t it too early? Don’t you know it is not all the promises contained in the manifesto that can be achieved? No, it was too much.”

It’s all well and good and through it all, we shall continue to give thanks.

Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey

Malian War Spreading into Niger:

By Abayomi Azikiwe

Reports emanating from the West African state of Mali indicate that French grounds forces accompanied by the national army from the capital of Bamako–along with a small contingent of regional troops from Niger, Burkina Faso, Togo, Senegal, Benin, Chad and Nigeria–are moving towards the northern historic city of Timbuktu. Although there has been a media blockade by the French and Malian governments about the impact of the war, details of the conditions taking place inside the country are emerging.

In the northern city of Gao, French and Malian forces claim that they have taken the airport and are moving to occupy the city. A military press release from Paris stated that they were fired on by “Al-Qaeda linked terrorist elements who were destroyed.” (Associated Press, January 28)

Nonetheless, the ministry of defense in France has attempted to sanitize the actual situation in the contested areas. One report asserted that no civilians have been killed in the imperialist military operations, although other news agencies have contradicted these statements.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in a press release issued on January 22, stated that “As air bombing and fighting continue in Mali refugees are continuing to cross into neighboring countries. In Mauritania, 4,208 Malian refugees have arrived since January 11.” (UNHCR)

This same media advisory continues noting that “After being registered at the Fassala transit center, they are being transported further inland to the Mbera refugee camp which is already hosting 55,221 people from earlier displacements.” During the same time period 1,300 refugees have arrived in Niger and 1,829 entered Burkina Faso.

Malians arriving in these neighboring states say that they are fleeing air strikes being carried out by French fighter jets. They are complaining about shortages of food, fuel and water. Many new arrivals are traveling in vehicles, but others are on foot and donkeys.

The refugees are anticipating that other members of their families will be crossing the borders very soon. Since the escalation of fighting in the north of Mali in January 2012, which was largely the result of the U.S.-NATO war against Libya, some 147,000 refugees have fled the country.

Inside the country, the UNHCR reports that 229,000 people have been internally displaced mainly from the areas around Kidal, Timbuktu and Gao. The UN refugee agency is assisting by providing food, water and shelter for the internally displaced as well.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced recently that the international body would not directly participate or authorize the deployment of troops under its authority. Ki-moon cited the humanitarian work carried out by the UN agencies, saying that the organization’s direct involvement would jeopardize the safety and security of its personnel.

Meanwhile the United States military is providing C-17 air transport for the French troops and equipment entering Mali. The Obama administration has pledged its support to the invasion and occupation of Mali where the Pentagon has maintained close ties with the national army.

Other NATO states are also participating in the war including Britain, Canada, Denmark and Italy. The Italian government announced on January 28 that it could not continue its support for the French war in Mali without the support of the parliament.

War Spreading to Niger

France announced that it would also deploy Special Forces units to neighboring Niger to guard the Areva uranium mines. The mines provide up to 70 percent of the uranium utilized to power its nuclear power reactors in France.

The mines are located in the areas around the towns of Arlit and Imouraren. Areva maintains operations in Canada, Kazakhstan as well as Niger.

Areva is the second largest uranium mining producer in the world. The mines in Niger are critical to its operations globally.

Just last year in October, the Niger government complained to Areva about the slow pace of its operations aimed at uranium production at the Imouraren site. Several personnel working at the mines were kidnapped during 2010 creating a serious security problem for the firm.

Also there were labor disputes in early 2012 among the construction workers at the Imouraren mines. The delays strained relations with the Niger government which threatened to withdraw support if the firm could not meet its construction deadlines.

France, a former colonial power in Africa, still maintains troops in various states on the continent including Gabon, Ivory Coast, Central African Republic, Niger and others. The U.S., which is expanding its military presence in Africa with the deployment of an additional 3,500 troops to 35 states, is therefore a natural ally of France in the imperialist expansion in the region.

Africa is becoming even more important in the supply of strategic resources essential for the maintenance of the industrial status of the western states. Oil, natural gas, coltan, platinum and uranium exist in abundance throughout the continent.

In addition to these resources, new findings have taken place over the last year in regard to natural gas and oil in East Africa. Explorations are ongoing in Uganda, Tanzania and Somalia as well as offshore areas in the Indian Ocean.

New Attacks in Algeria

On January 27, there was an attack carried out at the Ain Chikh natural gas pipeline in the Djebahia region of northern Algeria, some 75 miles east of the capital of Algiers. Initial reports indicated that two security guards were killed and five others were wounded.

Algeria was the scene of the seizure of the In Amenas gas field by an Islamist armed group purportedly headed by Mohktar BelMohktar of the “Signatories of Blood.” Algerian military forces stormed the plant on two occasions releasing hundreds of workers but the seizure resulted in the deaths of at least 81 people.

The war initiated by France against Mali, purportedly designed to prevent “Islamist extremists” from taking control of the entire country, has worsened the security situation throughout the region. U.S. trained Malian military personnel staged a coup against the democratically elected government in Bamako on March 22, after the army failed to mount an effective counter-attack against the Tuareg fighters in the north.

Opposition Grows to the Imperialist War in West and North Africa

More organizations are coming out against the French bombing and occupation of Mali, the spreading of the war into neighboring states and the support being provided by various NATO states. Workers World issued an editorial in its January 31 issue calling for the withdrawal of imperialist forces from the country.

Also Fightback! News, the website of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), published a statement opposing the intervention. A demonstration was held on January 23 in Minneapolis involving peace activists organized by the Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) chanting “No U.S. Drones to Mali, No U.S. Intervention in Mali!”

The United National Anti-War Coalition (UNAC), a broad-based coalition of various groups from around the U.S., had already issued a statement opposing intervention in Mali prior to the French bombing and ground invasion which began January 11. The organizations’ administrative committee and coordinating committee has held two national conference calls on the situation inside Mali and the region.

UNAC will be issuing another statement updating its position on the current crisis. Plans are also underway for a national tour featuring people from the U.S. and Pakistan who are opposing the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) drone program that is devastating countries throughout Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia.

Abayomi Azikiwe is Editor of the Pan-African News Wire

E MAIL: panafnewswire@gmail.com

Ghana’s Dead-Alive Partners!

Mama, this man you got married to, he’s dead-alive!

Lucky Dube

The moment I heard President John Mahama’s recent declaration that in our hands, yours as well as mine, rests the success or failure of Ghana’s future, I became haunted by the events surrounding my recent frolic into town.

“We all, each and every one of us, have a role to play in the growth and development of our beloved mother Ghana. In our hands—yours as well as mine—rests the success or failure of Ghana’s future. Let us all stand, not as separate entities but as partners. Together we will build a Ghana that will be a source of pride for all of us.”

If His Excellency truly believed that we were all partners, then in some cases at least, some of us were nothing short of the dead-alive variety that needed resuscitation to play our deserving roles in national development. What follows is a brief account of my visit to three offices in one day: a bank and two government agencies.

At the bank, I walked into a very serene air conditioned waiting room.  Tastefully furnished, there were stacks of current newsmagazines and newspapers that visitors could read while waiting to be connected. The front desk person appeared busy at her computer but looked up the minute I walked in. I greeted and asked to see an officer. She directed me appropriately and gave me access. In the corridors en route to the officer’s office, a security man accosted me, asked preliminary questions and ushered me into a waiting room while he fetched the officer.“How can I help you, Mr. Son of Man?” Ten minutes later, my business was done and I was out of the bank- crisp, professional, smooth!

The first government agency was a complex housing many offices. There was enough heat at the reception that the receptionist would occasionally fan herself with the newspaper she was reading a newspaper. She mixed answering my questions with negotiating a lunch package with her work colleague. 

“Turn left and go to the last office on your left!” she barked.

On turning left, I encountered another lady walking through the corridors bare footed. Appearing to be coming from the direction in which I was headed, I briefly mentioned the name of the one I was looking for.

“Go to that office and wait for me.” After going through the drill of the boss is not in, don’t know when he would be back etc., I opt to leave a note. About to leave, she asks for my name – who should I say came to look for him?I mention my name. Apparently recognizing it, she breaks out into a huge smile. Does my name have to ring a bell before you give me a beautiful smile in your office?

I visit the third office around lunch time. I am directed to an office adjoining the big man’s. It is only on opening the door that through the familiar aroma wafting through my nostrils, I know just how good life can be mid-week in an office. I then see the three men in the room in strategic positions and ready for overt action. Directly ahead of me was a man pouring light soup from a big bowl into a smaller one held by his special assistant. Significantly, they didn’t appear too surprised that a total stranger had chanced upon them in this endeavor!With the soup poured, I was given hurried answers to my questions – we don’t know, we have no idea kind of thing – and effectively dispatched! The party was on!

So when the President says that “We all, each and every one of us, have a role to play in the growth and development of our beloved mother Ghana. In our hands—yours as well as mine—rests the success or failure of Ghana’s future” it is actors in the above three scenarios that come to mind and I ask how many Ghanaians actually see themselves as development partners of the President and secondly whether being partners, they are of the living or dead, dead-alive variety?!

While holding the President accountable is easy, many of us have conveniently abdicated our own key roles in the national development agenda. In some cases, we are even actively sabotaging the national cause but never recognize our various and divers individual roles in whatever state Ghana finds itself and which we have become perfect at complaining about. We engage in loud raucous debates, pointing fingers at Ghana and Africa’s failed leadership and yet failing to notice and name our own failed leadership in corners where we could have brightened. 

Ghana’s success or failure rests in our individual and collective hands: in the hands of the estate developer who uses inferior materialsto build an over-priced house, in the hands of health professionals who flare up in anger when patients question them, in the hands of the journalist who pronounces that unless paid transportation support, your press conference will not be carried, in the hands of the lecturer who measures success not by the number of students who have passed and are making a difference with their knowledge, but by the number of students who struggled and failed, in the hands of the consultant who spends eighty percent of his time doing anything but the job for which he is paid, in the hands of the priest who is quick to accuse everyone of not living according to the perfect will of God, but whose avarice for worldly possessions surpasses those he accuses of chasing money and last but not the least, in the hands of the children who make us suffer before agreeing to do their homework!

I pray everyone carves a little bit of national development for themselves and do their work diligently. We must be living and not dead-alive partners to the national cause.

To quote John Mahama, “Complacency and frustration can entice us into believing that we are insignificant players stuck somehow in the background of a bigger picture, or that we are incapable of making a difference. But history itself has proven that nothing could be further from the truth.”

Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey

 

KOFI ANNAN “IT’S TIME TO LOOK BEYOND OUR COLONIAL PAST”

In conversation, Annan speaks with all the formality you would expect from a man who has given fifty years of his life to diplomacy. He looks considerably younger than his 74 years. Maybe it's his smart attire. Or it could be his affable smile - which seems to give him enormous powers of persuasion in conversation. 

Kofi Annan

It's a balmy Saturday afternoon in October. We are sit- ting in a room on the ninth floor of the Dorchester Hotel, overlooking the trees that rise above the gates of Hyde Park in London. The autumnal sunshine even gives a semblance of placidity to the buses that jostle their way down Park Lane and into Mayfair.

I'm here to speak to Kofi Annan about his new book "Inter- ventions: A Life in War and Peace". The memoir speaks candidly about the peaks and troughs of a career spent trying to persuade governments around the globe to bring about peace. It also points out how the UN, on occasion, failed to protect the rights of "the peoples", as laid out in the original charter of the organisation, written in 1945. 

In one chapter in his book, which looks at the complexities of African politics, Annan describes a press conference in Gabon, just as his tenure began as Secretary-General in 1997. A journalist asked him why he often criticised African governments, to which he replied: "I work a lot for Africa and I recognise its hardships, but I reserve the right to criticise Africans." 

Annan still argues today that views which ernphasise the culpability of colonialism in Africa, only serve those who desire the status quo. Furthermore, he says, the support for the Big Man sys- tem - Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe being one example - creates a political culture that simply encourages autocrats and dictators. 

"The struggle that led to independence in many African nations, sometimes led to the creation of national movements, and not necessarily political parties. When independence was achieved in some of these countries, they often found themselves in one big group. This led to a party-regime where the leaders did not tolerate differences, and stayed on," says Annan. 

"The sort of qualities that make dynamic, and revolutionary fighters, are not necessarily the same qualities you need to run a nation. This leads to difficulties," he adds. 

Annan believes that Africa must look beyond its colonial past to try and understand its current problems. In other words, Africa must look at itself, if it is to prosper, socially and economically.

An optimist by nature and a pragmatist who speaks his mind, Annan believes this is already happening. 

"African governments are becoming more sensitive to democratic demands. This is because civil society is putting pressure on the politicians to do the right thing. We are now at the stage where we are seeing the generational change of leaders, who are better educated, and who know what they want from themselves, and their fellow citizens."

Annan joined the United Nations in 1962, serving as secretary- general, from 1997 to 2006. It was in Ghana where his life as a pragmatist began. Born in Kumasi - the capital of the Ashanti region - in 1938, Annan was the son of a Ghanaian, who ran a European trading company. As a young man, he was a student in the "independence class" of 1957, at his boarding school, Mfantsipim, in the city of Cape Coast. It was an era where one could witness how politics had meaning above tribe, or ideology, says Annan. 

"As a teenager, to see this struggle for independence taking place in Ghana was very powerful. I grew up with a sense that fundamental change was possible. For example, to watch the police commissioner-who was an Englishman - become a Ghanaian, or the Prime Minister become a Ghanaian, gave me great optimism and hope. I saw that things can change, and had a sense that I could help change things, because I had seen it happen at such an early age," he says. 

As the first sub-Saharan African secretary-general of the UN, Annan understands the prejudices of the outdated system in the Security Council. Currently, just five countries hold permanent seats: The United States, Britain, France, China and Russia.

Many African leaders recently - President Sata of Zambia being one - opine that Africa should hold a permanent seat on the Security Council.

Of the 193 member states that make up the UN, Africa has 54, making it the continent with the highest number of members. Annan says the current system reflects a geopolitical world-map 1945, not 2012. It's an issue he believes needs reform. "Change should come on this matter, when I cannot say. I tried hard to see if we could create a permanent seat for Africa on the Security Council, but we did not succeed. Three countries in Africa would see themselves as permanent members: South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt. These countries, and others, do expect to have a voice at the table. It will be in the interest of the organisation to have them there. These reforms cannot be resisted forever."

The title of Annan's new book, Interventions is aptly chosen, describing how interventionism was a practice that defined UN peacekeeping troops after 1989. Prior to this period, the organisation had been in deadlock for forty years, due to the paranoid cold-war rivalry of its two most powerful members: the United States, and the Soviet Union. However, as the politics of the post-cold war era thawed rapidly, the UN quickly found itself in a situation it was not equipped for, says Annan.

"Until the end of the 1980s, when the Soviet Union collapsed, the Security Council was divided. The cold war meant it wasn't easy for the Council to agree on what conflicts they should intervene in.

"In most cases they had intervened in inter-country conflicts, where the parties came to agreements, and invited the UN to come and monitor. So they were fairly stable environments. After the early 1990s, we got involved in various internal situations, Somalia and Rwanda being two of them. That required a different type of skill- one that tested the organisation: to defend some of the civilian populations in the vicinity. That was really a qualitative and dramatic change to UN operations," says Annan. 

This unexpected transition meant Annan suddenly found himself in 1994, as head of UN peacekeeping, in a position where he could do nothing, as an ethnic conflict erupted in Rwanda, between the Tutsi and Hutu tribes. Over a three-month period, he pleaded with world leaders to intervene in the genocide, in which 800,000 people were massacred. This figute amounts to nearly three quarters of the entire Tutsi population, who were hacked to death with machetes, mostly by civilians on the Hutu side. 

After the previous events of "Black Hawk Down" - where two helicopters were shot down, and eighteen US soldiers killed by a mob of rebels - a year earlier in Mogadishu, the Clinton Administration felt deploying more peacekeeping troops to a similar region would not benefit Americans' national interest. Other countries steadily agreed. Annan describes this moment as devastating. 

"It was a very painful experience for me, but we have to understand the context. We were trying to cope with Rwanda soon after the collapse of the UN operations in Somalia, where US troops had been killed, and dragged through the streets. These countries became so risk-averse that they wouldn't jump into another situation like Somalia. Instead of increasing the numbers, we scaled back. In those situations, governments tend to look after their own. So the question of protecting the Rwandans was secondary."

Nearly a decade later, Annan found himself again attempting to negotiate another ethnic conflict in Africa: this time in the Darfur region in western Sudan. In 2003, UN senior staff had begun to issue public warnings about an army of tribal fighters from the Arab Baggara tribes - known as the Janjaweed. These Arab militiamen - who were supplied with weapons by the Sudanese army - raped, killed, and burned down thousands of village homes, displacing hundreds of thousands of others.

Annan paid a personal visit to the president of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, in July 2004, to ask him to intervene. The meeting ended with Bashir promising to disarm the Janjaweed, and to bring justice to those accused of human rights violations. Nothing happened. In a conflict where 300,000 had allegedly been massacred, many in the international community began to ask the same question: should Darfur be recognised as genocide?

In July 2004, the United States Congress voted that it was. 

Annan maintains that he was given ample evidence which confirmed that however barbaric these crimes were, technically, they could not be classed as genocide. 

"The UN sent in a commission to Darfur, headed by Antonio Cassese, who was a prominent Italian judge, and an expert on war crime. They came up with a report confirming there was systematic abuse of human rights, and to some extent, crimes against humanity. However, they could not determine after their study, that it was genocide,” says Anna

  "That would entail judicial determination, and analysis, so the commission stopped short of calling it genocide. This was a report that went to the Security Council. On the basis of that report the Security Council referred the Bashir case to the International Criminal Court. Having accepted their report, I couldn't then say it was genocide. I had to accept the judgment headed by Cassese.

"While the Americans called Darfur genocide, they didn't change their policy. They declared it genocide and did nothing," he adds. 

After half a century of serving the UN, Annan has witnessed a plethora of tyrants - many of whom are guilty of practicing genocide, politicide and torture upon those they supposedly govern - pass through the gates of the UN's headquarters in New York. Negotiating with these men, he says, is a fact of life in the world of real politik. 

But how comfortable did he ever become, sipping tea in a room with Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak, or Omar al-Bashir, when a diplomatic favour was needed from the UN? Did utilitarianism overcome contempt in such meetings? And were positive outcomes ever achieved? 

"Whether we like it or not they exist. They often have power and influence over their people. They are also the ones we have to deal with in the situations we are trying to correct. How do
you get them to change - or to do what the international community wants them to do - by not engaging them? One may go in with force, but you also have to make sure force will not cause more harm than already exists," says Annan. 

"Sometimes you need to talk with these people to save lives, to stop the killings, and the gross abuse of human rights. You need to try and find a way of getting them to understand, because you cannot go and blast your way in. I'm a diplomat, not an army general with a whole brigade behind me."

Somalia - the failed state

Somalia, which became a failed state in 1991, has become a breeding ground for fundamentalist Islamic terrorists, in the absence of institutions that are normally paid to fight terrorism: such as a functioning police force, or a government-recognised judicial system. Al-Shabaab, Somalia's Islamist insurgent group, which has joined al-Qaeda, has imposed a strict version of Sharia law in the areas that it holds control over in Somalia. Some punishments the organisation carries out include: the stoning to death of women accused of adultery, and amputating the hands of thieves. 

Publicly, most governments in the west maintain they will never negotiate beyond the barrel of a gun with such organisations. Privately however, often no alternative exists.

Asked why this strange charade is often played out in the media about never talking to terrorists, Annan responds: 

"There are two reasons. You have to discourage people becoming terrorists. And secondly, you don't want to give them the recognition, or the respectability in a civilised and stable society. However, you come to realise that they are a reality. So you have to deal with them to bring peace. In the end, you have to talk." 

What about the word terrorist? Does Annan believe it is loaded with connotations that might be reductive? 

"It's a word that has a meaning, but it also has political connotations. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. However, terrorism has a real meaning. Terror that strikes fear into the population, as a means of achieving one's objectives, is not something you support and encourage in civilised society."

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS

Annan has been a tireless advocate of campaigns that promote education and medical care for HIV/AIDS, and other diseases, around the globe. In 2002, he set up 'The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria'. It has since approved funding worth $22.9 billion for 1,000 programmes in 151 countries. However, attempting to work with various African leaders on this issue has not been easy. In his book, Annan describes how in 2001, the then president of Kenya, Daniel arap Moi, when asked to speak publicly about the use of condoms, responded by saying: "I am [the] father of a nation. My duty is to keep people moral and upright. I can't talk about being promiscuous!" 

Annan says the irresponsibility and contemptuous attitude around this issue, from his fellow African leaders, was deeply shameful for him. Another culprit of AIDS denial was Thabo Mbeki, the former president of South Africa, who refused to recognise the scientific evidence which proved that AIDS is caused by the HIV virus and could be treated with antiretroviral drugs. 

In South Africa, and in other countries in the region, this culture of AIDS denial - where health policy became corrupted by pseudo-science and misinformation - has resulted in an un-precedented number of senseless deaths. According to statistics from the website, unaidsrstesa.org, AIDS-related illnesses have claimed at least one million lives annually, in sub-Saharan Africa since 1998. I ask Annan if he ever felt, as secretary-general of the UN, that political leaders in Africa should have been held account- able for such deaths in an international court of law? He says to contemplate such a legal approach would have been impossible. 

"There was no such effort; that would have been extremely difficult to get through any court. But what the UN did do, was to come up with measures to help and assist those living with the disease. We also negotiated with the pharmaceutical companies to reduce the price of medication for the poor, particularly in the African region. At one point they were even giving away the medication nevirapine: which prevents mother to child transmission, the cruelest [outcome] of all."