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DIPLOMATIC LICENSE

Current Events at the United Nations

Aired January 14, 2005 - 21:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three billion people live in areas prone to disasters and it's not a question of if there will be a natural disaster affecting them, but when it will happen.

KOFI ANNAN, U.N. SECY.-GEN.: There are moments when it is depressing, when I wish I could spend some more time or stay in one place a bit longer.

JAN PRONK, U.N. ENVOY TO DARFUR: The second stage of the war between the North and the South lasted two decades. Why should we allow the war in Darfur to last more than two years?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD ROTH, CNN ANCHOR: Say the words "small islands" and it's easy to feel warm, good thoughts. But for the people living on those low-lying lands, there can be trouble in paradise.

Welcome to DIPLOMATIC LICENSE. I'm Richard Roth, on the island nation of Mauritius.

At the conference center behind me, delegates from around the world debated climate change, eco-system degradation and calls for an early warning system in the Indian Ocean.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unfortunate indeed, but it is like that. The tsunami tragedy has brutally focused the world's attention on the specific problems and the vulnerability, fragility, of some more island states.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was worried because we have them, but in the Pacific we figured everyone had them. But, of course, we get a few more earthquakes than the Pacific. But, again, the technology is not that difficult. You can make it more sophisticated, more facilities in different parts of the ocean to tell you things, but as we all know, the people in Hawaii knew exactly where that earthquake off Aceh was centered and the strength of it the second it happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me put it as succinctly as possible. In the last year alone, natural disasters have wiped out in one year 43 decades of development and gains in some thriving countries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: Secretary-General Kofi Annan also called for prevention and early warning. We discussed the humanitarian crisis outside Annan's hotel room as the sun set here in Africa. We also looked ahead to some pressing issues when he returns to New York.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: Mr. Secretary, thanks for joining me at the end of our journey here.

As the leader of the United Nations, do you think there's been some kind of paradigm shift regarding world assistance, the urgency of it, on issues of humanitarian crisis? Can you detect something different?

ANNAN: The response to the tsunami catastrophe has been unique. I haven't seen anything like this, where there has been such a spontaneous outpouring of support and sympathy and a real desire to contribute, not just by governments but ordinary people in the streets.

I hope we can find a way of capturing this moment and nurturing this spirit and hopefully apply it to other crisis situations.

ROTH: I think it's amazing. I think Jan Egeland's comment, however it may be a blessing in disguise -- I mean, it didn't come from you. It came from someone else within the United Nations and it was a different change of pace. I mean, I think I detected Jan Egeland smiling a little when he's always asked about this, but -- and of course, it was misinterpreted, his comment, but -- it wasn't a stingy response to the tsunami. But I think it had to have played a role. It's almost like a telethon race of who is going to give more.

ANNAN: Yes. And I think the other point is that the whole crisis was on television. People saw it. Lots of video clips, day in and day out. And in seven hours -- all the destruction was done in seven hours -- it struck two continents and 12 countries. And citizens of many countries who were on holidays also died.

So in a way, the victims were international.

ROTH: What does a small island have to do to get attention? Does it have to get a tsunami? This conference -- probably, unfortunately, people aren't going to pay that much attention to it.

ANNAN: No. You are right. I mean, it was an important conference, but the tsunami heightened the importance of the issue. And the impact of climate and climate change and what the sea can do, because we've all been worried about rising sea levels and all of that.

And I think we can only imagine that what happened with the tsunami brought it home very forcefully to everyone. And, of course, now everyone is concerned about early warning systems, establishing a system. In fact, I got a document when we went to the conference, pleading for a global system, a global warning system, not just on tsunami. On earthquakes and weather situations, on cyclones and all of that, so that the whole world can be linked up.

It can be done, but it's going to be quite an expensive proposition.

ROTH: If I mention a country, could you give me a two-word description which first comes to mind, when you get home and people ask how was it? Indonesia.

ANNAN: Catastrophic.

ROTH: Sri Lanka.

ANNAN: Sri Lanka, I would say major damage. Major damage to the coastal areas.

ROTH: Maldives.

ANNAN: The Maldives, extensive damage and many more people affected. 1/3 of the population have been affected, and I don't think the world knows about that.

ROTH: The president of Sri Lanka, who expressed the need for unity with the Tamil Tigers and a spirit of unity in all countries, hoping the tsunami brings people together, said she is going to adopt an orphaned Tamil child. Is that what you had in mind, or would you like to see more? What do you think of that gesture?

ANNAN: I think it's positive, in a society that is divided. But I think what I had in mind was much more. I thought if the two parties, the government and the LTTE (ph) cooperated effectively on the humanitarian assistance, helping the people, showing that they care regardless of which side they were on, that would have instilled greater confidence. It would be a confidence building measure for both sides and it would facilitate the peace process.

I hope that it is still possible to do that.

ROTH: Before the sun sets on us, meteorologically speaking, Iraq elections, violence every day. What's your outlook right now on the quality of any type of elections?

ANNAN: Well, you know, I have a team there advising and supporting the Iraqi Electoral Commission. As of today, elections are going to be held on the 30th of January and the authorities are determined to go ahead.

It's an important election for the Iraqis and one would want to see every Iraqi exercise his or her vote or be in a position to exercise his or her vote, because the more inclusive it is, the better it is for everyone.

I know that even at this late stage, attempts are being made to bring people together and to pull them in. There is a serious, difficult security situation. One cannot ignore that. We have how many days? About two weeks to go.

ROTH: When we get back to New York, I don't know why I have a feeling that there are going to be changes. You have said that there will be other senior staff changes. Is this almost going to be like the start of the second Annan term? Is there going to be -- should we look for new faces and changes and -- there were rumors of, that they were going to have to give --

(CROSSTALK)

ANNAN: There will be some changes and I think in the next two years I think we have an important agenda, not just a reform but also the MDGs, which are going to be reviewed in September.

ROTH: Millennium Development Goals.

ANNAN: Millennium Development Goals. And the reform proposals that were submitted by the Panel on Present Challenges and Change. And I will need to -- we need to try to work with the member states and assure that we get concrete results out of the very good proposals the plan has put forward.

ROTH: Are you looking to show a different management team, a sense that no matter what comes out of the Volcker report, that there is a renewed energy?

ANNAN: No. I think, you know, we've been there. We've been at this for eight years. After eight years, people get tired. You sometimes need fresh blood, new ideas, and you want to reenergize the team.

ROTH: And, finally, everyone thinks that the U.N. leader travels in grand style, that the United Nations has an air force, they call it Annan Force One. And we'll take a look here at some video. This is on this military aircraft provided by Singapore, a refueling plane, and you're sitting there under a harsh light.

But also, as the plane arrived in Mauritius, I thought I detected some movement -- it was sort of an interesting turns or things -- and I saw a familiar red sweater in the cockpit. Who was landing that plane and what was going on in that cockpit?

ANNAN: The pilot landed the plane. I was in there to get a good view of the environment. You noticed in our plane, there are no windows. So I was pleased to be able t get in. There was sunshine and I could see out. But I spoke to Secretary Powell on the trip about the Sudan peace agreement. I had hoped to go to Nairobi before, but I couldn't.

So I spoke to him and I said, look, you won't believe what I'm traveling in. This is KC-135 stratotanker. And I arrived in Sri Lanka with this military plane. I came out, and there was a red carpet on the ground. And I had the feeling that everybody was looking for a 5-star general to come out, and then I walk out.

But it was so incongruous, to be on a diplomatic and humanitarian mission and arrive in.

ROTH: Into the theatre, traveling on this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: Kofi Annan was a special guest. The islands that were devastated by the tsunami want more of them: tourists. The Maldives Islands were so difficult to leave, I prodded Maldives President Abdul Gayoom to continue his firm rule with the Annan delegation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROTH: Is there any way you can detain your guests here one more day so that we can enjoy the lovely country here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would love to. I would love to, but I understand that the secretary-general has other very important engagements. I would be very, very happy for him to stay longer.

ANNAN: In fact, the hotels are working and we've been looked after very well, and we will come back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROTH: U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan left the Maldives headed for the small islands conference in Mauritius, a meeting which takes on extra importance now because of the tsunami.

One of those manic moments when traveling with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Travels with the United Nations can be more spontaneous, more flexible, than those tightly arranged White House schedules.

I discussed going around the globe with Kofi Annan with one of the passengers, journalist James Traub, who is writing a book about Kofi Annan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: James Traub, you've been on several visits around the world by the secretary-general of the United Nations. What strikes you about these type of journeys, the hectic schedule we've been on?

JAMES TRAUB, JOURNALIST: Well, you know, the point for him is not necessarily the same as the point for you and me. That is, it's not necessarily to see the most authentic reality. It's actually to see enough that he can then say to the head of state he speaks to that this is what I saw and this is what I felt and, more importantly, so that you and I and other people can see him seeing it.

And so sometimes it can be frustrating because my job is to actually talk to people, see things, see the reality as deeply as possible. But I'm with him, and his job is actually something quite different.

ROTH: Now, you actually learn more than the secretary-general at the United Nations.

TRAUB: Yes, no. I often wonder actually how much he gets to learn on these trips, because everything he sees has been presented for him. There are places that he goes really because he has to go.

When we were in Sri Lanka, we didn't go to the most affected areas. We went to one place that was the prime minister's constituency, and one place in the northeast, because they had denied him access to the north and this was the best they could do.

So, yes, he has to suffer from those compromises he has to make.

ROTH: You have observed him on many trips. How is he on this one, a tsunami-themed one, instead of perhaps more instruction from a military point of view?

TRAUB: Well, you know, in a way I think he is just more comfortable in a setting like this, which is a humanitarian one, then the setting where people are angrily and violently divided against each other. And I think, you know, those can be really hard for him, because he has to take a position in a place where there is no comfortable position to take.

Here there is a kind of unanimity of feeling, you know. And everybody is eager to do something. And so his own position is easier and is maybe more celebrated than it would be in a more contentious setting.

ROTH: Does a trip like this represent an escape from Oil For Food and troubles which does not exist on other trips?

TRAUB: That's actually not quite true. The last trip he took, he came home early. He aborted the trip by two or three days, partly because of -- for a number of reasons, but principally because of reports about Oil For Food. So it's not the first time though.

I'm sure if you are him, it must be nice to actually see something where he feels he can do something good about the world as opposed to having to stoically suffer all of these accusations.

ROTH: What did he accomplish, then, on this journey?

TRAUB: Oh, I think what he accomplished is that he -- a couple of things.

One, for the institution, he is seen as having a central role in this work of cleaning this thing up. And so for the institution, it's very important, especially given the kind of lose-lose proposition of a lot of the other stuff he's been doing recently.

For the kind of good of the world, I suppose what he does is he's able to do a few things. One, he brings more attention to it. Two, he operates at the head-of-state level. He can say to heads of state, look, this is what I saw, this is what I heard, this is what people say to me. Can you do something about it. And he has that access, he has the legitimacy to say that.

ROTH: And now we've got to run. Very significant part of the trip is running.

TRAUB: Yes.

ROTH: James Traub, thank you very much.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: Journalist Traub accompanies Kofi Annan with the understanding that he does not disclose what he learns until publication upon the end of Kofi Annan's second term.

DIPLOMATIC LICENSE will now return back to New York from Africa. While we're in the air, coming up Liz Neisloss from New York with the latest U.N. news, right after these messages.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID BECKHAM, STAR ATHLETE: Hi. I'm David Beckham. It's impossible to ignore the disaster in Asia. Hundreds of thousands of children in need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIZ NEISLOSS, CNN HOST: UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, football superstar and heart-throb to some, David Beckham makes a plea to help children affected by the tsunami disaster. Beckham pitched in to pack up UNICEF emergency kits, like School in a Box.

Welcome back to DIPLOMATIC LICENSE. I'M Liz Neisloss, picking up for Richard Roth, in New York.

A lot's been said about large amounts of money donated to the crisis, raising inevitable questions about the potential for corruption. This week, questions were raised in the United States. Should the United Nations, accused of mismanagement of the enormous Oil For Food program, be the organization to handle tsunami relief? A former U.S. president announcing his own relief project with UNICEF weighed in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FMR. U.S. PRESIDENT: No one has questioned the commitment or the integrity or the impact of the United Nations humanitarian efforts, and particularly the efforts of UNICEF. So there is absolutely no dispute about that, as far as I know, across the political spectrum in America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEISLOSS: In the past week, relief officials have expressed the fear that tsunami focus would draw attention away from other crises, such as Darfur. The U.N. Special Envoy to the Sudan Jan Pronk brought the Security Council up to date.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEISLOSS (voice-over): The new year brought some good news to Sudan, a peace agreement signed last week ending decades of war in the South. The U.N.'s special envoy to Sudan told the Security Council the government and the former rebel leader John Garang have a long road ahead to make that agreement reality; disarming former combatants and bringing in militant groups that weren't in on the peace talks a few of the potential stumbling blocks ahead.

But the emphasis is on the positive. John Danforth was the former U.S. envoy to Sudan.

JOHN DANFORTH, U.S. AMB. TO U.N.: It is impossible to overstate the importance of that agreement. It ended a war that has lasted for more than two decades and it has claimed more than 2 million lives, and people are just pushing that off the front page as though nothing happened last Sunday. Something big happened last Sunday and it was due in large part to the engagement of the United States in this process.

Now, the next question is Darfur.

NEISLOSS: Darfur, where the diplomatic focus will now shift. Already the United States and others are voicing hope that John Garang, a vice president in the new government, will personally commit effort to Darfur.

Much help is needed. U.N. Envoy Jan Pronk told the Security Council there is political stalemate, and with new rebel groups launching attacks outside Darfur, he said the conflict is spreading.

PRONK: Large quantities of arms have been carried into Darfur in defiance of the Security Council decision taken in July.

December saw a buildup of arms, attacks on positions, including air attacks, raids on small towns and villages, increased banditry, more looting. We may move into a period of intense violence unless swift action is taken and new approaches are considered.

NEISLOSS: More African Union troops, more police and more human rights monitors are urgently needed, Pronk says. Sanctions should not be imposed for the moment to give the new government a break.

So while there may be new opportunity for Darfur, Pronk warns it's fragile and easily spoiled.

PRONK: The second stage of the war between the North and the South lasted two decades. Why should we allow the war in Darfur to last more than two years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEISLOSS: To help backup the peace between North and South, Pronk has proposed as many as 10,000 U.N. troops for a new Sudan mission.

This week the United Nations announced the choice of a British counter-terrorism expert to head global security for the organization. David Veness, a Scotland Yard official skilled in hostage negotiation, takes up a newly expanded role at the United Nations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID VENESS, U.N. GLOBAL SECURITY HEAD: This is unequivocally not an information gathering service in a political sense. The mission that I would seek to undertake as head of the team is to protect those who are engaged in the employ of the United Nations and indeed their families and dependents. That requires an informed view as to what the dangers are of terrorism, violence, extremism, indeed other forms of unwanted crime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEISLOSS: Veness says he'll first visit the U.N.'s high threat sites. His responsibilities include the U.N. mission in Iraq.

And one final note on Iraq. This week U.S. officials said they had closed down the hunt for weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. inspectors known as the Iraq Survey Group didn't find any weapons stockpiled.

Reaction from United Nations weapons inspectors? A U.N. spokesman said they hoped more of the information gathered by the United States would be released to the public. The Security Council has yet to decide what to do with its weapons inspection agency. The close of U.S. inspections wasn't a major subject among diplomats at the United Nations.

And that's it for this week's DIPLOMATIC LICENSE. I'm Liz Neisloss. Richard Roth will be back from his travels next week. Thanks for watching.

END

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