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Kofi Annan appeals for cooperation and leadership from USA

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Monday, December 11, 2006

UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan delivered his farewell address today at the Truman Presidential Museum & Library, Independence, Missouri. He reminded his audience of the far sighted leadership provided by President Harry S Truman in championing the United Nations in its early years. Annan went on to offer five lessons, every one of which led him to conclude that "such leadership is no less sorely needed now than it was sixty years ago".

The lessons he had learned while in office were that the security of everyone is linked to that of everyone else and that we are all responsible for each other’s welfare; that security and development ultimately depend on respect for human rights and the rule of law; that governments must be accountable for their actions in the international arena, as well as in the domestic one; and that, only by working together through the United Nations, can security, welfare and development be achieved.

In the course of his speech, Kofi Annan referred to America as being in the vanguard of the global human rights movement but he warned "that lead can only be maintained if America remains true to its principles, including in the struggle against terrorism".

He concluded his address saying "More than ever today Americans, like the rest of humanity, need a functioning global system through which the world’s peoples can face global challenges together. And in order to function, the system still cries out for far-sighted American leadership, in the Truman tradition. I hope and pray that the American leaders of today, and tomorrow, will provide it."

Afterwards, he was asked why he had chosen in his farewell speech to make such a pointed attack on America. He replied, sharply, that "An appeal for cooperation and leadership should never be seen as an attack".

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This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.

The text of this article is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License
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