Kofi Annan departed on the journey of no return
By José Ramos-Horta*
Tributes are pouring in from all over the world. I do not wish to repeat what surely is being written and spoken by many in more eloquent and detailed prose than I could possibly do. So this is a more personal remembrance of someone I first metby chance sometime in the early 80s in New York when he was a young mid career UN official and I was a lonely rebel with a “lost cause”. The setting was a private party in Midtown Manhattan and Kofi Annan was there, quietly sitting at a corner.
We were introduced and chatted. I noticed how he had that one drink all evening sipping so so slowly and elegantly that one drink; he was discreet, quiet and refined. I followed his career progression trough the UN bureaucracy.
Kofi Annan was elected UN Secretary-General in 1996, the same year Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and I were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. That same year, our main international ally, Portugal, beat Australia in a hotly contested seat at the UN Security Council.
In his inaugural speech, Kofi Annan pledged to resolve the “East Timor question” within his first term. Against Indonesia’s objections, soon after he appointed a veteran Pakistani diplomat Jamshed Marker as his Special Envoy for East Timor injecting new diplomatic dynamism in the search for a
negotiated solution.
In mid 1997 a major financial crisis hit the so-called “Tiger economies” of Southeast Asia, Thailand being the first casualty, followed by Indonesia. By 1998 Suharto regime of Indonesia was toppled and this paved the way for a resolution of the conflict in East Timor. In 2002 Kofi Annan was present in Dili to witness Timor-Leste’s second declaration of Independence.
This year on 20th August we mark the 15th anniversary of the tragic death of Sergio Vieira de Mello in Bagdad on a mission assigned to him by Kofi Annan. Sergio Vieira De Mello served in Timor-Leste from November 1999 till May 2002 as Kofi Annan’s trusted Special Representative.
In recent years long after he left office, we were regularly in touch. In 2017 Kofi Annan invited me to serve with him and other prominent global personalities on the Global Commission on Drug Policy, an invitation that I promptly accepted.
A remarkable man, a true global statesman departed on this journey of no return, the same journey that poor and rich, weak and powerful, peasants and Emperors, have undertaken and will undertake.
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*José Ramos-Horta received the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for his work to bring about a non-violent end to the occupation of his country, Timor-Leste. He is the former prime minister and president of Timor-Leste and has done missions for the UN Secretary General including acting as Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary General to Guinea Bissau, co-chairing a High Level Independent Panel on UN Peace Operations, serving on the Global Commission on Drug Policy.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan passed away
To his wife, family, relatives and all the members of the United Nations System, my deepest condolences.
He was always in the forefront in favor of equal human dignity, peace and full exercise of the human rights.
Kofi Annan will always remain for all of us and many people in the world as a reference and guidance in our everyday behavior.
With highest esteem,
Federico Mayor Zaragoza – Former Director General of UNESCO (1987-1999) and President of the Foundation for a Culture of Peace