“When
people are in danger, everyone has a duty to speak out. No one has a right to
pass by on the other side.”
This
is one of the main messages of “Interventions: A Life in War and Peace”, Kofi
Annan’s compellingly written and thought-provoking memoir.
The
former United Nations secretary-general discussed the book last Saturday when he was a guest at
lit.COLOGNE, an international literary festival in the western German city. But while the audience was impressed by Annan's "aura of authority" and by his
eloquence, many people wanted more details about his work and life.
For
that, they'll have to read "Interventions". The book gives readers an
inside view of international diplomacy during a turbulent period that included
the Balkan conflicts and the Iraq War.
Annan,
the first sub-Saharan African to hold the UN’s top post, writes candidly about
some of the UN’s failed efforts in countries such as Somalia and Rwanda, and he
gives absorbing accounts of various political issues and leaders. But he also
pays homage to ordinary people around the world who are fighting to improve
their lives and live in dignity.
"Ultimately,
the success of our efforts on the question of intervention should not be
measured in wars launched or sanctions imposed but in lives saved," he
writes of the UN's peacekeeping missions.
With
the question of how to protect civilians in war-torn areas becoming
increasingly pertinent, readers will be struck by the complex procedures
involved in getting governments to act. But Annan warns that everyone is
diminished when the international community stands by and watches as atrocities
are committed.
"We
as a global community should learn the hard-won lessons of the past, and seek
to prevent injustices and inequities from taking root before they lead to
crisis and conflict," he stresses.
