Remarks With His Excellency Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations After Their Meeting
Secretary Colin L. Powell
C Street Entrance
Washington, DC
December 16, 2004
(9:50 a.m. EST)
Secretary Powell and His Excellency Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations speak to the press after their
meeting. SECRETARY POWELL: Well, good morning, ladies and gentlemen. The Secretary General and I just had a very
productive meeting, where we discussed some of the many challenges that we are dealing with in the world today. We had a
good conversation on the situation in Darfur and the need for us to do more. I told the Secretary General I had spoken
to Vice President Taha yesterday and will be in touch with additional Sudanese officials in the days ahead. We also
talked about the dialogue taking place in Nairobi to solve the north-south issue, so-called Lake Naivasha talks.
The Secretary General and I also discussed the situation in Haiti and a number of other areas in the world where the UN
is playing such a vital role and the United States is working alongside other nations under a UN mandate to bring peace
and stability to these troubled places in the world.
We had a good conversation on election preparations in Iraq. As you know, the Iraqis themselves are responsible for the
conduct of the election and the UN is certainly doing a good job in supporting them. The Secretary General has increased
the number of UN personnel in the region and, as you heard yesterday, he has announced they'll be opening offices in due
course in Basra and in Urbil. And he advised me that some 6,000 Iraqi personnel have been trained in the conduct of the
election and over 130,000 have been identified to actually run the various polling stations. So the UN effort seems to
be on track in support of the Iraqi effort. They have the principal responsibility.
It's always a pleasure to welcome the Secretary General. And I don't know if this will be our last formal meeting here
before I depart, Mr. Secretary General, but welcome, pleasure.
SECRETARY GENERAL ANNAN: Thank you very much. As the Secretary said, we've had a very good discussion this morning and
let me say a word about Iraq, that apart from the support we are giving to the Iraqi Independent Electoral Commission,
we also are looking ahead down the line beyond the work we are doing to ensure that the elections in January are
successful. We are looking ahead next year. If the government wishes to work with them on the constitution, work with
them on the referendum of the constitution and, of course, the next national elections, and so we have a whole agenda
ahead of us and we are determined to work and help the Iraqi people succeed in this effort.
I would also want to say that we did discuss Afghanistan, where the UN, in that situation, the UN ran the elections,
which were very successful. This was only the presidential elections. We are now beginning to look ahead to next year,
next spring, for the parliamentary and municipal elections, where we are also going to work with our Afghan partners to
ensure that we run fairly successful elections.
We also had the opportunity to talk about UN reform and the proposals put forward by the Panel on Threats, Challenges
and Change. I think it's an excellent report and it gives the membership an opportunity to bring the UN into the 21st
century, and I hope the reform proposals in that report will be taken very, very seriously by members, and I look
forward to U.S. leadership and cooperation as we try to reform the organization.
And this also gave me a chance to thank Secretary Powell for the excellent cooperation and the wonderful work he has
done around the world, and we at the UN are going to miss him. We did work extremely well together. So thank you very
much.
SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you, Kofi.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary --
SECRETARY POWELL: Excuse me a minute. Excuse me a minute.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, you mentioned that the Iraq election program and the UN support for it is on track. Are you
confident at this point that the United Nations is doing enough? And, if not, what specifically would you like to see
done differently?
SECRETARY POWELL: The Secretary General reports that he is on track with respect to the planned efforts that the UN is
making and is expecting to make in support of the Independent Election Commission. And so you may want to add a word to
that, Kofi.
SECRETARY GENERARL ANNAN: No, I would want say a word about that. I think we are -- as I said, we are on track with
technical preparation, and so what we had to do, we've done. Obviously, there are other aspects of the elections which
the Iraqi Government will have to take care of, particularly the context in which the elections are held,
security-political environment, and the efforts which we are helping them on to try and pull into the process those who
are outside the process to make it as inclusive as possible. The more inclusive the process, the likelier that the
results will not be contested.
So, from a technical point of view, we have done all that we need to do. We have enough people in there to do the work,
and if need be, we'll put in the staff we need to get the work done. It's not a question of numbers. It's a question of
what you need to get the job done. And are we doing the job? Yes, we are doing the job.
SECRETARY POWELL: Yes.
QUESTION: Has the Oil-for-Food program or the Oil-for-Food investigations been discussed today in your meetings?
SECRETARY POWELL: We did touch on it briefly in our meeting and we know there are a number of inquiries underway. Mr.
Volcker is doing his work and there are inquiries taking place up on Capitol Hill here and we're waiting for the results
of those inquiries. The Secretary General and I noted that we're both deeply concerned about this matter and we want to
get the truth out and we want to see these investigations come to a conclusion so responsibility and accountability can
be assigned. And the world wants to see the results of these investigations as soon as possible, as well.
Yeah.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, have you had a chance to see the new bin Laden audiotape? Do you know if it's --
SECRETARY POWELL: No, I have not.
QUESTION: -- actually him?
As you've probably heard, he praises the attack in Jeddah. I'm wondering if you're concerned this could lead to more
attacks in Saudi Arabia?
SECRETARY POWELL: I have not heard the tape and I know that our intelligence community is analyzing it to see whether
it actually is bin Laden; it appears to be. But I will wait for the results of that analysis.
Tammy.
QUESTION: Could I just follow on to that? Is he, is bin Laden taunting the U.S. and Saudi Arabia with these tapes? I
mean, what's the purpose here do you think?
SECRETARY POWELL: He's a terrorist. That's what terrorists do. He is a criminal; he's a terrorist; he's a murderer. And
we're going to continue to hunt for him until he is captured and brought to justice. But let's wait and see the
authenticity of this tape and give our intelligence communities time to really examine it and make sure it is bin Laden;
it appears to be.
But what he's trying to do is to incite. And he is on the run and he will be brought to justice eventually, I'm
confident.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary --
SECRETARY POWELL: Yeah, one more and then we have to go.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, I just want to ask Mr. Annan if he feels disappointed that he did not meet with the President
or his deputy to talk about your side of the story of the Oil-for-Food program and whether you feel snubbed, as some
reports said, by the President?
SECRETARY GENERAL ANNAN: No, not at all. I don't feel snubbed. I will be seeing the National Security Advisor and we
have lots of technical issues to discuss. And the President and I have met on many occasions, and we also do talk on the
phone. And so I don't feel that if I come to Washington and we don't get the chance to meet I should feel offended or
snubbed. This is the nature of things.
QUESTION: And your comments on the Oil-for-Food, sir?
SECRETARY GENERAL ANNAN: I think the Oil-for-Food is something that I am concerned about and would want to get to the
bottom of it. And I am anxious to see the investigations concluded as quickly as possible so that we can get -- put it
behind us and focus on the essential work of the United Nations.
QUESTION: Are you disturbed by continuing accusations against your son?
SECRETARY POWELL: As I noted earlier, we are doing a lot of work together with the United Nations. We want to support
the United Nations, support the Secretary General in his work. And as we noted earlier, we have confidence in the
Secretary General. We want to get to the bottom of these matters as quickly as we can, and that is in our mutual
interest to do so.
Thank you.
QUESTION: One on UN reforms?
SECRETARY GENERAL ANNAN: Thank you very much.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, on the UN report -- the UN Reform report?
SECRETARY POWELL: It's cold out here.
(Laughter.)
2004/1366
# # #
[End]
Released on December 16, 2004