wfn.org | Kofi Annan receives World Methodist Peace Award

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Nov. 18, 1998	Contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York    {679}

NOTE: A photograph is forthcoming.

NEW YORK (UMNS) - Recalling values learned as a student at a Methodist
school in Ghana, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan accepted the 1998
World Methodist Peace Award during a Nov. 17 ceremony at the Church
Center for the United Nations.

Inaugurated in 1977, the award is presented by the World Methodist
Council to people or groups displaying "courage, creativity and
consistency" in the pursuit of peace. The council represents 73
Methodist and related denominations in 108 countries.

"Persons assembled here represent your cheering section," council
Chairperson Frances Alguire told the 50-year-old statesman. "Know that
you are greatly admired by many."

She praised his "long-standing patience and persistence" while engaging
in dialogue for peace.

The Rev. Joe Hale, the council's general secretary, noted that the peace
award winners have demonstrated "the most courageous achievements and
best dreams of our times."

Alguire and Hale presented a certificate, medallion and small honorarium
to the U.N. secretary-general "for his efforts to bring dignity,
reconciliation and peace to our world."

Annan acknowledged the honor the World Methodist Peace Award represents.

"To follow in the footsteps of such peacemakers as Anwar Sadat and
Mikhail Gorbachev is to be both humbled and inspired," he told the
gathering. "Humbled, because their lives remain shining examples of
courage, initiative and independence. Inspired, because they showed that
one man's conscience can change the world."

As a child, Annan's primary education occurred at the Mfantsipim School,
a Methodist institution in Ghana. "There, I was privileged to have
teachers who understood the value of knowledge infused with a moral
purpose," he said. "They knew that learning and education are the
strongest bulwarks against evil and ignorance.

"And they taught me, in the spirit of faith," he added, "that suffering
anywhere concerns people everywhere and that the light of one candle can
truly illuminate the world."

Annan was named secretary-general in 1996 and has served the United
Nations for more than 30 years. His assignments have included
negotiating the repatriation of more than 900 international staff and
the release of Western hostages in Iraq in 1990, and overseeing the
transition in the former Yugoslavia from the U.N. Protection Force to a
multinational force in 1995.

"To make peace between warring parties, to convince fighters to lay down
their arms and tyrants to give up their tyranny, it is critical to see
conflicts in all their complexity. To make peace, we may sometimes have
to shake the hands of aggressors and lend our ears to voices of enmity,"
said the man, who has negotiated with Iraq's Saddam Hussein in efforts
to avoid military conflict.

The secretary-general stressed that peace is the work of the United
Nations. "It is why we were founded from the ashes of the most
destructive war in human history," he reminded his audience.

As under-secretary-general for peacekeeping operations, Annan helped
formulate new approaches to working in the post-Cold War world. Noting
that 1998 marks the 50th anniversary of U.N. peacekeeping efforts, he
said: "We cannot declare victory, but we will not concede defeat. We
cannot claim that peacekeeping has been the answer to every conflict,
but nor will we agree that it cannot contain any conflict."

He called attention to another 50th anniversary, of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, and pointed out that such rights are
essential to peace. 

"We are making human rights central to our peace-building efforts by
ensuring that peacekeeping missions incorporate human rights into their
core activities," he said.

Participants in the award ceremony were Alguire; Hale; His Eminence S.C.
Mbang of Nigeria, vice-chairperson of the World Methodist Council; the
Right Rev. Samuel Antwi, president of the Methodist Church of Ghana;
Bishop Graciela Alvarez of Mexico, vice president of the council's North
American Section; Bishop Nathaniel Linsey of Cincinnati, Christian
Methodist Episcopal Church; and Bishop Donald G.K. Ming, Fayetteville,
Ga., council presidium member.

Previous award winners are Saidie Patterson, Northern Ireland, 1977;
Sadat of Egypt, 1978; Abel Hendricks, South Africa, 1980; Donald Soper,
England, 1981; Kenneth Mew, Zimbabwe, 1983; Tai-Young Lee, Korea, 1984;
President Jimmy Carter, United States, 1985; Alan and Winifred Walker,
Australia, 1986; Woodrow Seals, United States, and Bert Bissel, England,
1987; Gordon Wilson, Northern Ireland, 1988; Mikhail Gorbachev, Soviet
Union, 1990; Barbel Bohley, Germany, 1991; Zdravko Beslov, Bulgaria,
1992; Elias Chacour, Israel, 1994; Mmutlanyane Stanley Mogoba, South
Africa, 1996; and The Community of St. Egidio, Italy, 1997.

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