Iraq invasion made UN chief ill, says aide

Kofi Annan lost his voice, looked vacant at meetings and even sought medical help after the 2003 invasion of Iraq, according to a new biography by his former spokesman.

The former United Nations chief was deeply troubled by the divisions in the world brought on by the war and the Bush administration’s criticism of those like him who objected, Fred Eckhard said as he unveiled the 313-page biography, Kofi Annan, at the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

Things became worse for Mr Annan after a 2003 bombing of the UN’s Baghdad offices killed 22 staff, including its top Iraq envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, whom Mr Annan had asked to go to Baghdad.

“Many people close to him say that he became depressed, particularly in that year you had the bombing of (UN headquarters in) Baghdad,” Mr Eckhard said.

After Mr Vieira de Mello’s death it was unclear if Mr Annan was suffering from depression, said American Mr Eckhard, who was Mr Annan’s spokesman for eight years.

“He certainly went to see doctors about his throat, but he may also have had other help coping with the emotional stress. I was worried and I think those closest to him were worried.”

He said Mr Annan saw the invasion of Iraq as a profound challenge to the concept of collective security in the 1945 UN charter. The new approach of the US was that it could use pre-emptive military action against a threat.

“The charter was kind of torn up in front of his eyes. And the world was split badly down the middle,” Mr Eckhard said.

Mr Eckhard said Mr Annan had good personal relations with President George Bush, but he angered the United States when he labelled the American-led war in Iraq illegal.

Mr Eckhard recalls that the secretary general asked what he thought of that and “I told him: ’I think you’re going to have trouble for having used the term illegal’.”

“’Oh well, it’s what I think,’ Annan replied with a note of sadness rather than worry in his voice,” Mr Eckhard wrote.

Mr Annan, who retired from the UN at the end of 2006, lives in Geneva and continues to play a role as a mediator and advocate for Africa.

He has spoken little of his personal reaction to the turmoil he faced a few years ago.

In his book, Mr Eckhard wrote: “During a period of stress, even though his face and his posture appeared calm and dignified, you could see he was nervous by the movements of his hands and above all by his legs and his feet, hidden under the conference table.”

After the invasion “he gave the impression of withdrawing because he was overwhelmed with worries,” Mr Eckhard wrote.

“During meetings he appeared absent, as if his spirit was somewhere else. And he even lost his voice.”

Mr Eckhard also said he felt his boss was falsely accused of corruption in the Iraqi oil-for-food scandal by neo-conservatives in the Bush administration and the media, even though the secretary general was essentially cleared by the investigations led by former US Federal Reserve chief Paul Volcker.

Mr Eckhard said the neo-conservatives sought to focus blame on Mr Annan and the United Nations when the security situation in Iraq “was on a downward spiral” in 2004 and Mr Annan stuck his neck out by expressing his concern.

“I began writing this book in 2006 because I was angry,” Mr Eckhard said.

He said neither Mr Annan nor his wife Nane had a politician’s thick skin.

“So when they were attacked – and in this case in oil-for-food unfairly – it hurt,” he said.