Annan says 2004 should be 'year of kept promises' in fight against global ills

Decrying a lack of progress in tackling the many serious problems currently facing the world, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged that 2004 be the "year of kept promises" to resolve the pressing issues that afflict the lives of billions.

While recognizing the critical need to stabilize Iraq, halt the spread of deadly weapons and fight terrorism, Mr. Annan told a press conference in New York that other issues require urgent attention. He cited poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy, calling on world leaders to renew their determination to focus on those blights.

With all the focus on Iraq, "leaders, politicians, diplomats and journalists…simply haven't paid enough attention to the many other pressing challenges that facing us," he stressed.

Towards this end, he urged efforts to reach a set of time-bound targets - collectively called the Millennium Development Goals - that were adopted at a UN summit in 2000.

Without action, he said those aims would not be fulfilled, particularly in the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the Andes and Central Asia. "And if the Goals are not met, we will all be poorer, and less secure," he warned.

The Secretary-General called for richer States to increase levels of development aid, give poor nations free and fair access to global markets, and reduce the "crippling" external debt burden. To stem the HIV/AIDS pandemic, he urged providing anti-retroviral treatment to 3 million infected people by 2005 and fully financing a special fund to set up to deal with AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

He noted that the AIDS epidemic kills 8,000 people each day. "When we talk about our concern for weapons of mass destruction and our determination to make sure that they don't get into the wrong hands, we are concerned because they can be used to kill thousands of people, and we don't want that to happen - but 8,000 are dying a day" of AIDS, he pointed out.

"The AIDS epidemic is a weapon of mass destruction," he said. "What is the world doing?"

He also called for increased investments in education, health, and water and sanitation, as well as stepped-up efforts to empower women and to fight corruption.

Mr. Annan noted that promises have been made in these and other areas, and pledged to work assiduously to compel leaders to make good on their word.

In the realm of peace and security, he pointed out that "there is plenty beyond Iraq that needs urgent attention," including the need for progress in the Middle East, Afghanistan, Latin America and Africa. He stressed that in order to address the world's "forgotten humanitarian emergencies" and to carry out its peacekeeping work, the UN would need troops as well as money.

"Let's get our priorities right in 2004," he said. "Let's make 2004 a year of kept promises."

Video of the press conference [42:26]mins