‘It Sits on Your Conscience’

More than a decade ago, when he was head of peacekeeping for the United Nations, Kofi Annan oversaw the blue helmets who failed to prevent the massacre in Srebenica and the slaughter of Tutsis in Rwanda. Those twin tragedies have tarnished his reputation ever since, even after two terms as secretary-general. Now retired, Annan has been asked to mediate in Kenya, where tribal killings that began after a disputed presidential election on Dec. 27 continue to rage. He spoke with NEWSWEEK's Scott Johnson about the talks, which showed some progress at the end of the week, and the shadow of those past crises. Excerpts:

Johnson: WHERE do the Kenya talks stand?
Annan: We're now at the critical item of resolving the political crisis. The two sides have stated their cases. The government side feels they won [the election] fair and square. The opposition thinks the government stole it fair and square. My problem is to bridge that difference.

How much do Rwanda and Bosnia weigh on you personally?
We are racing against the clock. The longer this goes on, the more killings go on, the more revenge killings you're going to see in reaction. If you're not careful you could have serious problems on your hands. We need to come up with a proposal to ensure we don't come back to this every five years.

Once again you ' re dealing with the maelstrom of ethnic cleansing.
Whether it's genocide or ethnic cleansing, it always starts with the humiliation of one individual. Some were very quick to blame me for Rwanda. [That] was rather painful and odd for most of us at the Secretariat because the member states knew more about what was going on in Rwanda than we did. But quite apart from that blame, as a human being it weighs on you. It sits on your conscience … Not on your conscience because you … you … you couldn't stop it as an individual, you couldn't. But yes, [the conflicts] molded me. Some crimes are so shameful that we cannot stand back. We should ask, what can each one of us do?

You ' ve said in the past that fratricidal wars are destroying Africa. Now it ' s happening here in Kenya.
So what is it with Africa? Yeah. I posed this question in Rwanda after the genocide: what is it in our society that makes us periodically turn on each other? Not only do we turn on each other, but then we blame the outside. I say this is a cancer from within that we need to fix.

And you were criticized for it.
I was criticized for it. But it is a fact. It's good to have the support of the international community and all that. But the root of the problem is here. We know what the problem is; we know what needs to be done.