Robert R. Fowler (born 18 August 1944[1]) is a Canadian diplomat and the special envoy of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Niger since mid-2008, to find solution to the conflict in Agadez region.[2]
On 14 December 2008 he was reported missing and was last seen about 45 kilometres (28 mi) northwest of the capital Niamey.[3][4] Fowler, along with several Westerners, was eventually freed on 21 April 2009.[5]
Fowler has had a long history of public service in Canada, some of it contentious. As a Deputy Minister of National Defence, his tenure was marked by allegations of corruption, for which he earned the nickname "Teflon Bob.".[6]
Contents |
Born in Ottawa, Fowler initially attended McGill University where he was a member of The Kappa Alpha Society, then earned a B.A. from Queen's University in 1968.[1] In 1969, he began his diplomatic career as a Foreign Service Officer in the Department of External Affairs. Throughout the 1970s he held various postings in Ottawa, Paris, and at UN Headquarters in New York.[7] During his thirty-eight year career in public service, Fowler was the Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Ministers Trudeau, Turner and Mulroney; Deputy Minister of National Defence; Canada’s longest serving Ambassador to the United Nations. While at the UN, he represented Canada on the Security Council in 1999 and 2000 and issued two ground-breaking reports on sanctions-busting in Angola, which cut off UNITA’s access to the arms bazaar and led to the end of the civil war which had ravaged Angola for 25 years. He was also Ambassador to Italy and the three Rome-based UN food agencies; Sherpa for the Kananaskis G8 Summit (for which he chaired the creation of the Africa Action Plan); and the personal representative for Africa of Prime Ministers Chrétien, Martin and Harper. Robert Fowler retired from the federal public service in the fall of 2006, and is now a Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. Ambassador Fowler is also a member of the Research Steering Committee for the Will to InterveneW2IProject [1]
During his tenure as Canada's Deputy Minister of National Defence, substantial evidence made available via Access to Information requests revealed that greed and corruption flourished in the Canadian military's highest echelons as part of his stewardship.[8]
In 2000, he was responsible for producing the "Fowler Report", which led ultimately to the establishment of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.[9]
In a March 2010 meeting of the Liberal Party, Fowler was a guest speaker who took the opportunity to condemn the Liberals, saying, "I believe the Liberal party has, to a significant extent, lost its way, at least in policy terms, and of course I mean, in particular, my area of foreign policy terms, and is in danger of losing its soul...To this observer, it seems that Liberals today don't stand for much in the way of principles...I have the impression that they will endorse anything and everything which might return them to power and nothing which won't, whatever the merits of either. It's all about getting to power, and it shows...I believe Liberals seem prepared to embrace an infinite array of special interests in order to shill for votes rather than forging a broad-based principled alliance founded in deep Liberal traditions, one with a distinct social contract and an independent Canadian character, which would protect, project and defend core Liberal values at home and abroad..." and on the Conservatives, he said, "In a short period of time we've established unique credentials in Africa," Fowler said. "I fear, however, that we are in the process of squandering a hard-won and important asset.". Fowler did briefly praise the Harper government, "I owe a debt to Mr. Harper and I am all too aware that such criticism is a rather churlish way of repaying it....(however) after four consecutive Conservative budgets, it is clear that the current government has failed to live up to its 2006 election promise to move Canadian aid performance toward the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) average donor spending levels."[10] Fowler stated that both major parties have been enticed by the allure of political gains within the Jewish community. He said it is a strategy that leads to an unproductive support for Israel and undermines Canada's reputation as a trusted mediator in the Middle East. "The scramble to lock up the Jewish vote in Canada meant selling out our widely admired and long-established reputation for fairness and justice," Fowler said.[11]
During an acceptance speech for an honourary doctorate, on October 31, 2010, from the University of Ottawa, Fowler called out young Canadians for being apathetic and stating that they lose their "bitching rights" and "Your age group's involvement in the political process, at all levels of government, stretches any reasonable definition of apathy.".[12]
On 21 July 2008, The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, appointed Fowler to be his Special Envoy to Niger, with the rank of Under-Secretary-General in the Secretariat of the UN.
While acquitting his UN mission, Mr. Fowler and his colleague, Louis Guay, were captured by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) on 14 December 2008, and held hostage in the Sahara Desert for 130 days.
Fowler was reported missing along with another Canadian diplomat, Louis Guay, deputy director of the Sudan task force in Ottawa, and their Niger-based driver, Soumana Moukaila, after their car was found on the evening of 14 December 2008 about 45 kilometres (28 mi) northwest of Niamey,[2][13] after visiting the Canadian-owned Samira Hill Gold Mine.[14] On 16 December, the Front des Forces de Redressement (FFR) claimed on its website that its members kidnapped Fowler and three others, saying that they targeted diplomats who support the Niger government led by President Mamadou Tandja. However, Seydou Maiga Kaocen, speaking for the organization, stated that the "FFR formally denies any involvement in the abduction of Mr. Robert Fowler, UN envoy to Niger. ... We hope that Mr Fowler and his delegation will be released as soon as possible," he followed.[15]
In February 2009, Al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility Fowler's kidnapping.[16]
In 2003, 32 Europeans were taken hostage in the Sahara in a series of abductions run by El Para, an agent of the Algerian intelligence service, the DRS. In February 2008 two Austrians were captured in Tunisia and taken via Algeria to Mali and freed later that year. All these kidnappings were attributed to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb previously known as the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC).[17][18]
Moukaila was released in March 2009. Fowler, Guay, and two of the four European tourists kidnapped a month later were released on 21 April 2009, following extensive negotiations. German tourist Marianne Petzold and Swiss Gabriella Greitner were released but Greitner's husband and a Briton were held back. Fowler and Guay arrived in Mali's capital Bamako the 22nd to meet Mali's President Amadou Toumani Toure before returning to Canada. Mali, Canada, Germany and Switzerland gave no details on the conditions of the negotiated release. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that no ransom had been paid, and thanked the governments of Mali and Burkina Faso negotiating the release.[5][19] One of the two remaining, British tourist Edwin Dyer, was killed by his captors in June 2009. The other tourist, Werner Greiner was released a month later.[20][21][22]
The governments of Niger and Mali both involved in a two year long insurgency in the desert north, as well as Tuareg rebel groups, came under unusual international pressure over the taking of these seven hostages under mysterious circumstances, even prior to the acknowledged involvement of the AQIM.[23] The original two abduction incidents (two Canadian diplomats, their driver, and four European tourists seized weeks later) were blamed by Niger on rebels, and by the MNJ on the Niger government. Western news sources quoted a variety of observers who believed the hostages were taken by Tuareg smugglers, perhaps associated with rebel groups, who then sold them to the AQIM.[24] In May 2009 Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure agreed, after talks between Mali's defense minister and Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, to a military cooperative agreement to secure the Saharan borders where Tuareg rebels, AQIM militants, as well as smugglers and criminal gangs, operated. Discussions with the governments of Niger and Mauritania were proposed. Under the agreement, states would receive arms from Algeria and engage in joint operations against AQIM and other threats.[25]
The day after his arrival in Niamey in December 2008, Fowler met with Interior Minister Albadé Abouba.[26] In September 2009 Fowler stated that somebody who knew his itinerary "shopped" him to the militants[27]:
"Who could it be? It could be the government of Niger. Could have been an al-Qaeda sympathiser in the UN office in Niger. In the UN office in West Africa. In the secretariat building in New York."
"It was clear from the first time I met him in August that he [Mr Tandja] was offended, annoyed and embarrassed by the fact that the secretary general of the UN [Ban Ki-moon] had seen fit to appoint a special envoy for his country."
Fowler reviewed the book The Unexpected War: Canada in Kandahar by Janice Gross Stein and Eugene Lang in Literary Review of Canada (January/February 2008 Issue) [2].
In 2011, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada "for his contributions as a public servant, diplomat and representative of Canada".[28]
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Louise Fréchette |
Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations January 1995–August 2000 |
Succeeded by Paul Heinbecker |
| Preceded by David M. Malone |
Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations 1994- |
Succeeded by John Weekes |
| Preceded by Jeremy Kinsman |
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Italy 2000-2006 |
Succeeded by Alexander Himelfarb |
| Preceded by Jeremy Kinsman |
High Commissioner to Malta 2000-2006 |
Succeeded by Alexander Himelfarb |
| Preceded by Jeremy Kinsman |
Ambassador to Albania 2006 |
Succeeded by Alexander Himelfarb |