Mohamed Sahnoun


Mohamed Sahnoun was an Algerian diplomat who served as ambassador of Algeria to Germany, France, the United States and Morocco as well as permanent representative of Algeria to the United Nations. He also served as the Organisation of African Unity's Assistant Secretary General, the Arab League's Assistant Secretary-general, the Secretary-General of the United Nations's Special Representative for Somalia in 1992 and the Secretary-General of the United Nations's Special Representative for the Great Lakes region of Africa in 1997 before continuing to work for peace and reconciliation through various UN-related or independent charities. He particularly focused on developing intercultural and inter-religious dialogues and on healing wounded memories from past conflicts.

Early years and Algerian War

Mohamed Sahnoun was born in 1931 in Chlef, in Algeria. He first studied at the Lycée of Algiers and then went on at the Sorbonne in Paris. He was there on the day of the first hostilities of the Algerian War. As an activist of the FLN, he responded to the call to strike launched by the '’Union générale des étudiants musulmans algériens '’ on 19 May 1956, stopped studying in Paris and came back home in Algeria.
There, he started to work in the 'Social Centers' created by former French Resistance fighter Germaine Tillon with the agreement of Jacques Soustelle in order to alleviate misery, squalor and illiteracy in Algerian populations. In March 1957, the organisation was raided and searched by police, who arrested and detained twelve Christians and twenty-three Muslims. Being one of the managers of the 'Social Centers', Mohamed Sahnoun was part of this group, which was charged with conspiracy and tried in a fairly loudly-trumpeted trial, nicknamed the “Progressive Christians” trial. Mohamed Sahnoun was subsequently detained in the infamous "", the torture and detention centre of the 1st Foreign Parachute Regiment during the Battle of Algiers. He himself was subjected to torture. Released for lack of conclusive evidence, Mohamed Sahnoun then sought refuge in metropolitan France, in Clichy then in Switzerland in Lausanne. He was unable to go back to Algeria before independence.
During his early years Mohamed Sahnoun also got acquainted with the pacifist NGO Service Civil International in Algeria in 1952–53; he participated in several of their international workcamps and even became the head of their Algerian branch for some time. This provided him with an enduring philosophical background and also with an important network of trusted friends who would be of great assistance to him through the events of the 1950s. Mohamed Sahnoun then resumed his studies at New York University where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Arts degrees, both in political science.

Diplomatic career

At the service of Algeria

Mohamed Sahnoun first became diplomatic advisor of the Provisional Government of the Algerian Republic. In 1962 he travelled with president Ben Bella on his first official visit to the USA, where he met with president John Kennedy who had been one of the supporters of the cause of Algerian independence. As the Algerian delegation was then due to travel to Cuba, Kennedy showed Ben Bella the first secret pictures taken by U2 planes showing Russian missiles launch pads in Cuba. In the name of peace and human security, Ben Bella agreed to convey a message to Fidel Castro making clear how much the American regarded this situation as a casus belli.
Mohamed Sahnoun then held the following positions:
Mohamed Sahnoun met pacifism in 1952 in Alger through the Service Civil International NGO. He had read the book by Pierre Ceresole, the Swiss founder of this organisation, and even more importantly the book by Romain Rolland on Gandhi, "which was practically my bedside book at the time."
These ideas stayed with him through his long professional career, where he was from the onset a man of dialogue, trying for instance to establish appropriate communication between communities about Congo through the UNESCO-backed World Assembly of Youth, or as a leading figure of the OAU, particularly when African countries were confronted with the problems stemming from the borders inherited from colonialism, or in his different missions for the UN.
His participation for several years in the very international and religiously mixed Service Civil International NGO also played a role in his understanding the sources of conflict and brought him to invest in how to heal the memory injuries resulting from past conflicts.
He reinforces further this reflection in his later career years as he more and more commits in favour of human security, for instance though The Responsibility to Protect project or through his organizing from 2008 to 2012 of the Caux Forum for Human Security, with the following five themes: Healing Memory, Just Governance, Living Sustainably, Inclusive Economics and Intercultural Dialogue
Very committed to interreligious diversity and dialogue, Mohamed Sahnoun rose strongly against the idea of Clash of Civilizations, saying for example: "I said to Huntington during a discussion in Washington, there is no such clash. Take the Somalian example: from a religious point of view, Somalis are more or less all on the same wavelength. But because of total insecurity, they split into clans and sub-clans. That's why I want to develop intercultural and inter-religious dialogue. "

Distinctions