The Northern Ireland peace process is an inspiration to the world, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told an invited audience at the University of Ulster yesterday.

The international statesman was visiting the Magee campus at the invitation of former SDLP leader John Hume to deliver the latest in the series of Tip O’Neill lectures, on the theme of peacebuilding.

Mr Annan said Northern Ireland was still wrestling with some of its problems, "but it does seem to me", he remarked, "that you are managing them better and more hopefully than in the past”.

"For some years now, you have been spared the large-scale violence and terror that used to disfigure your beautiful part of the country, and seemed to blight its future,” Mr Annan said.

"Your efforts to create a better world for your children have been a source of inspiration and hope to people in many other countries.

"If the world is to learn lessons about how to manage a transition from troubles and violence to peace, surely it can learn some of them from you – from your commitment, courage and imagination – in seeking solutions and fostering trust between communities which had been at loggerheads for decades."

In a wide ranging speech, the Secretary-General touched on the history of UN peacekeeping and peacebuilding activities over the past decades, assessing its strengths and weaknesses, and detailing the principles under which it must act if it is to learn the lessons of past successes and failures and move forward to a more confident and effective role in the world.

The UN had developed a considerable body of experience of managing and resolving conflict as well as of peacebuilding, he said.

"But we should acknowledge that our record has been mixed. We have learned useful lessons from both our successes and failures, and are doing our best to put those lessons into practice."

Mr Annan said that in resolving conflict, locally populations must take responsibility – "it is they who must live with the peace."

He told the specially-invited audience: "No conflict can be overcome by the goodwill of outsiders alone. Those who live with it understand the dynamics better than any international player. Those who live with it must be involved in the effort to end it, and must see benefits that justify the compromises and sacrifices involved."

Welcoming the Secretary-General to the University, the Chancellor, Sir Richard Nichols, said it was a unique occasion because the ceremony involved two Nobel Peace Prize winners – John Hume, the 1998 laureate, and Mr Annan, who was awarded the accolade in 2001.

"The purpose of the Tip O’Neill Chair in Peace Studies, and of John Hume’s distinguished tenure of it, is to explore and expand our knowledge of a topic basic to the well-being of our world and its peoples. No one is more qualified to address the topic than Kofi Annan," he said.

The Secretary-General joined members of the audience for an impromptu and informal chat after the event, before leaving for an engagement in London.

(MB/GMCG)