Robert Fowler (diplomat)
Robert R. Fowler OC (born 18 August 1944[1]) is a Canadian diplomat and was the special envoy of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to Niger from mid-2008 to 2009, to find a solution to the conflict in Agadez region.
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 (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) average donor spending levels.
"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.
[14] During an acceptance speech for an honorary doctorate, on 31 October 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.".
[15] 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.
[citation needed] While acquitting his UN mission, 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.
[citation needed] Fowler was reported missing along with 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][16] after visiting the Canadian-owned Samira Hill Gold Mine.
[17] 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.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated that no ransom had been paid, and thanked the governments of Mali and Burkina Faso for negotiating the release.
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.
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).
[31] In November 2011, Fowler published his biographical account of his kidnapping ordeal in A Season in Hell: My 130 Days in the Sahara with al Qaeda,[32] which was long-listed for Canada's most prestigious literary award, the Charles Taylor prize for non-fiction.
