Boutros Boutros-Ghali, First UN Chief From Africa, Dies
https://www.auntydebbysblog.com/2016/02/boutros-boutros-ghali-first-un-chief.html
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a veteran Egyptian diplomat who helped negotiate
his country's landmark peace deal with Israel but then clashed with the
United States when he served a single term as U.N. secretary-general,
died Tuesday. He was 93.
Boutros-Ghali, the scion of a prominent Egyptian Christian political
family, was the first U.N. chief from the African continent. He stepped
into the post in 1992 at a time of dramatic world changes, with the
collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War and the beginning
of a unipolar era dominated by the United States.
His five years at the helm remain controversial. He worked to establish
the U.N.'s independence, particularly from the United States, at a time
when the world body was increasingly called on to step into crises with
peacekeeping forces, with limited resources. Some blame him for
misjudgments in the failures to prevent genocides in Africa and the
Balkans and mismanagement of reform in the world body.
After years of frictions with the Clinton administration, the United
States blocked his renewal in the post in 1996, making him the only U.N.
secretary-general to serve a single term. He was replaced by Ghanaian
Kofi Annan.
In a U.N. Security Council
session Tuesday, the 15 members held a moment of silence upon news of
his death Tuesday in a hospital in the Egyptian capital. He had been
admitted after suffering a broken pelvis, Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper
reported last week.
"The mark he has left on the organization is indelible,"
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said. He said Boutros-Ghali "brought
formidable experience and intellectual power to the task of piloting the
United Nations through one of the most tumultuous periods in its history."
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