![]() But a disaster in Somalia shocked the administration into a policy reversal, and it shied away from future interventions, especially in Africa.Īmerican troops had entered Somalia in 1992 as part of a United Nations mission to feed starving victims of internal chaos. ![]() Clinton had taken office trumpeting enthusiasm for multinational humanitarian and peacekeeping operations. Boutros-Ghali said he had often been rebuffed when he tried to see the president and other officials to discuss what he called an “utterly confused” American foreign policy. The United Nations community will mourn a memorable leader who rendered invaluable services to world peace and international order.”Įven more than money, the United Nations needed American support for peacekeeping operations. Boutros-Ghali, as well as to the rest of the family, to the Egyptian people, and to the late Secretary-General’s many friends and admirers around the world. His commitment to the United Nations - its mission and its staff - was unmistakable, and the mark he has left on the Organization is indelible. He showed courage in posing difficult questions to the Member States, and rightly insisted on the independence of his office and of the Secretariat as a whole. Boutros Boutros-Ghali did much to shape the Organization’s response to this new era, in particular through his landmark report “An Agenda for Peace” and the subsequent agendas for development and democratization. He also presided over a time when the world increasingly turned to the United Nations for solutions to its problems, in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War. As Secretary-General, he presided over a dramatic rise in UN peacekeeping. He was a well-known scholar of international law and brought formidable experience and intellectual power to the task of piloting the United Nations through one of the most tumultuous and challenging periods in its history, and guiding the Organization of the Francophonie in subsequent years. The late Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was a respected statesman in the service of his country, Egypt. “I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of my predecessor, Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Leader Reflects on Boutros-Ghali Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations praised the former secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali, calling him a respected statesman and scholar.Ģ. And 60,000 United Nations peacekeepers were already thinly posted in a dozen trouble spots, including Cambodia, El Salvador, Angola and Mozambique. Murderous conflicts between Hutus and Tutsis were hurtling toward genocide in Rwanda. Civil wars in Somalia and the secessionist states of Yugoslavia had already begun. He also resolved to attack the organization’s bloated bureaucracy and chronic money problems.īut he faced daunting tasks. Boutros-Ghali took the helm determined to subdue aggression and pursue peace after the fall of Soviet Communism and a relaxation of East-West tensions that had long hamstrung the United Nations. Was he, at 69, too old for a five-year term? Could an Egyptian Arab who had favored a Palestinian state be evenhanded in the Middle East? He went out of his way to reassure Israel, and Arab and African endorsements helped overcome the first President George Bush’s misgivings. There were doubts among diplomats about Mr. He seemed to meet the tests of character and experience when, in 1992, he became the sixth secretary general of the United Nations, the first African and the first Arab to hold the post. Boutros-Ghali was a keystone of Egypt’s old-guard diplomacy, a senior minister to President Hosni Mubarak and to his slain predecessor, Anwar el-Sadat. He and his wife, Leia Maria Boutros-Ghali, had no children, Egyptian diplomats said.Ī generation before violent protests boiled over in Cairo in 2011, Mr. Boutros-Ghali died in a hospital in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, where he had been admitted a few days earlier with a broken leg. The website of Al Ahram, Egypt’s state-owned newspaper, said Mr. Boutros-Ghali “a memorable leader who rendered invaluable services to world peace and international order.” Ban later made a brief appearance before reporters at the United Nations, calling Mr. His death was confirmed by the office of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, an Egyptian diplomat who led the United Nations in a chaotic 1990s tenure that began with hopes for peace after the Cold War, but failed to cope with genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia and ended in angry recriminations with Washington, died on Tuesday in an Egyptian hospital.
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