The Egyptian’s time as Secretary General was marked by a casual indifference to genocide.
By Pádraig Belton*
Scion of a distinguished Coptic family, grandson of an assassinated Egyptian prime minister, a Fulbright scholar with a doctorate from the Sorbonne — there’s no doubt you’d have done well to have Boutros-Ghali sat beside you at a dinner party.
He took office as Secretary General of the UN on the first day of 1992. The Soviet Union had dissolved on 25 December 1991.
NEW YORK (IDN) – The 193-member United Nations General Assembly recalled the legacy of former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in helping the world body find its footing in a new global landscape during the tumultuous early 1990s. Boutros-Ghali passed away on February 16 at the age of 93,
Addressing the Assembly’s special tribute at UN Headquarters in New York, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Boutros-Ghali, whose second term was blocked by the U.S., had both the fortune and the misfortune to serve as the first post-Cold-War UN Chief.
ROME (IDN) – It is no coincidence that Boutros Boutros-Ghali (BBG), who died on February 16, was the only Secretary-General in the history of the United Nations to have served only one of the two terms that have always been allowed. The United States vetoed his re-election, in spite of the favourable vote of the other members of the Security Council. He was considered too independent.
We have now forgotten that in 1992, on U.S. request, BBG authorised a UN intervention in Somalia, run by a U.S. General, the aim of which was to distribute 90 million dollars of food and aid to the former Italian colony, shaken by an internal conflict among several war lords. The intervention cost 900 million U.S. dollars in military expenses, and ended with the downing of two Black Hawk helicopters and the tragic death of 18 American soldiers, dragged through the streets of Mogadishu.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who passed away on February 16 at the age of 93, was the only UN Secretary-General (1992-1996) to be denied a second term in office because of a US veto in the 15-member Security Council.
The U.S., which preaches the concept of majority rule to the outside world, exercised its veto even though Boutros-Ghali had 14 of the 15 votes in the Security Council, including the votes of the other four permanent members of the Council, namely the UK, France, Russia and China.
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