Boutros Boutros-Ghali and the US: Recollections of a One-Term Secretary-General | IPI Global Observatory Boutros Boutros-Ghali and the US: Recollections of a One-Term Secretary-General by John L. Hirsch Former UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali meets with French peacekeeping command in Somalia. Baidoa, Somalia, October 22, 1993. (F. Ribere/UN Photo) January 3, 1993: United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali arrived in Mogadishu, Somalia, with his senior staff in two small airplanes. He was there to assess the ongoing civil war and associated famine, as 13,000 UN Peacekeepers sought to restore order to the country.

Warlord Mohammed Farah Aideed, in control of much of the city, had not forgotten that Boutros-Ghali—who died yesterday at the age of 93—had been a senior Egyptian government official under Presidents Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak, during which time he had given strong support to ousted Somali President Siad Barre, whom Aideed’s Somali National Alliance (SNA) militia had helped drive from power. The SNA mounted a peaceful protest outside UN headquarters, located in a narrow cul-de-sac, while Boutros-Ghali and I (at that time the senior American representative in the country) visited a refugee center on the outskirts of the city. Given the situation, we went to the headquarters of the US-led UN mission in Somalia, UNITAF, where Lieutenant-General Robert B. Johnston turned down the Secretary-General’s request to use UNITAF forces, mostly Marines, to end the demonstration. He instead persuaded Boutros-Ghali to proceed directly to Addis Ababa, at which point the demonstration would disperse peacefully. On the way back to the airport, Boutros-Ghali told me that the situation was very bad for the UN, although he played down its significance with the press.

It was a humiliation he would not forget. Five months later, after the murder of 42 Pakistani UN peacekeepers by SNA fighters and several unsuccessful efforts to capture Aideed, the Secretary-General asked Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Colin Powell to authorize a separate US force of Delta rangers to capture the warlord. This led to the events of October 3-4 1993 known as “Black Hawk Down,” in which 18 American Marines were killed and 78 more were wounded in a bitter nighttime fight, leading President Bill Clinton—under strong Congressional pressure—to announce the withdrawal of US forces from Somalia. By April 1995 the entire UN military operation in Somalia was withdrawn. The collapse of the Somali state and the ensuing violence continued for the next 17 years, until the Transitional Federal Government was set up in Mogadishu. Boutros-Ghali was a controversial but in some ways prescient secretary-general. Early on, he identified the weaknesses in UN peacekeeping, and later put forth an important set of reforms in his revised Agenda for Peace of 1995 . This was a transformative analysis laying out the fundamentals of post-Cold War peacekeeping.

Released in the immediate aftermath of the Rwandan massacre, it contained a four-part agenda: prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping, and post-conflict peacebuilding. This is very much the framework of the current UN peace operations reform agenda. At the same time, his controlling personality alienated many in the UN Secretariat and, most significantly, his relations with the US continued to deteriorate. Strong differences with President Clinton and US Ambassador to the UN Madeleine Albright over his overall management led to the US in 1996, for the first and only time, denying a serving secretary-general a second term. Boutros-Ghali’s downfall led to the appointment of Kofi Annan as the seventh UN secretary-general. Annan served two terms and took on a major leadership role, denouncing the international failure to prevent genocide in Rwanda and also the UN’s passive role in Srebrenica during the Bosnian war. He called for a new, more resolute UN role in preventing similar events in the future, championing enhanced peacekeeping in Kosovo and East Timor, and ultimately the adoption of the principle of the Responsibility to Protect at the 2005 World Summit.

After leaving the UN, Boutros-Ghali released his memoir Unvanquished: A U.S.-U.N. Saga , defending his record and claiming the Clinton administration had tried to micromanage his role. He said Washington had urged him to stay away from Congress and had not paid its outstanding debt to the UN. In his view, the Clinton administration had failed to support UN interventions, especially in Africa after Somalia, and had failed to take a strong stand in Bosnia until 1994. Boutros-Ghali went on to head the La Francophonie organization of French-speaking countries, where he had an equally controversial career. He strongly supported the French military and political role in Africa—including deployments in Cote d’Ivoire and Mali—and remained critical of UN interventions in those countries. Most controversially, Boutros-Ghali supported Egyptian General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and civil society opponents after the Arab Spring, and argued that these measures were necessary to restore peace and security. In April 2015, at a conference in Azerbaijan, he even called for a new organization to replace the UN.

This, he said, would include non-state actors and intend “to rejuvenate and democratize this aging intergovernmental organization.” Even in death, he will be remembered as a powerful, charismatic, and controversial voice. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, 93, former United Nations secretary general - The Boston Globe The Boston Globe Tweet Share United Nations/European Pressphoto Agency/File 1996 Mr. Boutros-Ghali’s chaotic 1990s tenure began with hopes for peace after the Cold War, but he failed to cope with genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia, and he clashed with President Bill Clinton. By Robert D. McFadden New York Times February 17, 2016 NEW YORK — 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 Tuesday in an Egyptian hospital. He was 93. His death was confirmed by the office of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Ban later made a brief appearance before reporters at the United Nations, calling Mr.

Boutros-Ghali “a memorable leader who rendered invaluable services to world peace and international order.” Advertisement But he faced daunting tasks. Civil wars in Somalia and the secessionist states of Yugoslavia had already begun. Murderous conflicts between Hutus and Tutsis were hurtling toward genocide in Rwanda. And 60,000 UN peacekeepers were already thinly posted in a dozen trouble spots, including Cambodia, El Salvador, Angola, and Mozambique. Mr. Boutros-Ghali’s relations with the incoming Clinton administration were soured almost from the start in 1993 by foreign policy differences, political infighting, and frictions between him and Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Madeleine K. Albright, who was Washington’s representative at the United Nations before succeeding Christopher at the State Department. In his 1999 memoir, “Unvanquished: A U.S.-U.N. Saga,” Mr.

Boutros-Ghali said the Americans had told him where not to travel, whom to avoid meeting, and what to say and not say in speeches; also to avoid ruffling President Bill Clinton, whom he regarded as thin-skinned and indecisive, and to stay away from Congress and soft-pedal talk of America’s $1.3 billion debt to the United Nations. Even more than money, the United Nations needed US support for peacekeeping operations. But Mr. 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” US foreign policy. Clinton had taken office trumpeting enthusiasm for multinational humanitarian and peacekeeping operations. But a disaster in Somalia shocked the administration into a policy reversal, and it shied away from future interventions, especially in Africa. Thus America, like most other member states, tragically refrained from assisting a small, overwhelmed force of UN peacekeepers when Rwanda descended into genocidal slaughter and rape in 1994. Estimates varied widely, but the Rwandan government said 1.17 million people had been killed in 100 days. Clinton years later apologized for inaction. Mr.

Boutros-Ghali’s frustration over the Clinton administration’s pattern of voting for tough Security Council resolutions, and then refusing to support the actions on the ground, had its paradigm in the civil war that raged from 1992 to 1995 in the former Yugoslavia, a conflict precipitated by the secession of Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, and Bosnia and fueled by a tinderbox of ethnic, religious and regional differences. Massacres, rapes, displacement of populations, and other atrocities ensued, many in “ethnic cleansing” campaigns against Muslims. The Security Council deplored the violence, but its peacekeepers in Bosnia — Mr. Boutros-Ghali wanted 35,000 but got 8,000 — were wholly inadequate to subdue the fighting. Aside from some airstrikes against Serbs, which the peacekeepers opposed even after Serb forces had slaughtered unarmed Muslims at Srebrenica and other cities, the United States also did not substantively intervene militarily, although the Bosnian conflict was eventually mediated by the Clinton administration. While he had said early on that he would not seek a second term as secretary general, Mr. Boutros-Ghali ran again.

Late in 1996, the Security Council voted overwhelmingly to give him another term. But Albright, in her last days as the US delegate, cast a decisive veto as one of the five permanent council members. Mr. Boutros-Ghali thus became the only secretary general denied a second term. The General Assembly gave the departing secretary general a standing ovation as it ushered in his successor, Kofi Annan of Ghana. But a frustrated Mr. Boutros-Ghali, in a farewell rebuke, chided member states for failing to deal with disasters in Somalia, Rwanda, and Bosnia. “The concept of peacekeeping was turned on its head,” he said, “and worsened by the serious gap between mandates and resources.” Boutros Boutros-Ghali was born in Cairo Nov. 14, 1922. His father had been finance minister and his grandfather, a prime minister under the British, was assassinated in 1910. Like his family, he represented the cosmopolitan class in Egypt between the wars that was immortalized in Lawrence Durrell’s “Alexandria Quartet” novels.

Indeed, some said he was the model for Nessim Hosnani, the Coptic financier of the tale. He earned a law degree from Cairo University in 1946 and a doctorate in international law from the University of Paris in 1949. He was a Fulbright scholar at Columbia University in 1954-1955. For many years he was a professor at Cairo University, led its political science department, and lectured around the world in Arabic, French, and English. In 1977, when Sadat decided to go to Jerusalem, his foreign minister, Ismail Fahmy, resigned in protest, reflecting opposition to the overture in Egypt’s dominant Muslim majority and in the Arab world. In his place, Sadat named Mr. Boutros-Ghali. He had never held office but was known to support peaceful coexistence with Israel, and Sadat regarded his Coptic origins, reputation for fairness, and marriage to an Alexandrian Jew, Leia Nadler, as potential assets in Jerusalem. Mr. Boutros-Ghali joined the Mubarak government after Sadat’s assassination in 1981, focusing on foreign affairs.

Besides pressing Israel to withdraw from occupied territories, he helped settle political and ecological disputes in Africa and in 1990 helped negotiate the release of Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s imprisoned black leader. When Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru decided to retire as secretary general in 1991, Mr. Boutros-Ghali broke tradition and campaigned for the job. Three Europeans, an Asian and a Latin American had held it, and it seemed Africa’s turn. Secretaries general are invariably compromise candidates, all but unknown to the world until their elections, and African and Arab support proved critical for Mr. Boutros-Ghali. After his term, he was secretary general of La Francophonie, an organization of French-speaking countries, from 1997 to 2002. He then served three years as chairman of South Centre, which conducts research for developing nations.

Top 10 Trending Articles Former UN chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali dies Former UN chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali dies Carole Landry Share View photos Egyptian politician Boutros Boutros Ghali served as the UN's sixth secretary general from 1992 to 1996 (AFP Photo/Jean-Pierre Muller) More United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who led the world body during one of its most difficult periods, with failed missions in Rwanda and Bosnia, died Tuesday in Cairo. He was 93. The Egyptian diplomat became the first secretary-general from Africa in 1992, but his tenure ended abruptly five years later when the United States vetoed his second term. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described Boutros-Ghali as a respected statesman and scholar of international law who brought "formidable experience and intellectual power" to the top UN job. "His commitment to the United Nations -- its mission and its staff -- was unmistakable, and the mark he has left on the organization is indelible," Ban said.

A former Egyptian foreign minister, the veteran diplomat headed the world body during one of its most difficult times with crises in Somalia, Rwanda, the Middle East and the former Yugoslavia. After a series of clashes with the US administration, Washington turned against Boutros-Ghali and decided to back Ghanaian Kofi Annan for the top post in late 1996. French President Francois Hollande paid tribute to Boutros-Ghali, saying this "great Egyptian and great servant of the United Nations" had worked tirelessly to preserve peace and to prevent conflicts worldwide. "His message must serve as inspiration to the international community's action at a time when the Middle East knows new tragedies," Hollande said. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said Boutros-Ghali's "contribution to international affairs will long be remembered." UN Security Council diplomats began a meeting in New York by observing a moment of silence in memory of Boutros-Ghali, who died in a Cairo hospital. Under his tenure, the United Nations expanded its peacekeeping missions but the retreat from Rwanda ahead of the 1994 genocide and from the Bosnian enclave of Srebrenica a year later were seen as dismal failures.

Boutros-Ghali served as the United Nation's sixth secretary-general. - Clashes with the US - Relations with the United States began to sour in late 1993, when a US-led operation in Somalia led to major casualties among American troops. Further problems emerged during peacekeeping operations in the former Yugoslavia, and after the genocidal massacres of 1994 in Rwanda, which the United Nations failed to halt. There was also friction over UN sanctions against the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq, which had invaded and then been ejected from Kuwait a year before Boutros-Ghali took up his post. Washington's then ambassador to the United Nations, Madeleine Albright, argued that Boutros-Ghali had failed to enact reforms needed to make the world body more efficient. When his candidacy for a second term was vetoed, Boutros-Ghali felt that he was being punished for pushing UN member states to pay their membership arrears -- an issue on which the United States has long been a laggard -- and for condemning Israeli actions in southern Lebanon.

In his tribute, Ban said Boutros-Ghali had "rightly insisted on the independence of his office and of the secretariat as a whole." After leaving the United Nations, Boutros-Ghali served as secretary-general of the Francophonie group of French-speaking nations. Boutros-Ghali was born on November 14, 1922 into a Coptic Christian family in Cairo. He was educated at Cairo University and in Paris, where he established a lifelong connection with France. After a university career centered on international relations, including a spell at Columbia University in New York, he became Egypt's foreign minister in 1977, under president Anwar Sadat. He accompanied Sadat on his groundbreaking trip to Jerusalem in that year, an event which both forged a peace agreement between Egypt and Israel and led to Sadat's assassination four years later. Reblog Boutros Boutros-Ghali, U.N. secretary general who clashed with U.S., dies - The Washington Post Boutros Boutros-Ghali, U.N. secretary general who clashed with U.S., dies The inside track on Washington politics. Be the first to know about new stories from PowerPost.

Sign up to follow, and we’ll e-mail you free updates as they’re published. You’ll receive free e-mail news updates each time a new story is published. You’re all set! Remembering the life of former U.N. head Boutros Boutros-Ghali in pictures View Photos Former U.N. secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali dies at 93. Caption Former U.N. secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali dies at 93. May 27, 1997 Former United Nations secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali gives an interview to the Associated Press in New York. Michael Schmelling/AP Wait 1 second to continue. By John M. Goshko By John M. Goshko February 16, 2016 Boutros Boutros-Ghali, an urbane Egyptian diplomat whose service as United Nations secretary general during the early 1990s coincided with genocides from Rwanda to the Balkans as well as political frictions that caused the Clinton administration to block him from a second term, died Feb. 16 at a hospital in Cairo. He was 93. The U.N.

Security Council announced the death. Al-Ahram, an Egyptian state-run newspaper, said the cause was complications from a broken pelvis. In an almost unprecedented display of very public strong-arming in an international forum, the United States, led by Madeleine K. Albright — then the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations — defied the widespread support mustered by Mr. Boutros-Ghali in his 1996 bid for reelection and forced the 185 U.N. members to choose instead Washington’s candidate, Kofi Annan of Ghana. Although Mr. Boutros-Ghali had arrived at the United Nations as a distinguished, high-ranking diplomat from a country with close ties to the United States, he came to be perceived in Washington as a man who personified many of the fears and concerns directed against the United Nations by conservatives. As a result, the administration concluded that Mr. Boutros-Ghali had become a symbol of U.N. mismanagement in the eyes of many Americans. His departure was seen as necessary to defuse the possibility of the world body becoming an issue in President Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali in 1996, at the end of his term as U.N. secretary general. (Peter Morgan/Reuters) Specifically, Mr. Boutros-Ghali was seen as insufficiently committed to the widespread financial and administrative reforms being demanded by Republican members of Congress as the price for paying sizable U.S. dues owed to the United Nations. He also was frequently at odds with the views of the administration and Congress about how to deal with such crises of the early and mid-1990s as the genocidal conflicts in the Balkans and Africa. Mr. Boutros-Ghali would later call the 1994 ethnic massacres in Rwanda — when hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and Hutus were slaughtered and countless women raped — “my worst failure” at the United Nations. He also laid blame on world leaders, including Clinton, for indecision and not providing sufficient resources to tackle daunting peacekeeping missions that had already spread U.N. soldiers across the globe. The degree to which those tensions would roil the waters of the United Nations was not apparent when Mr. Boutros-Ghali was elected on Nov.

22, 1991, to serve a five-year term as the sixth U.N. secretary general. With long experience at the top of his country’s diplomatic service and wide contacts in both the industrialized and developing worlds, he benefited from Egypt’s position as an Arab country located on the northern periphery of Africa, which enabled him to be considered a candidate from the African bloc, the largest group within the U.N. membership. Boutros Boutros-Ghali was born in Cairo on Nov. 14, 1922. He was a Coptic Christian from a family with deep roots in Egypt’s old aristocracy. He married an Egyptian Jew, Leia Maria Nadler, who is his only immediate survivor. After obtaining his law degree at Cairo University in 1946, Mr. Boutros-Ghali earned a doctorate in international law at the University of Paris in 1949. His experience in Paris made him a lifelong lover of all things French — a trait that some critics believed would later add to his difficulties in getting along with the Americans because of his tendency to see things from a French perspective.

It extended even to matters of language: Although his English was fluent, he peppered it with French circumlocutions and grammatical constructions. After returning to Egypt, he taught international law at Cairo University for nearly two decades, while churning out a dozen books on the subject. His entry onto the world stage came in November 1977, when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made his historic decision to fly to Israel. When the anti-Israeli Egyptian foreign minister resigned in protest, Sadat put Mr. Boutros-Ghali in charge of the team that accompanied him to Jerusalem. Mr. Boutros-Ghali then led the Egyptian negotiations with Israel that prepared for the Camp David meetings between Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin. For the next 14 years, Mr. Boutros-Ghali stood near the pinnacle of Egyptian foreign policy, holding such posts as acting foreign minister, deputy prime minister and secretary of state. But the fact that he was a Christian barred him from becoming foreign minister in a country where political considerations dictate that the post be held by a Muslim. Blocked from advancement at home, he became a candidate for the U.N.

post at a time when the African bloc was asserting that it was its turn to hold the secretary general’s post. Although most African states would have preferred someone from black Africa, they were unable to get enough support and agreed to Mr. Boutros-Ghali as the alternative. The one sour note came from the United States, which was never enthusiastic about Mr. Boutros-Ghali. But after a U.S. attempt to push Brian Mulroney, then Canada’s prime minister, for the post fell through, the United States, in deference to its Egyptian ally, agreed to permit Mr. Boutros-Ghali’s election. The secretary general effectively is chosen by the 15-member Security Council, and a permanent member such the United States can veto any decision. In the actual vote, the United States abstained. Differences between Mr. Boutros-Ghali and Washington first percolated unmistakably to the surface in October 1993, when U.S. troops backing up a U.N. relief mission in Somalia became involved in a disastrous raid that left 15 American soldiers dead.

The Americans were under the command not of the United Nations but of the United States, which had planned and ordered the abortive mission. But the Clinton administration, maneuvering to escape outraged domestic opinion, sought to foster the impression that the raid had been the work of the United Nations. Clinton, in a televised address, announced that henceforth U.S. troops “will be under American command,” as if that were a change in their status. And administration officials let it be known that senior U.S. officials, led by Albright, had dressed down Mr. Boutros-Ghali for the alleged U.N. failure in Somalia. For his part, Mr. Boutros-Ghali squelched the desire of U.N. officials to respond to Washington’s attempts to cast him as a scapegoat. He told reporters: “I don’t want to provoke the member states. . . . I must help the member states so that they will be able to help me. If the member states need the United Nations to overcome certain internal problems, the United Nations must accept.” The Somalia incident proved to be a harbinger of difficulties to come. Mr.

Boutros-Ghali nagged Washington incessantly about its propagation of a U.N. financial crisis through its failure to pay between $1 billion and $1.5 billion in back dues and assessments. At the same time, he proved reluctant to institute many reforms demanded by Washington because their implementation would have caused substantial cuts in U.N. jobs and programs favored by the countries of the developing world that were his hard-core base of support. The greatest difficulty came over the bloody civil war in Bosnia, with Mr. Boutros-Ghali exerting a role in efforts to end the fighting that was too ambitious for Washington’s taste. He and Albright clashed repeatedly over his insistence on U.N. control of the international peacekeeping force operating in Bosnia, particularly his refusal to delegate to British and French officers commanding most of the force the right to authorize airstrikes against the Serbs. Mr. Boutros-Ghali’s supporters contended that his alleged bowing to pressures from the Serbs reflected the pragmatic reality that they were the strongest party in the Bosnia conflict and that treating them gingerly was necessary to gain their cooperation and deter them from violence against the peacekeepers. Nevertheless, an independent report about the failures in Bosnia harshly criticized Mr.

Boutros-Ghali and his chief lieutenants for their reluctance to use air power against the Serbs and their failure to oppose more vigorously Serb actions that led to the slaughter of thousands of Bosnian Muslims. By the beginning of 1996, when it became apparent that Mr. Boutros-Ghali intended to seek a second term, the Clinton administration concluded that he could become a negative factor in Clinton’s reelection effort. Senate Majority Leader Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.), later to be Clinton’s opponent in the election, was making mocking references to “Boo-trus Boo-trus” before audiences across the country. The administration quietly mounted a year-long campaign to derail the secretary general’s candidacy. Mr. Boutros-Ghali had at least the nominal support of almost all the other U.N. members, with the developing-world countries passionately behind him. In the face of that backing, other candidates were unwilling to come forward. And the U.S. campaign was led by Albright, scorned by the suave Mr. Boutros-Ghali as an unskilled, novice diplomat who had alienated many of her U.N.

colleagues with what they regarded as a hectoring manner. In the end, though, she won out. Albright, described by an aide as convinced that support for Mr. Boutros-Ghali was “a mile wide but only an inch deep,” skillfully chipped away at him. Africans, fearful of losing the secretary general’s job, were offered Annan as an alternative. When Clinton, at the end of 1996, tapped Albright to become secretary of state, other U.N. delegations became especially leery of antagonizing her. Most telling of all, the United States never wavered in asserting that it would use its Security Council veto against Mr. Boutros-Ghali, making efforts to push his candidacy in council deliberations an exercise in futility. That threat prevailed. When the United States voted against him in the council’s preliminary straw votes, it became clear to all the membership that Washington would not change course. First, some of Mr. Boutros-Ghali’s supporters on the council turned away from him. Then the Africans broke their solid wall of support and began to put forward other candidates. Finally, with the writing clearly on the wall, Mr.

Boutros-Ghali withdrew his candidacy and opened the way to Annan’s election. On Jan. 1, 1997, Mr. Boutros-Ghali walked out of the United Nations and flew to Egypt, ending five tumultuous years as head of the world body. Goshko was a longtime diplomatic affairs writer for The Washington Post. He died in 2014. Former Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali Former Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali Flaws in UN's Moral Authority (June 22, 1999) Boutros Boutros-Ghali highlights the political problems at the United Nations that threaten to weaken the organization's mandate to promote democracy. The former UN Secretary General warns that both the unilateral policies of the US and the apparent unwillingness of other "major" countries to "play any significant role in international affairs" reflect poorly on the UN.

(Inter Press Service) Boutros-Ghali Bites Back (June 14, 1999) In his review of Boutros Boutros-Ghali's book Unvanquished: A US-UN Saga, UN correspondent Ian Williams of The Nation elaborates on the former Secretary General's difficulties in dealing with US policy toward the UN. Boutros-Ghali admits to several "failures" while in office, particularly in regards to Bosnia, which almost financially and politically bankrupt the UN. But Boutros-Ghali claims the UN "was misused" by the US who wanted to appear actively involved in the conflict, while avoiding the hard decisions. Williams notes that the UN was most successful when "it was allowed to do its job without substantial US involvement, as in Mozambique." Boutros-Ghali's Book Says Albright and Clinton Betrayed Him (May 24, 1999) Former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's book on US-UN relations paints a scathing picture of the Clinton Administration and the former US representative to the UN, Madeleine Albright.

Boutros-Ghali perceives the US veto of his second term in office as a "betrayal" and criticizes Albright for her "diplomatic double-face." Boutros-Ghali also "believed in the independence of his office," which led to frequent disagreements with the Clinton Administration and Albright, particularly over Bosnia and Rwanda and the US arrears to the UN. (New York Times) 1996 Proposals for an Improved Secretary General Selection Process (1996) Brian Urquhart, advisor to five former Secretary Generals, outlines a proposal for improving the UN Secretary General selection process. His proposals respond to the difficulties caused by the US veto of Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's second term. Urquhart's ideas include establishing a single seven-year term of office, creating an extended timetable that allows for a comprehensive search for viable candidates and releasing the candidate short list to the public four weeks prior to the election.

Urquhart believes that a broader choice of suitable candidates will "avoid a desperate last-minute search for a compromise candidate." (Dag Hammarskjold Foundation) Uncle Sam Doesn't Want You (December 2, 1996) Brian Urquhart, a close advisor to five Secretary Generals, views the US opposition to Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's reelection "with an unhappy sense of déjí vu." Urquhart likens the "superpower high-handedness" with the Soviet Union's opposition to the election of Secretary Generals Trygve Lie and Dag Hammarskjold. Urquhart disputes Washington's claims that Boutros-Ghali failed to bring institutional reform to the UN, stating "true reform must come from member governments." (New Yorker) Chronology of the Secretary General Election (December 1996) Global Policy Forum presents a timeline of the 1996 election of the UN Secretary General. The timeline examines the US opposition to Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's bid for a second term and the events leading to the US veto on his reelection.

The timeline follows the subsequent scramble for a viable candidate for the post of Secretary General and the nomination and election of Kofi Annan. Why Washington Wants Rid of Mr Boutros Ghali (November 1996) After the Cold War the US saw its chance to take control of the UN as the Soviet opposition bloc disappeared. But Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali instead seized the opportunity to present innovative agendas for peace and development. The skeptical US reaction to these proposals showed that "all-powerful America only wanted to deal with an ordinary bureaucrat who would, by definition, have to obey or to resign." (Le Monde diplomatique) The No-Win Gamble (November 12, 1996) In June 1996, the Clinton Administration announced it would veto Boutros Boutros-Ghali's reelection as UN Secretary General. The US accused the Secretary General of "ordering American troops into combat." The author calls the claims an "insult and humiliation" pointing out that UN member states decide on troop deployment and no country is obligated to send troops.

A majority of the member states supported Boutros-Ghali's bid for a new term and showed their anger at the US veto by voting the US off the important UN Budgetary Committee. (New York Times) The Change in the Administration's Position Is a Mystery (November 11, 1996) In this interview with the Washington Times, Boutros Boutros-Ghali talks about why he wants a second term as UN Secretary General. "I need a second term to make sure there will be no slackening of the reform plan," referencing his reform agenda that resulted in a "zero-growth budget" for the UN. Boutros-Ghali decided to run in spite of US demands for his resignation. Ultimately, Boutros-Ghali concedes that his biggest failure as Secretary General was not convincing the US administration of the importance of the UN.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali - Metapedia Boutros Boutros-Ghali 1 January 1992 – 31 December 1996 Preceded by Coptic Christian Boutros Boutros-Ghali ( Arabic : بطرس بطرس غالي, Coptic : Bουτρος Βουτρος-Γαλι; born 14 November 1922) is an Egyptian politician and diplomat who was the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) from January 1992 to December 1996. An academic and former Vice Foreign Minister of Egypt, Boutros Boutros-Ghali oversaw the UN at a time when it paid attention to several world crises, including the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Rwandan Genocide . Contents 9 External links Academic career Boutros Boutros-Ghali was born in Cairo into a Coptic Christian (Boutros being the Arabic version of the Greek word πέτρος (petros)). [1] His grandfather Boutros Ghali had been Prime Minister of Egypt from 1908 until he was assassinated in 1910.

Boutros-Ghali graduated from Cairo University in 1946. He received a Ph.D. in international law from the University of Paris and a diploma in international relations from the Sciences Po in 1949. In 1979, he was appointed Professor of International Law and International Relations at Cairo University, a position which he held until 1999. He became President of the Centre of Political and Strategic Studies in 1975 and President of the African Society of Political Studies in 1980. He was a Fulbright Research Scholar at Columbia University from 1954 to 1955, Director of the Centre of Research of the Hague Academy of International Law from 1963 to 1964, and Visiting Professor at the Faculty of Law at Paris University from 1967 to 1968. He is also the Honorary Rector of the Graduate Institute of Peace Studies, a branch of Kyunghee University Seoul. Egyptian political career His political career developed during the presidency of Anwar El Sadat .

He was a member of the Central Committee of the Arab Socialist Union from 1974 to 1977. He served as Egypt's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs from 1977 until early 1991. He then became Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs for several months before moving to the UN. As Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, he played a part in the peace agreements between President Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin . [2] According to investigative journalist Linda Melvern , Boutros-Ghali approved a secret $26 million arms sale to the government of Rwanda in 1990 when he was Egyptian Foreign Minister, the weapons stockpiled by the Hutu regime as part of the fairly public, long-term preparations for the subsequent genocide . He was serving as UN Secretary-General when the killings occurred 4 years later. [3] UN career Elected as secretary-general, the top post of the UN, in 1991, Boutros-Ghali's term in office remains controversial. In 1992, he submitted An Agenda for Peace , a suggestion for how the UN could respond to violent conflict.

However, he was criticised for the UN's failure to act during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide , which officially left over 1 million people dead, and he appeared unable to muster support in the UN for intervention in the continuing Angolan Civil War . One of the hardest tasks during his term was dealing with the crisis of the Yugoslav wars after the disintegration of former Yugoslavia . His reputation became entangled in the larger controversies over the effectiveness of the UN and the role of the United States in the UN. Nomination for second term In 1996, ten Security Council members, led by African members Egypt, Guinea-Bissau and Botswana , sponsored a resolution backing Boutros-Ghali for a second five-year term, until the year 2001. However, the United States vetoed a second term for Boutros-Ghali. In addition to the United States, the United Kingdom , Poland , South Korea , and Italy did not sponsor the resolution, but the last four nations voted in support of Boutros-Ghali after the US had firmly declared its intention to veto.

Although not the first vetoed candidate ( China vetoed the third term of Kurt Waldheim in 1981), Boutros-Ghali was the only UN secretary-general not to be elected to a second term in office. He was succeeded at the UN by Kofi Annan . Richard Clarke (US counter-terrorism czar), Michael Sheehan , and James Rubin participated in what they called " Operation Orient Express ". Clarke wrote: Albright and I and a handful of others (Michael Sheehan, Jamie Rubin) had entered into a pact together in 1996 to oust Boutros-Ghali as Secretary General of the United Nations, a secret plan we had called Operation Orient Express, reflecting our hope that many nations would join us in doing in the UN head. In the end, the US had to do it alone (with its UN veto) and Sheehan and I had to prevent the President from giving in to pressure from world leaders and extending Boutros-Ghali's tenure, often by our racing to the Oval Office when we were alerted that a head of state was telephoning the President.

In the end Clinton was impressed that we had managed not only to oust Boutros-Ghali but to have Kofi Annan selected to replace him. (Clinton told Sheehan and me, 'Get me a crow, I should eat a crow , because I said you would never pull it off.') [4] Richard Holbrooke wrote that the US was opposed to Boutros-Ghali because of the latter's reluctance on approving NATO bombing in Bosnia (something that Kofi Annan supported). He notes that US opposition to the Secretary General was opposed by all its allies. [5] Stanley Meisler , biographer of Kofi Annan , writes that Boutros Ghali's reluctance in bombing the Serbs in Bosnia stemmed from French and British opposition to the tactic, as both countries had provided most of the UN peacekeepers and feared that the Serbs would retaliate against their soldiers. Meisler instead suggests that Clinton sought to veto Boutros Ghali's second term to increase his own popularity, as Senator Bob Dole , who was running against Clinton in 1996, had gotten a few votes by repeatedly denouncing Boutros-Ghali vehemently.

[6] Later life From 1997 to 2002 Boutros-Ghali was Secretary-General of La Francophonie , an organization of French -speaking nations. From 2003 to 2006, he served as the Chairman of the Board of the South Centre , [7] an intergovernmental research organization of developing countries. He is currently President of the Curatorium Administrative Council at the Hague Academy of International Law . In 2003 Boutros-Ghali was appointed as The Director of the Egyptian National Council of Human Rights, a position he still holds. Since April 2007 Boutros-Ghali has supported the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly and was one of the initial signatories of the Campaign's appeal. In a message to the Campaign, he stressed the necessity to establish democratic participation of citizens at the global level. [8] Since 2009 he also participates as jury member for the Conflict Prevention Prize [9] awarded every year by the Fondation Chirac . Film and television appearances Boutros-Ghali appears as himself in the documentary film, Back Door Channels: The Price of Peace .

In his interviews with Director Harry Hunkele , Boutros-Ghali describes his role and that of former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in bringing about the peace accord between Egypt and Israel in March 1979. [10] Boutros-Ghali was the inspiration behind the comedic language in the BBC comedy The Fast Show . Specifically, the parody of Greek state television (and also much Southern Mediterranean TV) – Chanel 9. The sketch always ended with the characters announcing "Boutros Boutros-Ghali" in place of "Goodbye". [11] Boutros-Ghali was interviewed by Ali G , a character of British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen . [12] The interview appeared on the "War" episode of Da Ali G Show . [13] . Works GHANAIAN CHOSEN TO HEAD THE U.N., ENDING STANDOFF - The New York Times The New York Times World |GHANAIAN CHOSEN TO HEAD THE U.N., ENDING STANDOFF Search Continue reading the main story Weeks of confrontation between the United States and France over who will be the next Secretary General of the United Nations ended today when the Security Council chose Kofi Annan of Ghana for the job.

The General Assembly is expected to elect him formally on Tuesday. Mr. Annan, 58, who is now Under Secretary General for Peacekeeping, will take over from Boutros Boutros-Ghali on Jan. 1. The new Secretary General faces formidable problems in an organization deep in debt, in large part because Washington has not paid its overdue assessments, and under attack for not reforming its staff and operations speedily enough for critics in the United States. Its once-ambitious peacekeeping efforts have been curtailed after debacles in Somalia, Bosnia and Central Africa that were not of its making but for which it bore the blame. ''In January, we must embark on a time for healing,'' Mr. Annan said in a statement today, ''to restore confidence between governments and this institution in order to help replenish its financial strength and its political and moral authority, to rebuild its sense of common purpose, and to maintain trust and cooperation among the peoples of the world, whom this organization was designed to help.'' The breakthrough came at midday today when the three other candidates still actively in the race withdrew, including the candidate backed by the French, Amara Essy of the Ivory Coast.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story The French were widely believed to have opposed Mr. Annan in retaliation for the United States veto of Mr. Boutros-Ghali. They joined the consensus because they could see the unexpectedly strong showing that Mr. Annan had made in the last few days and because they had gone as far as they could in making their point to the United States. Diplomats said the French might have also received promises that their nominees would be considered for other high United Nations positions that will open in the reshuffling that normally follows the appointment of a new Secretary General. American officials, who said they had been working the phones here and in Washington and collaring officials from Security Council member nations in meetings abroad, were clearly pleased with today's rapid conclusion of the standoff and the emergence of Mr. Annan as the candidate no one could beat. An American official described him as having ''the right credentials and mix of skills that should bring the United Nations into the 21st century.'' Much of the hard campaigning in support of Mr. Annan has been done in recent days by the British, Canadians and Australians, diplomats said. Britain's representative here, Sir John Weston, was the first to announce today that agreement had been reached on Mr.

Annan's candidacy. ''This is a good result for Africa and for the U.N. organization,'' Sir John said. The Clinton Administration, while never publicly pushing the candidacy of Mr. Annan, a long-time civil servant in the United Nations system, was known to be impressed with his accessibility and his ability to work well with diplomats and members of Congress. Democrats and Republicans alike were impressed most recently with the manner in which he handled the transition in Bosnia from a United Nations peacekeeping mission to a NATO-led international force. He is an eloquent speaker who is expected to give the organization a human face in the United States, where hostility to the organization has flared in recent years. Mr. Annan's talents as a reformer are not as well established, however. He spent much of his career in administration during years when the organization was growing in every direction and developing a reputation for waste and mismanagement. Some diplomats argue strongly for the creation of a new post of deputy secretary general to shoulder the work of management reform, leaving the Secretary General free for diplomacy. After the Security Council announced that it had reached a consensus on Mr. Annan's candidacy -- but before the formal nomination was passed in a closed-door session tonight -- Mr.

Boutros-Ghali congratulated Mr. Annan. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Sylvana Foa, Mr. Boutros-Ghali's spokeswoman, said: ''The Secretary General is pleased that the decision was unanimous and is especially gratified that Africa has been able to maintain the office of Secretary General for a second five-year term, the objective which the Secretary General has sought throughout these recent months.'' Mr. Boutros-Ghali, 74, did not formally withdraw his candidacy for a second term, which was doomed by an Administration decision to drop him when it appeared that he might become a liability in an election year. Republicans had been ridiculing Mr. Boutros-Ghali's name in speeches. The decision to veto a second term for Mr. Boutros-Ghali, which the United States did on Nov. 19, began the dispute with France, which strongly supported a second term for the Egyptian diplomat, who earned his graduate degree from the Sorbonne and always preferred to work in the French language when he was not speaking his native Arabic. He did not speak English with the grace of Mr.

Annan, a factor that made it hard to sell him to the American people and Congress, diplomats said. Today Madeleine K. Albright, who is largely credited with engineering Mr. Boutros-Ghali's downfall, praised him for the ''hard work'' he had done. ''He is a renowned international statesman and has made his mark in history,'' said Ms. Albright, who is the American representative here and President Clinton's nominee for Secretary of State. Tonight the Security Council passed a resolution applauding and thanking Mr. Boutros-Ghali for his service. Former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali dies at age 93 | PBS NewsHour Former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali dies at age 93 EMAIL BY News Desk February 16, 2016 at 12:50 PM EST U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, center, walks with Egyptian Battalion Commander Hussein Ali Abdel-Razek, left, and Egyptian peacekeeping soldiers in Sarajevo, Bosnia in a Dec. 31, 1992 United Nations file photo.

Boutros-Ghali, whose term was marked by war in the former Yugoslavia and famine and genocide in Africa, died Tuesday. He was 93. A Morvan/U.N. Photo/Handout via Reuters Boutros Boutros-Ghali, an Egyptian diplomat who served as the sixth U.N. secretary-general, died on Tuesday . He was 93. Boutros-Ghali died in a hospital in Egypt’s capital Cairo after being admitted for a broken pelvis, according to Egyptian media. U.N. Security Council President Rafael Ramirez announced his passing at the beginning of a session on Yemen’s humanitarian crisis on Tuesday. As Egypt’s minister of state for foreign affairs and acting foreign minister in the 1970s, Boutros-Ghali played a major role in the negotiations that led to the Camp David peace framework agreements and the Egyptian peace treaty with Israel, the first between an Arab state and Israel. U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali is surrounded by reporters as he leaves the White House after meeting with then-President Bill Clinton in this Feb 23, 1993, file photo. Photo by Reuters stringer Boutros-Ghali served only one term as U.N.

secretary-general, from January 1992 to December 1996, after the United States blocked his renewal due to tensions with the Clinton administration including Boutros-Ghali’s reluctance to bomb the Serbs in Bosnia after the Serbs killed thousands of Muslims in a U.N.-declared “safe zone.” Critics also said he failed to adequately respond to the 1994 massacre of Tutsis and moderate Hutus, something he called “my worst failure at the United Nations” in a 2005 interview with the Associated Press. Boutros-Ghali was succeeded by Kofi Annan as U.N. secretary-general. Boutros-Ghali continued his career as secretary-general of La Francophonie, an organization of countries and regions where French is the mother tongue, from 1997 to 2002. He then served as chairman of the board of the South Centre, a research firm for developing countries, from 2003 to 2006. And he was director of the Egyptian National Council of Human Rights from 2003 to 2012.

Question: What organization was led by Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan?
Answer: United Nations