Boutros Boutros-Ghali
| Boutros Boutros-Ghali | |
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| In office 1 January 1992 – 31 December 1996 |
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| Preceded by | Javier Pérez de Cuéllar |
| Succeeded by | Kofi Annan |
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Foreign Minister of Egypt
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| In office 1977–1991 |
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| In office 1997–2002 |
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| Born | November 14, 1922 Cairo, Egypt |
| Nationality | Egyptian |
| Spouse(s) | Leia Maria Boutros-Ghali |
| Religion | Coptic Christian |
Boutros Boutros-Ghali (Arabic: بطرس بطرس غالي, Coptic: Bουτρος Βουτρος-Γαλι) (born 14 November 1922) is an Egyptian diplomat who was the sixth Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) from January 1992 to December 1996. An academic and former Foreign Minister of Egypt, Boutros Boutros-Ghali oversaw the UN at a time when several world crises, including the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Rwandan Genocide, demanded its attention.
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Academic career
Boutros Boutros-Ghali was born in Cairo into a Coptic Christian family (Boutros being the Arabized form of Petros). 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, 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.[1]
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.[2]
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, although the four nations voted in support of Boutros-Ghali after the US had firmly declared its intention to veto. Although not the first vetoed (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.')[3]
Richard Holbrooke commented on the issue:
The struggle over the U.N.'s role foreshadowed the American determination a year later to oppose Boutros-Ghali's quest for a second term as Secretary-General. More than any other issue, it was his performance on Bosnia that made us feel he did not deserve a second term - just as Kofi Annan's strength on the bombing in August had already made him the private favourite of many American officials. Although the American campaign against Boutros-Ghali, in which all our key allies opposed us, was long and difficult - especially for Allbright, who bore heavy and unjust criticism for her role - the decision was correct, and may well have saved America's role in the United Nations.[4]
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,[5] 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.
Film and television appearances
Boutros-Ghali appears 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.[6]
Boutros-Ghali was the inspiration behind the comedic language in the BBC comedy The Fast Show. Specifically, the parody of Spanish 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" [7]
Works
As Secretary-General, Boutros-Ghali wrote An Agenda for Peace.
Boutros-Ghali has published two memoirs:
- Egypt's road to Jerusalem (1997), about the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty
- Unvanquished: A U.S.-U.N. Saga (1999), about his time as Secretary-General at the UN
| Diplomatic posts | ||
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| Preceded by Javier Pérez de Cuéllar Peru |
United Nations Secretary-General 1992–1997 |
Succeeded by Kofi Annan Ghana |
See also
- List of prominent Copts
- List of people with reduplicated names
References
- ↑ Boutros Boutros-Ghali: The world is his oyster
- ↑ Melvern, Linda. A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide.
- ↑ Clarke, Richard. Against All Enemies. p. 201.
- ↑ Richard Holbrook, To End a War, p. 202
- ↑ South Centre website
- ↑ http://tvfestival.net/Pressreleaseuk.pdf
- ↑ http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/fastshow/characters/chanel9.shtml
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