Former UN secretary-general, Boutros-Ghali dies at 93

His term was controversial, especially over the 1994 Rwandan genocide and Angolan war in the 1990s. Others blame him for misjudgments in the failures to prevent the genocide in Africa and the Balkans and mismanagement of reform in the world body.

At the end of his five-years, Boutros-Ghali proved yet again to be a man of firsts at the U.N. He was the first general secretary not to win a second term. As the secretary-general, he presided over a dramatic rise in United Nations peacekeeping.

His death was confirmed Tuesday by Rafel Ramirez Carreno, Venezuela’s U.N. ambassador and current president of the U.N. Security Council, reported the BBC.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon issued a statement praising Boutros-Ghali for leading the organization through “one of the most tumultuous and challenging periods in its history”.

Former United Nations secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali died at a hospital here on Tuesday, officials said.

“His message must serve as inspiration to the global community’s action at a time when the Middle East knows new tragedies”, Hollande said. Boutros Boutros Ghali has also been blamed for asking the United States of America (USA) to intervene in Somalia against the militia leader Mohammed Farrah Aidid favouring the rival faction and ordering the capture of leaders of militia leading to the infamous battle of Mogadishu, on which the Hollywood movie “Black Hawk Down” has been made.

In his post-U.N. career, Boutros-Ghali lent his support to a campaign to establish an elected parliamentary assembly within the United Nations. Shown, the Secretary-General visits Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in late 1992, accompanied by peacekeepers from the UN Protection Force (UNPROFOR).

Honest condolences were also expressed by Oh Joon, President of the UN Economic and Social Council, who hailed Mr. Boutros-Ghali as an early backer of the concept of peace-building.

The once head of the United Nations died in a hospital in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo. “Neither does the United States”.

His grandfather was Egypt’s prime minister until his assassination in 1910.

Boutros-Ghali was born on November 14, 1922 into a Coptic Christian family in Cairo.

He later studied worldwide relations at Columbia University in NY and became Egypt’s foreign minister in 1977 under then president Anwar al-Sadat.

Sadat’s rapprochement with Israel brought harsh criticism from across Egypt’s political spectrum. His foreign minister, Ismail Fahmi, resigned in protest.

“And these few, simple words may well provide us the best and clearest insight into Dr. Boutros-Ghali’s philosophy as an global diplomat”, Burcea said.

Boutros-Ghali’s time at the top, however, didn’t last. But he also staunchly defended Egypt’s peace efforts against fierce Arab opposition. In those positions, Boutros-Ghali played a pivotal role in negotiating the peace treaty signed between Israel and Egypt in March 1979, which also returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, a key Sadat goal.