UN secretary general who started his term in office in 1992 with reforming zeal,but ended up at odds with America over the conflicts in Somalia and BosniaCentral to the story of the Egyptian diplomat Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s time as secretary general of the United Nations was his relationship with the US. By the halt of his controversial five years in the post, from the start of 1992 to the halt of 1996, and Boutros-Ghali,who has died aged 93, believed that he had served the world body well. But he was also convinced that he was a victim of American domestic politics. Although he always sought to shrug off the US administration’s refusal to support renewal of his mandate, and he regretted what he saw as the vendetta that undermined his endeavours to improve the UN’s effectiveness of the world organisation in the post cold war age.
Boutros-Ghali had been consistently demonised by the Republican party. He also had his critics among the Democrats. However he convinced himself – possibly quite wrongly – that President Bill Clinton had decided to drop him in the belief that to carry out otherwise would lose precious votes for his own flee for re-election.
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Source: theguardian.com