Boutros Boutros-Ghali is dead at 90

The life and times of Boutros Boutros-Ghali (1922-2016)
The global diplomatic community suddenly lost one of its best minds and former number one civil servant of the world, Mr Boutros Boutros-Ghali on Tuesday morning. He was 93.
He reportedly died in Giza. Minutes later Venezuela’s U.N. ambassador and current head of the U.N. Security Council, Rafael Ramirez Carreno, intimated the council of his passing away. Thereafter, representatives from the council’s 15 current members stood for a moment of silence, in respect of the first UN scribe from Africa.
Born in Cairo on 14 November 1922 into a Coptic Christian family, Boutros-Ghali graduated from Cairo University in 1946. He received a PhD in International Law from the University of Paris and a diploma in International Relations from the Sciences Po in 1949.
During 1949–1979, he was appointed Professor of International Law and International Relations at Cairo University. 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 Vis¬iting 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.
In 1991, he was elected as Secretary-General of the UN. 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 one million peo¬ple dead, and he appeared unable to muster support in the UN for intervention in the continuing Ango¬lan Civil War.
One of the hardest tasks during his term was dealing with the crisis of the Yugoslav Wars after the disintegration of the 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.
Some Somalis believed he was responsible for an escalation of the Somalia crisis by undertaking a personal vendetta against Mohamed Farrah Aidid and his Habr Gidr clan, favouring their rivals, the Darod, clan of the former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
It was believed that he demanded the 12 July 1993 US helicopter attack on a meeting of Habr Gidr clan leaders, who were meeting to discuss a peace initiative put forward by the leader of the UN Mission in Mogadishu, retired US Admiral Jonathan Howe.
It is generally believed that the majority of the clan elders were eager to arrange a peace and to rein in the provocative activities of their clan leader, Mohamed Farrah Aidid but, after this attack on a peaceful meeting, the clan was resolved on fighting the Americans and the UN, leading to the Battle of Moga¬dishu on 3–4 October 1993.
In 1996, ten Security Council members, led by African members Egypt, Guinea-Bissau and Botswa¬na, 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 him. In addition to the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and Italy did not sponsor the res¬olution, but the last three nations voted in support of Boutros-Ghali after the United States had firmly declared its intention to veto.
Although not the first vetoed candidate China vetoed the third term of Kurt Waldheim in 1981 in order to nominate a Secretary-General from the Third World, 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.