Former UN Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, dies aged 93

Former United Nations Secretary Boutros Boutros-Ghali has died at the age of 93. The Egyptians death was announced by Venezuelas UN Ambassador Rafael Ramirez, the current council president, who asked members to rise for a moment of silence. Boutros-Ghali was the first UN chief from the African continent. He stepped into the post in 1992 at a time of dramatic world changes, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War and the beginning of a unipolar era dominated by the United States. But after four years of frictions with the Clinton administration, Washington blocked his renewal in the post in 1996, making him the only U.N. secretary-general to serve a single term. He was replaced by Ghanaian Kofi Annan. The current president of the U.N. Security Council, Venezuelan Ambassador Rafael Ramirez, announced Boutros-Ghalis death at the start of a session Tuesday on Yemens humanitarian crisis. The 15 council members stood in a silent tribute. Boutros-Ghhali died Tuesday at a Cairo hospital, Egypts state news agency said. He had been admitted to the hospital after suffering a broken pelvis, the Al-Ahram newspaper reported on Thursday. In a 2005 interview with The Associated Press, Boutros-Ghali called the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi– in which almost a million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in 100 days – my worst failure at the United Nations. But he blamed the United States, Britain, France and Belgium for paralyzing action by setting impossible conditions for intervention.

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Former UN Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, dies aged 93