Boutros Boutros-Ghali, first UN chief from Africa, dies

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, a veteran Egyptian
diplomat who helped negotiate his country's
landmark peace deal with Israel but then clashed
with the United States when he served a single term
as U.N. secretary-general, died Tuesday. He was 93.
Boutros-Ghali, the scion of a prominent Egyptian
Christian political family, was the first U.N. 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.
His five years at the helm remain controversial. He
worked to establish the U.N.'s independence,
particularly from the United States, at a time when
the world body was increasingly called on to step
into crises with peacekeeping forces, with limited
resources. Some blame him for misjudgments in the
failures to prevent genocides in Africa and the
Balkans and mismanagement of reform in the world
body.
After years of frictions with the Clinton
administration, the United States 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.