Boutros Boutros-Ghali, an Egyptian diplomat who led the United Nations in a chaotic 1990s tenure that began with hopes for peace after the Cold War, but failed to cope with genocide in Rwanda and Bosnia and ended in angry recriminations with Washington, died today in an Egyptian hospital. He was 93.
His death was confirmed by the office of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Mr. Ban later made a brief appearance before reporters at the United Nations, calling Mr. Boutros-Ghali “a memorable leader who rendered invaluable services to world peace and international order.”
The website of Al Ahram, Egypt’s state-owned newspaper, said Mr. Boutros-Ghali died Tuesday in a hospital in Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo, where he had been admitted a few days earlier with a broken leg. He and his wife, Leia Maria Boutros-Ghali, had no children, Egyptian diplomats said.
A generation before violent protests boiled over in Cairo in 2011, Mr. Boutros-Ghali was a keystone of Egypt’s old guard diplomacy, a senior minister to President Hosni Mubarak and to his slain predecessor, Anwar el-Sadat. He seemed to meet the tests of character and experience when, in 1992, he became the sixth secretary general of the United Nations, the first African and the first Arab to hold the post. [myad]
