Boutros Ghali

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration has decided not to support Boutros Boutros-Ghali for a second term as United Nations secretary-general and has informed him that Washington will use its veto, if necessary, to prevent his re-election, senior U.S. officials said yesterday.The United States, which considers Boutros-Ghali an obstacle to reform at the international organization, has begun the process of informing other countries, including other Security Council members, the officials said, describing the decision as "irrevocable."

NEW YORK -- When Boutros Boutros-Ghali became secretary-general of the United Nations five years ago, he appointed Richard L. Thornburgh, the former Pennsylvania governor and U.S. attorney general, as his deputy and assigned him to cut waste and root out corruption.Thornburgh spent a year as undersecretary-general. He drafted a report calling for several management reforms, particularly the creation of an inspector general to control and investigate how money was spent.But the calls went unheeded.

Cheer up. Newt is back.John Smoltz is the big one that got away. Next time, try more bait.Other politicians may promise to give money back to voters. An incumbent governor can actually do it.At least we won't have to look up how to spell Boutros-Ghali any more.Pub Date: 11/22/96

Cheer up. Newt is back.John Smoltz is the big one that got away. Next time, try more bait.Other politicians may promise to give money back to voters. An incumbent governor can actually do it.At least we won't have to look up how to spell Boutros-Ghali any more.Pub Date: 11/22/96

Battlefronts across Bosnia heated up ahead of a GENEVA meeting today in which the United States, its European allies and Russia will try to set the agenda for future peace talks. One U.N. military observer was killed and another seriously wounded when they came under fire near SARAJEVO.In WASHINGTON, the Senate voted to require President Clinton to lift the arms embargo against Bosnia, but the amendment was contradicted by a second amendment.United Nations chief Boutros Boutros-Ghali recommended that the U.N. limit its peacekeeping role in the six "safe areas" declared a year ago, and said more peacekeeping troops will be needed in Bosnia.

VIENNA, Austria -- Using some of the most forceful language by a senior American official in recent years on the issue, Secretary of State Warren Christopher has pledged a major new U.S. commitment to the cause of global human rights.Addressing yesterday's opening session of the United Nations World Conference on Human Rights, Mr. Christopher said the Clinton administration would use the issue to define trade and foreign aid relationships with other nations and would press for speedy Senate ratification of four international human rights conventions signed during the Carter presidency, but which have languished since.

The world now knows that President Bush dispatched U.S. troops to Somalia without reaching a clear understanding with United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali about what their mission would be. As a result, there are open disputes about how long U.S. forces should stay, how extensive should be their area of responsibility, whether they should try to disarm Somali marauders, what role they should fulfill in re-establishing governmental authority...

U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali's visit to North Korea should reinforce the message that Security Council action will come next year if the Pyongyang regime continues to rebuff international inspection of its nuclear facilities. American officials, who have had their differences with the United Nations leader, are less than enthusiastic about his entry into these intricate negotiations. But since this enhances Mr. Boutros Ghali's image of independence, it may strengthen his hand in his talks with the North Koreans.

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration vowed yesterday to punish Saddam Hussein for Iraq's military thrust into the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, and U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali suspended the recent agreement to allow Iraq to sell oil to raise cash for food and medicine.On a day full of diplomatic contacts in which the Clinton administration kept all of its options open, there were indications last night that the United States had stepped up military activity even further in the region.

UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has asked the Security Council to "take whatever measures are required" to force Israel to rescind the Deportation of nearly 400 Palestinians from the occupied territories, triggering a behind-the-scenes diplomatic frenzy here that could embarrass the Clinton administration.In an unusually blunt report that employs language similar to that used in dealing with Iraqi aggression in the Persian Gulf, Mr. Boutros-Ghali said that a monthlong effort to seek compliance with a Security Council resolution ordering Israel to return the Palestinians to their homes had been frustrated.

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration vowed yesterday to punish Saddam Hussein for Iraq's military thrust into the Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq, and U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali suspended the recent agreement to allow Iraq to sell oil to raise cash for food and medicine.On a day full of diplomatic contacts in which the Clinton administration kept all of its options open, there were indications last night that the United States had stepped up military activity even further in the region.

UNITED NATIONS -- An international women's organization based in New York is opening a campaign in 75 countries this weekend to get a woman elected secretary-general of the United Nations.The organization, Equality Now, has selected six candidates from what it says is a pool of "many qualified women around the world."The organization is circulating fliers to its 2,000 affiliated groups worldwide, with pictures of the candidates and the names and addresses of the Security Council delegates who must decide by the end of the year whether Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali will have another term.

WASHINGTON -- For some reason, Boutros Boutros-Ghali just doesn't get it.If the biggest contributor to your paycheck -- and a superpower at that -- wanted you fired, you'd most likely accept the world's praise for distinguished service and retire quietly.But the United Nations secretary-general, 73, refuses to hang up his pinstripes. A bureaucratic survivor with what one colleague calls "the skin of a turtle," he treats the threat to veto his re-election as just a transitory whim."He is confident he can serve the international community for a second term," said a spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi.

PHILADELPHIA -- Would someone please explain why the Clinton administration has launched a messy public campaign to oust United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali?The whole business is rather ugly. Last month, Secretary of State Warren Christopher said publicly that Washington will veto a second five years for Mr. Boutros-Ghali, whose tenure expires at the end of this year. Mr. Boutros-Ghali says he will run anyway.Most member states, including U.S. allies, are furious that deadbeat America -- $1.2 billion in arrears in its U.N. dues -- has acted so high-handedly.

PRESIDENT CLINTON, in another move to co-opt a Republican issue, has vowed to block United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali from another five-year term. His White House spokesman, Mike McCurry, describes the U.N. headquarters in New York as a building "stuffed with too many bureaucrats and stuffed with too much waste and inefficiency." Bob Dole, a constant critic of the 73-year-old Egyptian statesman, will have a tough time topping such undiplomatic language.Politics aside, the president is fully justified in taking this action.

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration has decided not to support Boutros Boutros-Ghali for a second term as United Nations secretary-general and has informed him that Washington will use its veto, if necessary, to prevent his re-election, senior U.S. officials said yesterday.The United States, which considers Boutros-Ghali an obstacle to reform at the international organization, has begun the process of informing other countries, including other Security Council members, the officials said, describing the decision as "irrevocable."

WASHINGTON -- United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali urged the Security Council yesterday to use military force throughout Somalia to help feed the starving, advancing the prospect of a major U.S.-led military operation in the Horn of Africa.Under his recommendation, the forces would seize warlords' heavy weapons and disarm militias to support relief efforts in the civil war-wracked country. An estimated 300,000 Somalis have died, and another 1.5 million are threatened.Mr.

Don't toast the reunification of Cyprus yet. But the election Sunday in the Greek-ethnic country, occupying part of the island of the same name, was a step in that direction. It was a ringing mandate for moderation, which is rare these days in little countries with big nationalisms.President George Vassiliou, the candidate of the left, came in first with 44 percent of the vote. That forces him into a run-off on Sunday with Glafcos Clerides, candidate of the right, who won 37 percent, with Mr. Vassiliou the favorite.

UNITED NATIONS -- There is one election this year in which most candidates won't announce they are running. Nearly all the campaigning, or noncampaigning, will go on behind closed doors. More than likely, the winner will be decided before the voting takes place. The prize: the title of United Nations secretary-general.At the end of this year, Boutros Boutros-Ghali will complete a five-year term as the world's top diplomat, crisis administrator and -- some would say -- scapegoat. Surprisingly, a lot of people seem to want his job, including him, although he's not saying.

The peace-keepers' watchword in crises should emulate the physicians' Hippocratic oath: First, do no harm. The French offer to speed troops into Rwanda risks violating it. But such is the frustration at mounting an African-manned United Nations expedition that Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali approves the French plan and the Security Council is poised to approve it.Rwandans are dying. Militia of Hutu youths, instructed by the army, are methodically slaughtering educated Hutus and all manner of the Tutsi minority, even in U.N.-protected camps.