聯合國前祕書長加利逝世 Former UN secretary general Boutros Boutros Ghali dies at 93

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former secretary-general of the UN who clashed bitterly with the Clinton administration, has died at the age of 93.

曾與克林頓(Clinton)政府發生尖銳衝突的聯合國(UN)前祕書長布特羅斯布特羅斯-加利（Boutros Boutros-Ghali，見頭圖右）逝世，享年93歲。

An Egyptian diplomat who became the first African and the first Arab to hold the post, Boutros-Ghali took charge of the UN in 1992 when the international organisation appeared to be coming into its own after four decades of Cold War gridlock.

這位埃及外交官是擔任聯合國祕書長一職的首位非洲人和首位阿拉伯人。他於1992年開始執掌聯合國。在經歷了40年的冷戰僵局之後，這個國際組織當時似乎正在贏得它應有的地位。

However, the UN was buffeted by crises in Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia during his tenure and his relations with the US were so strained that Washington blocked his 1996 re-election, making Boutros-Ghali the only secretary-general to serve one term.

然而，在布特羅斯-加利任期內，聯合國卻連遭索馬里、盧旺達和波黑危機的打擊，他與美國的關係變得如此緊張，以至於美國政府在1996年堵死了他的連任之路，令他成爲唯一一位任期只有一屆的聯合國祕書長。

The campaign to unseat him, which was led by then secretary of state Madeleine Albright, demonstrated a level of influence at the UN that Washington might find difficult to repeat today. But it was also a reminder of a time when the UN seemed more central to global problems than it has in recent years.

由時任美國國務卿的馬德琳攠爾布賴特(Madeleine Albright)牽頭的把布特羅斯-加利趕下臺的運動，展示出了美國政府對聯合國的影響力有多麼的大，而今天美國政府可能很難再現這種影響力。不過，這件事也提醒人們，與近些年相比，當年聯合國對解決全球問題似乎發揮着更核心的作用。

Writing about the episode later, Boutros-Ghali said he had assumed a great power such as the US was steeped in the importance of diplomacy and international law. “But the Roman empire had no need of diplomacy. Neither does the United States,” he said.

布特羅斯-加利後來在文章裏回顧這段時光時表示，他原本以爲美國這樣的大國深知外交和國際法的重要性。“然而羅馬帝國不需要外交，美國也不需要，”他表示。

His relations with Washington became strained by the attack in 1993 on US troops supporting a UN mission in Somalia that left 18 American soldiers dead. Boutros-Ghali’s allies accused the Clinton administration of using him as a scapegoat amid the political recriminations that followed in Washington over the botched mission.

他與美國政府的關係趨於緊張，是由於1993年美國軍人在索馬里遭遇的襲擊。這些美國軍人當時正在支持一項聯合國任務，那起襲擊導致18名美國士兵喪生。布特羅斯-加利的盟友們譴責克林頓政府在後來華盛頓方面圍繞這一失敗任務爆發的政治對罵中把他當作替罪羊。

That episode, in turn, cast its shadow over the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 that UN peacekeepers were unable to prevent. In a 2005 interview with the AP, Boutros-Ghali said this was “my worst failure at the United Nations” but he also blamed the US, France and Belgium for preventing a broader international intervention.

這件事反過來又對1994年盧旺達種族屠殺產生了影響，聯合國維和人員沒能阻止那次屠殺的發生。2005年接受美聯社(AP)採訪時，布特羅斯-加利表示這是“我在聯合國最嚴重的失敗”。不過，他也將原因歸結爲美國、法國和比利時阻撓開展更大範圍的國際干預。

When the conflict in Bosnia intensified, Boutros-Ghali again sparred with Washington, with many US officials accusing him of being too sympathetic towards the Serbs. The massacre by Serbs in July 1995 of 8,000 Muslims in the UN “safe zone” of Srebrenica was another searing blow to the organisation’s credibility.

在波斯尼亞衝突加劇之時，布特羅斯-加利再次與美國政府發生了爭執，許多美國官員譴責他對塞爾維亞族太過同情。1995年7月塞族人在斯雷布雷尼察聯合國“安全區”對8000名穆斯林展開大屠殺，令聯合國的聲譽又一次受到沉重打擊。

With conservatives in the US turning Boutros-Ghali into a political punchline, the Clinton administration feared he could become a factor in the 1996 presidential election. Although he enjoyed broad support at the UN, Ms Albright persuaded enough countries to withdraw backing for Boutros-Ghali’s re-election and the Ghanaian diplomat Kofi Annan emerged as an alternative candidate that could win strong African backing.

鑑於美國保守派已把布特羅斯-加利變爲政治論戰的焦點之一，克林頓政府擔心他可能會影響1996年總統選舉選情。儘管布特羅斯-加利在聯合國擁有廣泛支持，奧爾布萊特還是說服了足夠多的國家撤回對他連任的支持，加納外交官科菲褠壇（Kofi Annan，見頭圖左）成爲了能贏得非洲國家強烈支持的替代人選。

In his farewell speech to the UN, Boutros-Ghali said he had hoped the UN could play a decisive international role after the end of the cold war.

在致聯合國的告別演說中，布特羅斯-加利表示，他原本希望冷戰結束後聯合國能扮演起決定性作用的國際角色。

“But the middle years of this half decade were deeply troubled,” he said. “Disillusion set in.”

“但這五年當中的幾年問題重重，”他說，“幻想開始破滅了。”