UNITED NATIONS: Africa Plans to Stick By Boutros-Ghali Despite Veto

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 19 1996 (IPS) - The long-expected U.S. veto Tuesday of Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s extension as U.N. secretary-general will not prompt African nations to put up another candidate, diplomats here say.

The U.S. veto, the lone vote opposing a new five-year term for Boutros-Ghali during a secret ballot in the 15-member U.N. Security Council, puts a momentary damper on Boutros-Ghali’s bid to stay on as U.N. chief through 2001. But he can take solace in the fact that all 14 other Council members backed him, and that Africa has refrained from seeking other candidates for now.

“It is inevitable” that Africa may have to suggest other Africans to lead the world body, Ambassador Roble Olhaye of Djibouti acknowledged. But the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which supports Boutros-Ghali’s re-election, will not consider offering any challengers to the incumbent, at least for now, Olhaye added.

“We are respectfully behind him now,” Olhaye said. “He is our candidate.”

The African states may offer a slate of alternate candidates after a few more days, if Boutros-Ghali continues to face a veto by the United States, Olhaye added.

Still, the Tuesday show of support for Boutros-Ghali also discourages Washington’s plans to dump the secretary-general, whom it claims has been ineffective at reforming the United Nations. All of the four other veto-wielding permanent Council members — Britain, China, France and Russia — voted for Boutros-Ghali, with France and China backing him particularly firmly.

For the time being, the perception that Africa deserves to hold onto the seat now occupied by Boutros-Ghali, an Egyptian diplomat, also ensures that no non-African challengers to Boutros-Ghali are even being considered.

If he is rejected by the Council, Boutros-Ghali will be the shortest-serving U.N. chief, and the first one not to win a second term. For Africa, which fought hard five years ago to place a diplomat from their region at the top spot, that is a major affront.

“You can’t treat us as children,” one African diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said angrily before the Tuesday vote. “We’re not children. Some of us have been working here as diplomats before (U.S. Ambassador Madeleine) Albright was still teaching in university.”

To assuage that anger, Albright and her U.S. colleagues have voiced sympathy for an African successor to Boutros-Ghali.

“We are supporting and are comfortable with a process in which, for the next phase, an African candidate would be discussed most seriously,” a senior U.S. official, who asked that his name not be used, said.

However, he added, if Africa “does not come up with an acceptable candidate,” the United States would consider candidates from other regions, he added.

The problem for Washington, however, has been in steering African nations away from Boutros-Ghali. A trip to Africa last month by U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher failed to wrest even one government from Boutros-Ghali’s side, while many leaders resented the idea that Washington could dictate what the region’s best interests were.

“Why should they say what’s best for us?” one African diplomat fumed. “What gives them the right to think they know what’s best for us and we don’t?”

Several African candidates are being considered here, including Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian; Salim Ahmed Salim, the Tanzanian secretary-general of the OAU; and Hamid Algabid of Niger, the secretary-general of the Islamic Conference Organisation.

Annan has been hurt in recent days by the perception that the United States favours him over Boutros-Ghali, while Salim, who lost a race to be U.N. secretary-general in 1981, has previously been backed by Beijing but rebuffed by Washington. No African candidate is expected to jump in the race as long as Boutros-Ghali still intends to fight, sources here add.

For now, Boutros-Ghali remains ensconced in the race, and his aides say he has not been discouraged in the least by the support for his candidacy outside of the United States. One spokesman said the secretary-general intends to stay in the race “until the bitter end.”

In fact, one of the most immediate political consequences of the months-long battle between Washington and Boutros-Ghali has been the decline of Madeleine Albright’s chances to become the first woman U.S. secretary of state.

Sources here say that the standoff, which has worsened Albright’s relations with Arab nations in particular, has hurt her chances to be effective in handling Middle East crises — possibly the main task any secretary of state must face.

But the United States still holds the trump card: its ability to keep vetoing Boutros-Ghali. Diplomats here contend the struggle to select a U.N. chief for the next five years may continue for several more weeks of even more bitter tussles.