UNITED NATIONS: U.S. Seeks “Dignified Exit” For Boutros-Ghali

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 24 1996 (IPS) - The United States has intensified its campaign to block the re-election of U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali when his five-year term ends in December.

“We are making very clear that we would like to see Boutros- Ghali have a dignified exit, but frankly, he has lost the confidence of the United States,” U.S. Ambassador Madeleine Albright said here.

Albright admitted that Washington was “talking” to unnamed countries about denying Boutros-Ghali a second term.

“What is really happening is it’s sinking in to the other 184 member-states that the U.S. decision is irrevocable, and that we made our decision as early as we did so that other candidates could in fact come forward,” she said. “And there are some names being floated around.”

“But I think it’s going to take a while for the message to really reach everybody,” she added.

Last month, the 52-member Organisation of African Unity (OAU) decided to support Boutros-Ghali for a second term despite some heavy arm-twisting by Washington.

The United States has also been moving behind the scenes to block a possible endorsement of Boutros-Ghali by the biggest political grouping at the United Nations: the 113-member Non- Aligned Movement.

A NAM source told IPS that U.S. delegates seemed happy that certain members have quietly blocked an attempt by Egypt and Indonesia to raise the issue under the agenda item “any other business” at a recent meeting here.

The OAU summit took its decision by consensus despite opposition by at least four countries: Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Rwanda.

The only other country openly opposing Boutros-Ghali’s re- election is Malaysia, primarily because it blames the Secretary- General for what it saw as the U.N. debacle in Bosnia.

The United States and the United Nations traded new charges over the re-election of the Secretary-General Monday.

After having threatened to use its veto to block Boutros- Ghali’s re-election, Washington last week accused members of the Secretary-General’s staff of openly canvassing for votes.

James Rubin, spokesman for the U.S. mission, was quoted as having said that the Bill Clinton Administration was “very concerned that U.N. officials have seen it to be their business to be promoting the re-election of a particular Secretary-General.”

“It is our intention to look into how U.N. personnel are being used by the Secretary-General for this purpose,” he said.

Rubin also said the Administration intends “to ensure that U.N. personnel understand that they work for the member-states and the Secretary-General’s office, not a particular Secretary- General.”

Rubin’s remark brought a strong response from U.N. spokeswoman Sylvana Foa.

“We doubt very much that these ridiculous charges or the disgraceful campaign of disinformation that is being waged against the United Nations and against the U.N. staff could possibly have been approved in advance by the government concerned,” Foa told reporters Tuesday.

Foa, a U.S. national, pointed out that it was the job of every U.N. staff member to counter disinformation, no matter what the source of that disinformation.

“We are here to defend this institution, called the United Nations, from unwarranted, unjustified and unsubstantiated attacks,” she said.

Foa said that both the Secretary-General and the staff were “extremely preoccupied” these days over the multitude of crises, including the deteriorating situation in Burundi.

“We have no time for these kinds of unsubstantiated allegations,” she said.

Foa also said that the “bully tactics, these threats and blatant attempts at intimidating U.N. staff really smack of the McCarthy era. “There’s an odor there of something I remember when I was a kid in the late 1950s,” she said, referring to the anti- Communist witch-hunts instigated by U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.

Foa’s response brought an even stronger rejoinder from State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns who told reporters Wednesday that he regrets very much “the intemperate and unhelpful language of the U.N. spokeswoman.”

He said Foa was wrong in alleging that this was some kind of McCarthyism.

“I would suggest she go back and read about the McCarthy period and read about what really happened back then,” he said. “It has nothing to do with our right in the United Nations to speak out on this issue.”

“The United States is a leading member of the United Nations,” said Burns. “We are the founder, we are the host, and we’re one of the permanent members of the Security Council. We have a right to expect that proper procedures will be followed by U.N. employees during the next several months as we undergo the selection of a new Secretary-General.”

Burns stressed that Washington had the right to make these demands, “especially considering we contribute one out of every four dollars that pays the salaries of these people and that funds U.N. operations.”

Burns added that “It is clearly against the guidelines of the United Nations for any U.N. employee to actively campaign on behalf of the current Secretary-General in his bid to have a second term of office.”