联合国前秘书长加利逝世 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.

曾与克林顿(Clinton)政府发生尖锐冲突的联合国(UN)前秘书长布特罗斯布特罗斯-加利（Boutros Boutros-Ghali，见头图右）逝世，享年93岁。

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.

这位埃及外交官是担任联合国秘书长一职的首位非洲人和首位阿拉伯人。他于1992年开始执掌联合国。在经历了40年的冷战僵局之后，这个国际组织当时似乎正在赢得它应有的地位。

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，在布特罗斯-加利任期内，联合国却连遭索马里、卢旺达和波黑危机的打击，他与美国的关系变得如此紧张，以至于美国政府在1996年堵死了他的连任之路，令他成为唯一一位任期只有一届的联合国秘书长。

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.

由时任美国国务卿的马德琳攠尔布赖特(Madeleine Albright)牵头的把布特罗斯-加利赶下台的运动，展示出了美国政府对联合国的影响力有多么的大，而今天美国政府可能很难再现这种影响力。不过，这件事也提醒人们，与近些年相比，当年联合国对解决全球问题似乎发挥着更核心的作用。

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.

布特罗斯-加利后来在文章里回顾这段时光时表示，他原本以为美国这样的大国深知外交和国际法的重要性。“然而罗马帝国不需要外交，美国也不需要，”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.

他与美国政府的关系趋于紧张，是由于1993年美国军人在索马里遭遇的袭击。这些美国军人当时正在支持一项联合国任务，那起袭击导致18名美国士兵丧生。布特罗斯-加利的盟友们谴责克林顿政府在后来华盛顿方面围绕这一失败任务爆发的政治对骂中把他当作替罪羊。

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.

这件事反过来又对1994年卢旺达种族屠杀产生了影响，联合国维和人员没能阻止那次屠杀的发生。2005年接受美联社(AP)采访时，布特罗斯-加利表示这是“我在联合国最严重的失败”。不过，他也将原因归结为美国、法国和比利时阻挠开展更大范围的国际干预。

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.

在波斯尼亚冲突加剧之时，布特罗斯-加利再次与美国政府发生了争执，许多美国官员谴责他对塞尔维亚族太过同情。1995年7月塞族人在斯雷布雷尼察联合国“安全区”对8000名穆斯林展开大屠杀，令联合国的声誉又一次受到沉重打击。

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.

鉴于美国保守派已把布特罗斯-加利变为政治论战的焦点之一，克林顿政府担心他可能会影响1996年总统选举选情。尽管布特罗斯-加利在联合国拥有广泛支持，奥尔布莱特还是说服了足够多的国家撤回对他连任的支持，加纳外交官科菲褠坛（Kofi Annan，见头图左）成为了能赢得非洲国家强烈支持的替代人选。

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.

在致联合国的告别演说中，布特罗斯-加利表示，他原本希望冷战结束后联合国能扮演起决定性作用的国际角色。

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

“但这五年当中的几年问题重重，”他说，“幻想开始破灭了。”