Ban Ki-moon: 'Boutros Boutros-Ghali presided over a dramatic rise in UN peacekeeping'

Baku. 17 February. REPORT.AZ/ UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon gave a statement to the media on Tuesday remembering and paying tribute to his predecessor, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who died aged 93. Describing Boutros-Ghali as a ‘respected statesman’, Ban extended condolences to Boutros-Ghali’s family and friends and said the United Nations community will mourn the ‘memorable leader’, Report informs referring to the foreign media. 

'I am deeply saddened to learn of the death of my predecessor, Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

The late Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, was a respected statesman in the service of his country, Egypt. He was a well-known scholar of international law and brought formidable experience and intellectual power to the task of piloting the United Nations through one of the most tumultuous and challenging periods in its history, and guiding the Organization of the Francophonie in subsequent years.

As Secretary-General, he presided over a dramatic rise in UN peacekeeping. He also presided over a time when the world increasingly turned to the United Nations for solutions to its problems, in the immediate aftermath of the cold war.

He showed courage in posing difficult questions to the Member States, and rightly insisted on the independence of his office and of the Secretariat as a whole. His commitment to the United Nations - its mission and its staff - was unmistakable, and the mark he has left on the Organization is indelible.

I extend my deepest condolences to Mrs. Boutros-Ghali, as well as to the rest of the family, to the Egyptian people, and to the late Secretary-General’s many friends and admirers around the world', the UN chief said.

Former U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, whose term was marked by war in the former Yugoslavia, famine and genocide in Africa and confrontation with the United States, died on Tuesday. 

The 15-member U.N. Security Council observed a minute's silence after the death was announced on Tuesday by Venezuelan U.N. Ambassador Rafael Dario Ramirez Carreno, head of the Security Council for February. He was 93. 

An Egyptian, Boutros-Ghali served as U.N. chief from 1992 to 1996. He died at Al Salam Hospital in Cairo on Tuesday, an official at the hospital said. As the United Nations' first secretary-general from Africa, Boutros-Ghali associated himself with the famine in Somalia and organized the first massive U.N. relief operation in the Horn of Africa nation.