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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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1993-04-08
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THE WEEK, Page 15WORLDDiplomatic Discord
A spat between Boutros-Ghali and the Security Council goes public
Another conflict has broken out requiring fast action by the
United Nations Security Council. Alas, this one is in the
council's own chamber. The row between U.N. Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali and the U.N.'s center of power turned even
more acrimonious when the Secretary-General suggested, in an
interview published in the New York Times, that racism might be
a factor behind a torrent of criticism from the British press.
"Maybe," surmised Boutros-Ghali, it was "because I'm a wog."
Western diplomats were shocked at the insinuation and the
epithet; but many Third World envoys quietly nodded their
assent, reflecting the deep North-South rift within the U.N.
Boutros-Ghali and the Security Council have been on a
collision course since he took office last January. Though
thoroughly cosmopolitan and a graduate of universities in Cairo
and Paris, the Egyptian, the first Arab and first African
Secretary-General, sees himself as a champion of the Third
World. He is demanding that the political chaos and famine in
Somalia be given as much attention as the carnage in Yugoslavia,
which he would put largely in the hands of the European
Community. Some council members grumble that he is arrogant and
inattentive and that he too often goes over their heads to
directly contact foreign ministers and heads of state, many of
whom are old friends. At the moment an uneasy truce prevails,
but like cease-fires elsewhere, it may not hold.