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- THE WEEK, Page 15WORLDDiplomatic Discord
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- A spat between Boutros-Ghali and the Security Council goes public
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- 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.
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- 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.
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