United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon has expressed sadness over the death of former occupant of that office, Boutros Boutros-Ghali who died on Tuesday at the age of 93.
Ban, who addressed UN correspondents on Tuesday in New York, said that the late Secretary-General was a respected statesman in the service of his country, Egypt and the world at large.
He described him as a well-known scholar of international law who 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.
According to him, he guided the Organisation of the Francophone 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.
“Boutros Boutros-Ghali did much to shape the organisation’s response to this new era, in particular through his landmark report “An Agenda for Peace” and the subsequent agendas for development and democratisation.
“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 organisation is indelible,” he said.
Ban extended his deepest condolences to the wife of the late 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 community, he added, would mourn a memorable leader who rendered invaluable services to world peace and international order.
