TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/120291/1202105.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 6KB | 122 lines

                                                                                NATION, Page 28

DIPLOMACY

A Man for All Nations


Outmaneuvering the U.S., the Africans put one of their own at
the helm of the world forum for the first time

By BONNIE ANGELO -- With reporting by Dean Fischer/Cairo


    For the United Nations' African bloc, the election last
week of Egyptian diplomat Boutros Boutros Ghali as the new
Secretary-General to succeed the retiring Javier Perez de
Cuellar was a semisweet victory. The Africans had engineered
their continent's first turn at the helm of the world
organization -- and had outmaneuvered the big guns of the U.S.
and Britain to achieve it. But Ghali was the "least African"
candidate put forward by a bloc that dearly wanted to see the
job go to a sub-Saharan black.

    American and British officials privately disdained all the
candidates as lacking stature and experience for the top spot
at the U.N. in the post-cold war era and regarded Ghali, 69, as
too old. To the surprise of Security Council members, his
victory came on the first official ballot. The last straw poll
had given the edge to the leading black African candidate,
Zimbabwean Finance Minister Bernard Chidzero. But on the first
tally, 11 members selected Ghali and none of the five permanent
members of the Security Council vetoed him. Among the other
candidates, including Chidzero and early favorite Prince
Sadruddin Aga Khan, a veteran U.N. figure who had his eye on the
job for 20 years, no one had enough votes to force a runoff. The
four Europeans on the ballot, including the first woman to be
considered, Norway's Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland,
trailed badly.

    The Egyptian Deputy Prime Minister who will lead the U.N.
into the new world order defies categorization. He won under
the African banner, but he is not black. He is an Arab who is
a Coptic Christian with a Jewish wife. He represents the Third
World with the stamp of Paris-honed sophistication; he is the
son of a wealthy family, the grandson of a Prime Minister. He
was widely considered old for the demanding job but was
criticized for campaigning for it too vigorously.

    But Ghali brings strong qualifications to the
$202,346-a-year post. He is an expert in international law and
comes with a 21-page curriculum vitae replete with degrees,
decorations and scholarly writings in three languages. After
Anwar Sadat brought him into political life in 1974, Ghali
became a key negotiator in the Camp David peace process, and he
has helped mediate many quarrels among African nations.

    Those ties helped, since it was largely the determination
of the Africans that won him the job. Last June the
Organization of African Unity, meeting in Nigeria, agreed to go
all out to demand its turn in power and drew up a list of six
candidates, all except Ghali from sub-Saharan nations. He was
added almost by chance, to meet France's demand for a
French-speaking candidate. In drawing up the list, President
Mobutu of Zaire looked about the room, fixed his eye on Ghali
and declared, "Vous!" China quickly pledged its support for an
African, and France endorsed Ghali.

    The U.S. has always resisted the notion of a rotating
regional claim to the job -- a concept not mentioned in the U.N.
charter -- but it did not counter with a serious candidate of
its own. A State Department official insisted that "that would
be the kiss of death," and an American diplomat at the U.N.
agreed it would be impolitic for the U.S. to use its big-power
muscle: "We weren't going to be the 900-lb. gorilla."

    Instead Washington quietly dithered as Perez de Cuellar's
second five-year term neared its Dec. 31 end. A proposal to
extend his tenure, floated by the Soviet Union and France, was
knocked down by the U.S. and Britain, which wanted a man with
new energy and attitude to stir up the sluggish U.N.
bureaucracy. Famous names like Margaret Thatcher and Eduard
Shevardnadze were suggested but never taken seriously.

    As months slid by with little sense of urgency about
choosing a leader for the next five and possibly 10 years, the
Africans hardened their position. They warned that if the
Security Council bypassed their nominees, they would flout
precedent and take the fight to the floor of the General
Assembly, which must formally approve the council's
recommendation. Were they bluffing? Possibly, but more likely
not. "What we didn't want," said an American diplomat, "was a
Clarence Thomas situation, with a deeply divided vote."

    Meanwhile, Ghali was breaking the first rule of U.N.
politics: don't appear to seek the job and don't get out front.
He traveled to every crucial capital pressing his view of a
revitalized U.N. After meeting with a noncommittal President
Bush in September, he checked into the National Naval Medical
Center at Bethesda, Md., and emerged with a clean bill of health
to counter objections to his age. Both Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak and Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Washington Prince Bandar
bin Sultan personally called Bush.

    As the Security Council assembled late Thursday, rumors
persisted that the U.S. and Britain would somehow craft an
eleventh hour surprise. But by then Washington had decided that
if it came to a choice between Ghali and Chidzero, the U.S.
would vote for Ghali.

    The victor will be expected to inject new life into a
bloated U.N. bureaucracy. Can Ghali do it? A Western analyst in
Cairo calls him "a man of vision and integrity, not anybody's
pushover." But with only five years to make his mark, the
incoming Secretary-General must work fast. He takes over a U.N.
facing a devastating financial crisis, increasing demands for
peacekeeping operations and humanitarian aid, and a whole new
global agenda -- an awesome challenge for an untried man.