Boutros-Ghali: UN can't survive in present form
radionetherlands ^ | 21-04-2006 | Perro de Jong
radionetherlands.nl
Ten years after his hopes of a second term in office were scotched by the United States, former UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros-Ghali has visited Rotterdam, where he received an award from Erasmus University and spoke at “Global Shift of Powers,” a conference on the rise of new economic and political powers such as India and China.
Speaking alongside Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, he warned that, in this new reality, the UN won't be able to survive... at least not in its present form.
Since being forced to end his career at the UN, Dr Boutros-Ghali has been involved with the Academy of International Law in The Hague, he's written a critical book on US-UN relations and he’s pleaded for more attention for Africa in world affairs.
Power shift In that context, he warmly welcomes the rise of new superpowers such as China and India:
"The global shift in power is for me a main preoccupation, not for economic reasons or for cultural reasons. For purely political reasons. India and China belong to the Third World. They understand our problem in a certain way. We can cooperate. So I am in favour of the new role of China and India in international affairs, because I believe that this will help the democratisation of international affairs, and it will help the participation of the member states."
During his five-year tenure as secretary-general, he was eager for the UN to play a pioneering role in promoting this global shift. But he admits that his attempts to move the organisation into new terrain ended in disaster: the UN failed to prevent the genocide in Rwanda and its attempt to intervene in Somalia collapsed. |
