The change began in Somalia, where we discovered that we were involved in an operation where there was no peace, so there was no more a peacekeeping operation because there was no peace. Boutros Boutros-Ghali Read Quote
Rwanda was considered a second-class operation; because it was a small country, we had been able to maintain a kind of status quo. They were negotiating, they’d accepted the new peace project, so we were under the impression that everything would be solved easily. Boutros Boutros-Ghali Read Quote
It was a mistake. I was wrong, but I discovered this many years later. I was acting on the basis of this mandate given me by the most important leaders of the world: President Bush’s father, prime minister of France, President Mitterand, the Chinese, everybody. Boutros Boutros-Ghali Read Quote
But I believe that the DPKO at this time was very much involved with American administration and was acting, taking on consideration the demand or the recommendation of the American administration. American administration was very powerful. Boutros Boutros-Ghali Read Quote
But at the beginning, our definition of the genocide was what happened to Armenia in 1917 or 1919, it’s happened to the Jew in Europe, and we were not realizing – In our point of view, they have not the tools to do a genocide. Boutros Boutros-Ghali Read Quote
When you have an accident, they will save their own people, and those who have worked with you or with the NGOs are left. Unfortunately, this happens always. It is not an excuse at all. Boutros Boutros-Ghali Read Quote
We got involved in the Rwanda peace process for the simple reason that there was a decision which was taken by the Security Council, because the troops were in Uganda, and we decided to have a military presence. Boutros Boutros-Ghali Read Quote
There is a greater fatigue concerning the African problem today than five or 10 years ago. The situation now in Africa is worse today than it was 10 years ago. Boutros Boutros-Ghali Read Quote
The real problem was not the troops; the real problem was that only the United States had the infrastructure to do the transport of troops with big planes, and then who will pay? Boutros Boutros-Ghali Read Quote
The fact that you had disruptions in the peace process was not only in Rwanda. We had the same problem in Cambodia, we had the same problem in Mozambique, we had the same problem in Salvador. Boutros Boutros-Ghali Read Quote
