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Madeleine Albright, who emigrated to the United States at age 11, was the first woman to serve as Secretary of State, between 1997 and 2001.
Madeleine Albright at the White House, August 20, 1998.
AFP
Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the first woman to hold the post in the US government, died Wednesday at the age of 84, her family said in a statement.
Head of diplomacy between 1997 and 2001 in the administration of Democratic President Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright died of cancer, say her relatives, who hail “a tireless defender of democracy and human rights”.
She helped “change the course of history,” assured President Joe Biden. “She was an immigrant fleeing persecution,” he said in a statement. “And like so many before and after her, she was proudly American.” “To make this country she loved even more beautiful, she defied conventions, broke barriers, again and again,” applauded the American leader.
Madeleine Albright was “a passionate voice for freedom and democracy,” said Bill Clinton, stressing that her death was “an immense loss to the world at a time when we most need the lessons of her life.”
“Humor” and “determination”
The former president paid tribute to some of his many fights, to “put an end to ethnic cleansing in Bosnia and Kosovo”, “support an expansion of NATO to the countries of central Europe” or “reduce the level of poverty “. She led them, he says, without ever losing “her great sense of humor” or “her determination”.
The UN Security Council held a minute of silence in memory of the woman who was also United States Ambassador to the United Nations for four years (1993-1997), where she left her mark, particularly during the intervention of NATO in Kosovo. At the same time, the Russian ambassador was a certain Sergei Lavrov… who has since become the head of Russian diplomacy and a very close ally of Vladimir Putin.
Russian President whom Madeleine Albright accused, a month ago to the day, of making a “historic error” by preparing to invade Ukraine. Born May 15, 1937 in Prague, Madeleine Albright is a polyglot refugee, who first fled Nazism by taking refuge in London in 1939 with her Jewish family.
“The American dream”
Eleven years later, her relatives, who have meanwhile returned to Czechoslovakia, decide when the Communists take power there to emigrate to the United States, where brilliant studies will allow Madeleine Albright to access the highest steps of power. .
“She lived the American dream and helped others achieve it,” praised former US President George W. Bush about this woman who speaks English, Czech, French and Russian in particular. US Foreign Ministry spokesman Ned Price called his death “shattering”. “She was a pioneer,” he said. “As the first female Secretary of State, she literally paved the way for much of our profession.”
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said she was “one of the most remarkable people” he had the privilege of working with, praising her “deep compassion for humanity”. In April 2012, by awarding him the “Presidential Medal of Freedom”, the highest civilian decoration in the United States, Barack Obama praised his “courage and tenacity, which made it possible to bring peace to the Balkans and opened the way to progress in some of the most unstable places in the world”.
(AFP)