Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Saturday, September 15, 2012
Friday, September 14, 2012
U.N. appoints Tarek Mitri head of Libya mission
Friday, October 21, 2011
Will the U.N. Apologize?
Editorial of The New York Sun | October 20, 2011
http://www.nysun.com/editorials/will-the-un-apologize/87533/
In the wake of the death of Colonel Gadhafi, the United Nations is being asked to apologize for “legitimizing” the Libyan tyrant with key posts. United Nations Watch, a particularly vigilant observer of the world body, is calling on the Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, and the U.N. human rights commissioner, Navi Pillay, to acknowledge that the U.N. “was wrong to support Gadhafi by granting him key posts on its most influential bodies.” Hillel Neuer, the executive director of United Nations Watch, says that the U.N. “should also apologize for choosing Gadafi's regime to head the planning of its 2009 world conference on racism, and for designating Colonel Gaddafi’s daughter Ayesha a U.N. Goodwill Ambassador.”
It would be hard to make such stuff up. But it gets even worse. It turns out that a member of the advisory committee to the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, a one-time Swiss parliamentarian named Jean Ziegler, is, according to U.N. Watch, a co-founder of something called the “Gadhafi Human Rights Prize.” The 45 NGOs are calling for Mr. Ziegler to be fired from his advisory post at the U.N. Mr. Neuer called the Gadhafi prize “propaganda tool for the regime.”
The prize, which Wikipedia reports as running as high as $250,000, has been given out by a Swiss-based foundation; Wikipedia’s list of its winners includes, among others, Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, Louis Farrakhan, “the children of Palestine,” and, last year, the prime minister of Turkey, Recep Erdogan. The 45 NGOs who want Mr. Ziegler out of his U.N. advisory role are from a broad range of countries and people embarrassed by the United Nations willingness to bring Gadhafi into its human rights work.
* * *
It’s anyone’s guess whether the United Nations will accede to the request of the NGOs for an apology. But the world body’s record in respect of Gadhafi will stand for many years as one, if only one, reminder of where the United Nations has stood during the long struggle for human rights in the Middle East. And of why it is so important for the United States Congress to brush aside Secretary of State Clinton’s objections and pass United Nations Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act. The measure is being advanced by the chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. It has cleared her committee. If passed it would give the Congress a stronger hand in denying funding for the absurd programs of a United Nations without shame.
________
* According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Mr. Ziegler once served as a chauffeur in Geneva for the South American communist Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
BBCNews: United Nations Libya plans 'revealed in report'
The website Inner City Press, which follows UN affairs, published the report which it said had been leaked.
It was apparently written by a special team assigned by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to draw up recommendations for the UN's new role in Libya.
However, the UN has not confirmed its authenticity.
The report appears to be an internal planning document that could serve as the basis for a new UN mandate in Libya.
It suggests a UN mission with a core staff of 61 civilians, for an initial three month period, to help Libyan rebels organise a peaceful transition to democracy.
'Nato presence'Beyond that, it recommends the deployment of up to 200 unarmed military observers - principally to monitor the process of dealing with forces loyal to fugitive leader Col Muammar Gaddafi - as well as up to 190 UN police officers to help train local forces.
All of this would be implemented only if requested by the Libyan transitional authorities and approved by the UN Security Council.
The document says it would be beyond the UN's capacity to deal with any major destabilisation in Tripoli.
In such a case, it says, Nato would continue to play a role because its UN mandate to protect civilians does not end with the collapse of the Gaddafi regime.
The report also details how the UN could support the establishment of an inclusive and legitimate interim government, and help it prepare for the election of a provisional national congress to draft a constitution in the next six to nine months.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
KoreaHerald: Model U.N. creates goodwill ambassadors to Korea
About 1,000 high school, university and graduate students from 60 countries discussed pending global issues, ranging from global warming to a U.S.-led financial market crisis in Songdo, a district of the Incheon Free Economic Zone.
Their five days of impassioned discussion resulted in resolutions on four topics ― nuclear safety and security, world food security, global warming and sustainable development.
 |
| Participants of the Global Model U.N. Conference applaud during the opening ceremony of The Global Model United Nations Conference at Songdo, Incheon, on Aug. 11. (Kim Myung-sub/The Korea Herald) |
Monday, May 16, 2011
U.N. Agency Prepares to Resume Aid to Libya Even if Qaddafi Remains in Power
Published May 15, 2011 | FoxNews.com
While the U.S. and NATO demand that Libyan despot Muammar al-Qaddafi relinquish control and stop slaughtering his own people, the United NationsDevelopment Program is secretively planning for a quick return to action in the country, even if Libya’s rebels fail to drive him from power.
UNDP, the U.N.’s flagship anti-poverty agency, abandoned its previously close embrace of the Qaddafi family as the anti-regime protests turned into widespread armed rebellion and NATO air forces began supporting the often-beleaguered rebels. The agency’s non-Libyan staffers left the country, along with other U.N. personnel, and now work out of Cairo.
But now, UNDP bureaucrats are planning to return with a “forward looking framework of likely recovery policies,” even if the rebels are not successful, according to a planning document obtained by Fox News. The proposed price tag: $25.3 million, though the document also says the numbers are “no more than estimates of what would be required to kick-start program initiatives.”
Evidence of the detailed contingency planning was hastily scrubbed from a UNDP website the day after Fox News raised questions about the activity, and sensitive wording was rephrased in the text that remained. A Fox News request for the specific six-page document that summed up UNDP’s thinking was denied, on the grounds that the document “is in draft form and is still under discussion.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE UNDP WEB PAGE AS IT FIRST APPEARED
CLICK HERE FOR THE UNDP WEB PAGE AS LATER MODIFIED
Now, “in anticipation of the possibility of a ceasefire/political agreement or a victory by the opposition, UNDP is already preparing to adjust and scale up its programming inside Libya,” according to the internal document on “recovery and transition in post-crisis Libya,” obtained by Fox News despite UNDP’’s refusal to provide it.
Even if rebel control is limited to the eastern half of the country, where the rebellion is strongest, the “recovery policies” can be used by the U.N. agency to “support early recovery activities, including capacity development support for local government and civil society.”
And if Qaddafi falls, as NATO leaders and European government leaders are demanding, UNDP intends to be quickly in place to provide “advisory support to the new government on transitional arrangements and processes” (including a new constitution and elections) as well as a strategy for “public administration reform,” and “support for national dialogue and reconciliation,” according to the contingency document.
“UNDP has a critical role to play,” the paper declares, “given its expertise in such areas as transitional governance, national dialogue and reconciliation; youth and civil society; strengthening national and local governance institutions and restoring public service delivery; and (re-)establishing the rule of law and community safety.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE ‘POST-CRISIS’ DOCUMENT
There is considerable irony to UNDP’s claims of expertise, as the agency has been responsible for many similarly-named policies in the previous decade, all carried out with the full support, and very often the full financing, of the Qaddafi regime itself.
UNDP, which has operated inside Libya in close cooperation with the government since 1974-- put its $19.7 million local program for 2011-2014 on hold when the fighting became heavy.
That program was developed entirely in cooperation with the Qaddafi government, using Libyan money, and called for programs under such headings as “Strengthening national institutions toward public service delivery; and strengthening national data management systems,” and “Strengthening Government efforts on economic diversification through increased focus on small and medium enterprises, youth capacity development, and economic empowerment of women.”
The programs were to be carried out in close cooperation with a variety of Qaddafi government ministries, as well as non-governmental organizations and civil society organizations—all of which, in pre-upheaval Libya, were closely controlled by the Qaddafi government or members of the despot’s family.
CLICK HERE FOR THE 2011-2014 PROGRAM
UNDP’s previous Libyan program, for 2006-2009 (later extended through 2010), was also developed in close cooperation with the regime, and had such headings as “Improved governance at local and central levels.”
Under the governance rubric, it included the promise to “continue to support national capacity building efforts in the area of good governance, including human rights,” and conduct “a comprehensive technical review of the legal system in Libya, in support of the country's efforts to promote the rule of law, and to modernize the judicial system at the national and local levels.”
The projected cost of that program was initially estimated at $16 million, with all of the money likewise coming from the Qaddafi regime.
CLICK HERE FOR THE 2006-2009 PROGRAM
The program, along with its successor, was carried out under an arrangement known as “national execution,” or NEX, which is, according to a UNDP handbook, “a cooperative operational arrangement entailing...overall responsibility and assumption of accountability for the formulation and management of the program country of UNDP-supported programs and projects.”
Translation: the programs were run by the Qaddafi government itself, with UNDP providing technical advice and its seal of approval. For its role, UNDP takes a management fee of about 3 percent of total program spending.
(The NEX “modality” is used by UNDP in many if not most of the 167 countries where it operates, including some of the world’s worst despotisms—Zimbabwe, for example.)
In its latest, confidential “post-crisis” planning paper, however, UNDP admits that ordinary Libyans do not think highly of some of the institutions the U.N. agency “supported” in its previous multi-year development plans in Libya.
“Rule of law institutions, including the justice sector and police, have suffered a severe erosion of trust among the Libyan people,” the document declares. “Reforming these institutions to regain that trust is indispensible to ensure security and stability during the recovery process.”
Among other things, as a medium-term priority, it suggests “Increase access to justice for vulnerable communities by establishing legal advice services, raising awareness of rule of law and human rights, and training for traditional justice providers.”
Those solutions seem pallid alongside the description of the failings of the Libyan justice system in the U.S. State Department’s latest human rights examination of the country. There, the system is described as essentially a sham. As the report puts it: “At his discretion Qaddafi and his close associates may interfere in the administration of justice by altering court judgments, replacing judges, or manipulating the appeal system. The judiciary failed to incorporate international standards for fair trials, detention, and imprisonment.”
Libyan local government institutions, the UNDP document says, were also not very commendable; they “were weak and had limited planning and implementation capacities.” The paper noted that “immediate and longer-term support to local authorities and development institutions would be critical.”
The paper also suggests “scaled-up support” for a campaign to rid Libya of land mines, noting that “the use of landmines and the proliferation of small arms during the conflict are creating new risks to community security.” (Over the past seven years, the paper notes, the regime had imported $1.7 billion worth of small arms “from European countries.”)
As it happens, a similar anti-land-mine campaign was previously carried out under UNDP auspices in Libya, in cooperation with a local non-government organization that was supervised by the Qaddafi Charity and Development Foundation.
The foundation was run by Muammar al-Qaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam, considered before the latest rebellion as Libya’s most likely benign reformer. (In those not-so-long-ago days, UNDP hailed its relationship with the Qaddafi Foundation as a “long and healthy partnership.”
Since the situation in Libya remains highly fluid, the latest post-crisis paper says, “needs and options will obviously vary depending on what happens.”
But whatever direction comes next, the document makes clear, UNDP intends to remain as close to the center of things as possible—just as it did in the Qaddafi-dominated past.
George Russell is executive editor of Fox News and can be found on Twitter@GeorgeRussell.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Why was President Obama last to speak up on Libya?
By late Wednesday only one major Western leader had failed to speak up on Libya: Barack Obama. Before then, the president's only comment during five days of mounting atrocities was a statement issued in his name by his press secretary late last Friday, which deplored violence that day in three countries: Yemen, Libya and Bahrain. For four subsequent days, the administration's response to the rapidly escalating bloodshed in Libya consisted of measured and relatively mild statements by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Administration officials explained this weak stance by saying they were worried about U.S. citizens, hundreds of whom were being extracted by ferryWednesday afternoon. There were fears that the desperate Mr. Gaddafi might attack the Americans or seek to take them hostage. But the presence of thousands of European citizens in Libya did not prevent their government's leaders from forcefully speaking out and agreeing on sanctions.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Obama finally appeared at a White House podium. He said "we strongly condemn the use of violence in Libya," but he did not mention Mr. Gaddafi or call for his removal. He said the administration was preparing a "full range of options" to respond but didn't say what those might be; he made no mention of the no-fly zone that Libya's delegation at the United Nations has called for. He stressed that the United States would work through international forums - and said Ms. Clinton would travel to Geneva for a meeting of the notoriously ineffectual U.N. Human Rights Council, which counts Libya as a member.
Mr. Obama appeared eager to make the point that the United States was not taking the lead in opposing Mr. Gaddafi's crimes. "It is imperative that the nations and the peoples of the world speak with one voice," he said. "That has been our focus." Shouldn't the president of the United States be first to oppose the depravities of a tyrant such as Mr. Gaddafi? Apparently this one doesn't think so.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
How Britain did business with Libyan tyrant Colonel Gaddafi
by Graham Hiscott, click here to view this on Daily Mirror
BRITAIN’S decision to cancel eight export contracts to Libya smacks of too little, too late.
For while ministers condemn the massacre of hundreds of demonstrators, we have been busy forging close ties with Colonel Gaddafi’s regime.
And as Foreign Secretary William Hague was calling on the dictator to respect human rights, the Government was still waxing lyrical about the business opportunities in Libya.
The UK Trade and Investment website suggests there is big money to be made, describing the country as “potentially the fourth most attractive overseas market for UK exporters” over the next few years.
Foreign firms have enjoyed rich pickings since Libya came in from the cold with ex-PM Tony Blair’s “Deal in the Desert” in 2003, relinquishing its weapons of mass destruction to trigger the lifting of UN sanctions.
But the potential loss of lucrative business deals led to claims that British ministers backed the controversial release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.
UK trade with Libya is worth an estimated £1.5billion a year, with British exports soaring more than 50% between 2008 and 2009. More than 150 UK-based companies operate in the country, many like Biwater, AMEC, JCB and Mott MacDonald supplying industrial machinery and engineering services.
And the country’s newly well-off have attracted other firms, including British high street chains Next, Monsoon, Accessorize and Marks & Spencer, which yesterday announced it had all closed its stores in Tripoli for security reasons.
Virtually all Libya’s foreign earnings come from oil and gas, with the country raking in more from oil than it spends on its annual budget.
At 1.7 million barrels a day, it is Africa’s second largest oil producer and is Europe’s single biggest supplier.
And the prospect of up to 42 billion barrels prompted more than 40 oil firms to stake a claim.
Yet it is Libya’s 53 trillion cubic metres of untapped natural gas reserves which could have the biggest impact on families here, where dwindling North Sea supplies have seen the UK become a net gas importer for the first time in a generation.
Much has come from stable countries like Norway but, increasingly, we are having to import from further afield and more dubious sources such as Russia. A UK Financial Investments Ltd report before this week’s unrest said Britain could be importing gas from Libya in as little as five years.
John Hamilton, a Libya expert with analysts Cross Border Information, said: “Obviously oil is important but I think Libya, if it turns out to have large reserves of gas, will be a major player in European gas supply.”
Awaiting Helen Clarks public statement. What will be for?
Monday, February 21, 2011
The brother of UNDP Good Will Ambassador Dr. Aicha Gaddafi, says more will be killed
"We can speak rationally, we can spare the blood, we can stand all together for the sake of Libya," Saif al-Islam Gadhafi said on Libyan state television. But if the unrest continues, "forget about democracy, forget about reform. ... It will be a fierce civil war."
Gaddafi son's speech
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Helen Clark shamefully silent in front of the hundreds dead in Libya (UNDP Libya website glorifies its program in country)
Qaddaffi is waging war on his own people. | @Speak2tweet
Audio File: http://bit.ly/i2xWLb
Time of Call: 2/19/2011 8:08
Audio:
The news has been confirmed by many sources. There is a massacre happening in Benghazi right now. The mercenaries have been let loose. They are killing people in their homes. People have called their families in Benghazi. These murderers are killing people. Please, please spread this news. Help the people of Benghazi. This is a war, he is waging war on his own people. How can this happen? This doesn’t bear belief. I swear to God, this is unbelievable. The least you can do is listen. For God’s sake, do something.
Translated by: @tasnimq
