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As UNDP Withheld Its North Korea Plans, It Stonewalls on
Zimbabwe, Muzzles Kosovo, Niger Drive and Mining Role
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 19 -- As North Korea
throws South Koreans out, the UN Development Program continues a
stealth effort
to re-enter the reclusive military dictatorship, withholding
documents it mentions in passing in reports. In DP/2009/L.1,
under the heading "Country Programs," UNDP stated that
"In implementing the 'road map',
UNDP is submitting for consideration by the Board a package of proposed
measures for the resumprion [sic] of
UNDP programmes in DPRK, including a request for UNDP to approve
assistance to
DPRK on a project-byproject basis until the end of 2010. The document
outlines
the programme interventions to be supported by UNDP, as well as a
tentative
agreement reached with DPRK on operational modalities that will be used
– in
particular in the areas of programme implementation, human resources
and
finance... Proposed measures for the resumption of programme operations
in the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DP/2009/8)."
But
unlike
the other country programs listed in DP/2009/L.1, UNDP's
above-described
North Korea document was not put online.
On
December 11,
Inner City Press asked UNDP's Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, among other
things,
why DP/2009/8 about North Korea was not made available online. While deferring answering the other
questions, on North Korea Dujarric replied that
"On your
first question,
there is nothing to deny or confirm. You, like anyone else, can access
the
documentation being posted on the UNDP.org website in advance of the
Exec
Board. The document you refer to is, as of a few minutes when I
checked, not
yet posted. It will be in due time."
While
at odds with the UN system's repeated promises of transparency, this is
consistent with
previous UNDP secrecy.
UNDP's Dervis looks down on UN's Ban: whose
transparency promises will out?
After the last Executive
Board meeting, at which UNDP's
Asia and Pacific chief Ajay Chhibber read out a statement on North
Korea, Inner
City Press asked Dujarric for a copy of the statement. You can order an
audio
tape of the meeting and transcribe it, Dujarric said. Inner City Press
told him
what UN staff revealed: the meeting was not taped, having been
characterized as
closed or informal consultations. And so UNDP's impulse to secrecy
continues.
The
other questions
posted a week ago to UNDP, without any answers:
Please
describe UNDP's
involvement in the past 3 years in currency exchange in Zimbabwe,
whether the rates given were determined by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
/ government, how this compared to other rates available, in light of
John Holmes (and Ms. Braggs') recent comments that there have been currency
exchange issues / losses in Zimbabwe.
Any
awareness you or UNDP have of inquiries into irregularities in
Afghanistan procurement and construction, by UNOPS or UNDP, including
but not limited to the use of Italian funds for a hospital.
How
much rent to UNDP pay to Nigeria for space in Nigeria House in NYC, and
how was it determined?
What
has UNDP done, and what is it done, in the Niger Delta?
None
of the
questions have been answered. And now there are more questions, not
only about
UNDP's role in Niger in mining -- and transporting UN envoy Robert
Fowler
without security to a Canadian-owned gold mine, about also about
restricting
free speech in Kosovo:
The incident occurred last week
as Igballe Rogova, Executive Director of the Kosova Women's Network
(KWN), was
preparing to speak at a UN conference on women and governance in
Istanbul. UNDP
organizers told her that her speech was "too political" and that she
could only speak if she removed all references to the plan from her
remarks.
In an angry statement sent to
UNDP headquarters, KWN accuses the agency of suppressing freedom of
speech and
undermining democracy. 'Evidently the UNDP organizers believed that
women are
allowed to participate in politics only so long as they are not too
political
or they avoid serious political issues,' it reads.
That sure sounds like UNDP. But
where are UNDP's
responses?
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
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[at] innercitypress.com
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