Israel Matzav

The UN gets around to cutting its ties with Gadhafi

The United Nations is finally getting around to severing its ties with Muammar Gadhafi and his family. Of course, when this is all over, no one is going to think about asking why they had those ties in the first place.

In response to a question from Fox News, a spokesman for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the U.N.’s flagship anti-poverty agency, revealed that his organization had just terminated the appointment of Qaddafi’s daughter Aisha as a National UNDP Goodwill Ambassador For Libya, “following the recent events.”

The “recent events” was a reference to the increasingly bloody repression of revolt in Libya, where anywhere from 200 to 1,000 dissidents have reportedly been killed, and where Aisha Qaddafi’s brother, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi, has declared that he will fight “to the last bullet” to preserve his father’s regime.

The separation between Aisha Qaddafi and UNDP was no doubt painful for both sides. Ms Qaddafi is Secretary General of a Libyan welfare organization called the Waatasemu Charity Association, and her goodwill ambassadorship, announced in July 2009, was part of an effort to raise HIV/AIDS awareness and the issue of violence toward women, both sensitive topics in Libya.

Ms Qaddafi’s charity was also generous to UNDP in other ways, donating $1.5 million for construction of a co-educational elementary school for Palestinian children in Gaza, which was slated to begin construction in January.

UNDP’s spokesman justified the separation by citing a U.N. Guideline governing the appointment of Goodwill Ambassadors or Messengers of Peace, calling for termination of the relationship “if the Messenger of Peace or Goodwill Ambassador engages in any activity incompatible with his/her status or with the purposes and principles of the United Nations, or if the termination is in the interest of the Organization.”

UNDP was also hastily creating a similar distance between itself and Aisha’s brother Saif, whose own charitable vehicle, the Qaddafi Charity and Development Foundation (GICDF), was granted official observer status as a non-governmental organization (NGO) by the U.N. in January 2009.

The UNDP announcement of that status cited a “long and healthy partnership” between the Qaddafi foundation and the U.N., which included “numerous successful projects.”

I think the Gadhafi's fit right in at the UN.

Labels: Ayesha Gadhafi, Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, United Nations Development Program

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:53 AM