UNDP's
Helen
Clark Listed As VP of Socialist International, Until This
Article
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 24 -- Why is Helen Clark,
the Administrator of the UN
Development Program, listed as a vice president of the Socialist
International? It's a simple question, which Inner City Press posed
in an
article on June 21, here, and then to UN spokesman Martin Nesirky
back on June 22:
Inner
City
Press: Helen Clark, UN system official, head of UNDP, is listed
on the website of Socialist International, which is meeting here at
the UN, as a vice-president of the organization. I’m just
wondering, was, is there some kind of waiver given or is permissible
for a UN system official to serve in such a capacity with an outside
group?
Spokesperson
Nesirky:
I would ask you to ask UNDP.
Inner
City
Press: I think, there is a UN system, I mean, there’s UN
rules that cover the whole system, so it’s not…
Spokesperson:
But in the first instance…
Inner
City
Press: Right, okay.
Spokesperson:
…ask UNDP.
And
so later on
June 22, at a UNDP briefing about hydro power in Nepal, Inner City
Press asked UNDP's seeming Number Two official Olav Kjorven. Before
answering, he whispered back and forth with a UNDP communications
officials. Then he said, “I am not prepared to answer, but we will
get back to you.”
After
the
briefing, the UNDP communications officials said to Inner City Press,
you're known for this type of question. He then asked why Inner City
Press didn't direct the question to Helen's
people.
But
aren't you all
Helen's people? Another UNDP communications official said, in the
briefing room and later by voice mail, that Helen's people would get
back to Inner City Press with an answer.
Helen Clark, role as Socialist International
VP (and request for removal) not shown
Two
full days
later, there still was been no answer. Where were and are Helen's
people? Watch this
site.
Update:
after
preparation of this article, Inner City Press received an
answer by asking, not UNDP again, but... Nesirky again. It is not clear
why UNDP never responded to Inner City Press. Nesirky said that
Helen Clark's role as Vice President of the Socialist International
was only as prime minister of New Zealand.
Nesirky said Socialist
International has now been asked to remove her name from its web
site. But SI has as VP a number of politicians out of power,
meaning that removal from the VP board is not automatic. Did Helen
Clark make the request when she took the UN job? Or only now?
* * *
On
Myanmar,
UNDP's
Clark Blames Poverty on Politics, UK Defends Sanctions,
UNDP Conflict of Interest in N.Korea?
By
Matthew
Russell
Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June
17 -- Building the capacity of governments, even
dictatorships and military regimes, is the approach taken the UN
Development Program. Thursday Inner City Press asked UNDP
Administrator Helen
Clark
to explain what she meant that because
"'political factors' restrict what the UNDP can do in Myanmar..
'it's not so easy to make progress there at this time' on the
Millennium Development Goals.
Ms.
Clark
backtracked, saying that it's not UNDP's restricted action in Myanmar
that's to blame, its the politics of aid donors-- apparently meaning,
sanctions. Clark emphasized that Myanmar gets the least development
aid per capita of any country, including North Korea. "Politics,"
she said, "has been a complicating factor." Video here,
from
Minute
32:28.
Well,
yes.
The
government of General Than Shwe has dissolved the NLD party of Aung
San Suu Kyi, and has stacked the upcoming election for military
connected candidates. Is this the government whose capacity UNDP
seeks to build?
UK's Lyall Grant at right hand of Helen Clark, regimes not shown
UK
Ambassador
Lyall Grant jumped in to say that the sanctions only "target the
regime" in what he called Burma.
The
UN's Children
and Armed Conflict envoy Radhika Coomaraswamy has said that Myanmar
entirely stopped working toward an action plan on child soldiers, in
the run up to the election. Inner City Press stopped Myanmar's
Ambassador to the UN outside the Security Council on June 16 and
asked why the country has stopped. The Ambassador insisted that his
government works closely with Ms. Coomaraswamy, and wants to be take
off her list of recruiters. Perhaps UNDP would support this?
Inner
City
Press
also asked Ms. Clark about UNDP's role in the security sector in
Somalia, where the government has been exposed as using 20% child
soldiers. "We do not train soldiers," Clark answered. "We
are nowhere near that one." Not so fast. UNDP has provided funds
for training TFG security; the dispute has been how much they spend.
We aim to have more on this.
Footnote:
When
UNDP
re-opened its North Korea program and website, it listed
Mr. Vijay Thapa as International Finance Officer. A whistleblower
asks, isn't this a conflict of interest since Mr. Thapa has been
Finance Officer in DPR Korea since 2003, therefore four years before
the discovery of counterfeit? Mr Thapa is among those UNDP Staff of
DPR Korea whom declined to talk to US Southern District Attorney on
counterfeit and he is part of the "old cast" of UNDP DPRK
management responsible for the wrong doings. One wonders, was the
appointment of Mr. Thapa a request from DPR Korean Government ? Is
this more capacity building?
, 
