For the past month, UN Human Rights Council nominee Jean Ziegler has lied to the Swiss people about his ties to the Qaddafi Prize, whose creation he announced to the world in 1989, and which, despite his false denials later, he himself received at a ceremony in Tripoli, Libya, on the evening of Sunday, 29 September 2002. Ziegler also played a leading role in “North South XXI,” the Geneva-based front group that managed the prize and promoted Libyan propaganda at the UN.
THE COVER-UP: JEAN ZIEGLER’S LIES TO SWISS MEDIA DURING AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2013
RTS, 14.08.2013, La Suisse souhaite faire élire le sociologue Jean Ziegler à l’ONU (Audio here, 6:41 – 7:20)
RTS: “Les reproches sont très précis : vous auriez participé à l’élaboration du prix Kadhafi sur les Droits de l’Homme, vous auriez aussi reçu le prix… c’est vrai ou c’est faux ?”
Jean Ziegler : “C’est totalement faux ! C’est une pure calomnie de ceux qui veulent détruire ma crédibilité !”
Le Temps, 14.08.2013, Controverse sur Jean Ziegler à l’ONU:
les mêmes ont lancé une campagne incroyable, disant que j’avais fondé et reçu le Prix Kadhafi, que j’étais l’ami de Castro, etc. Tout cela est totalement faux.
Tribune de Genève, 13.08.2013, La Suisse présente la candidature de Jean Ziegler à l’ONU:
«C’est de la totale diffamation… », a réagi Jean Ziegler. Il ne veut toutefois pas porter plainte contre ce qu’il considère comme des calomnies de l’ONG, estimant que «ce serait l’honorer».
Basler Zeitung, 16.08.2013, Burgerlich woollen Ziegler:
Konkret wird Ziegler beispielsweise die Freundschaft zum ehemaligen libyschen Machthaber Muammar al-Ghadhafi oder zum kubanischen Diktator Fidel Castro vorgeworfen. Ziegler wies die Vorwürfe stets von sich.
Ziegler also lied to the U.S. media about the prize, at great length. This is what he told the Washington Free Beacon (Nominee to UN Human Rights Council Denies Involvement with Qaddafi, Aug. 22, 2013):
Numerous media reports from the late 1980s cite Ziegler as a representative for the prize committee, including UPI, Time magazine and the Independent. But Ziegler claimed the reports were mistaken in an interview with the Free Beacon. He said the allegations were part of a “disinformation campaign” by U.N. Watch, a prominent Geneva-based organizations that monitors human rights issues at the U.N…
“How could I be a representative [for the Qaddafi prize]?” he added. “It’s absurd. It’s totally and completely absurd.”
Ziegler was quoted in UPI in 1989 as saying the prize was “conceived as an anti-Nobel Peace Prize award for the Third World.” He also told the publication that the prize foundation had raised $10 million in capital, according to the report.
Time magazine listed him as a member of the jury that awarded the prize.
“That is a wrong quotation,” Ziegler told the Free Beacon. He declined to say whether he had spoken to any of the publications for the articles.
When asked why these outlets allegedly misquoted him speaking about an organization that he had no involvement with, Ziegler said he did not know.
“I mean, you must ask the journalists. There [is] a lot of wrong information going around,” he said.
Previous Denials
Ziegler told a Geneva newspaper that he never accepts prizes, and wasn’t about to start now:
«Mais de toute façon je l’aurais décliné. Je n’ai jamais accepté de prix» (Le Temps, 2 October 2002)
