UN
Bachelet Mused
of Slapping Or
Naming As
Fascist A
Swiss Diplomat
For Migration
Views
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive CJR PFT
UNITED NATIONS,
December 18 – When UN High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights
Michelle
Bachelet
and her Deputy Andrew Gilmour
set to speak in the UN on
human rights day on December
10, Inner City Press responded
to an invitation and was told,
"Please come to the UN
Visitors’ Gate on First Avenue
opposite 45th street starting
at 2pm, at which time entry
passes will be distributed."
Then, past six
p.m. on Friday, December 7
this from Bachelet's and
Gilmour's Office of the High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights: "Dear
Matthew, We
have received
notification
from UN
Security that
your name was
flagged as
"BARRED" on
the list we
submitted for
passes for
Monday's event
(3pm, ECOSOC
Chamber). We
will therefore
not have a
pass for you
and are unable
to facilitate
entry.
Thank you for
your interest
and best
regards,
OHCHR New York
Office."
Now
more than a
week later,
with no
explanation
from Bachelet
or her staff about
the barring of
the Press or
their acquiescence,
multiple
sources in OHCHR
tell and show
Inner City
Press, with
audio, that on
December 13
Bachelet said
of a
Swiss diplomat
opposed to the
UN Global Compact on
Migration, "I
was thinking
do I slap her?
Do I tell her
you are a
fascist?"
Even diplomats
in Geneva, who
have so far
put up with
censorship of
the Press by Guterres
and now
Bachelet, are
expressing
concern. It is
said the
diplomat
Bachelet was musing
of slapping or
calling a
fascist is
Sabrina
Dallafior,
Swiss Deputy Permanent
Representative
to the UN in
Geneva. But
does it matter
which diplomat
Bachelet was
referring to?
In
UN
Headquarters
in New York,
Guterres'
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric before
having Inner
City Press
roughed up and
banned now 167
days, summoned
it in
demanding an
explanation of a
tweet that
referred to a
German
assistant in
French
controlled UN
Peacekeeping
with the hashtag
#WW2. But Guterres'
High
Commissioner for
Human Rights can
link a current
host country
diplomat to
fascism? We'll
have more on
this - and
on this:
On
December
7 Inner
City Press
immediately wrote back,
to the sender
and
Bachelet and
her assistant, to
Andrew Gilmour
and to the
moderator of
the event, "Particularly
since you are the UN Office of the
High Commissioner for *Human
Rights,* did you not ask why a
journalist who asks the Secretary
General and his spokesmen about
the killings in Cameroon,
Burundi, UN
corruption, UN peacekeepers'
sexual abuse of civilians,
and Sri
Lanka, is “BARRED” from
attending your human rights event
- without any hearing or appeal? I
will appreciate your Office's
answer to this." We'll
have more on this.
Bachelet
gave a speech on
October 15 in the UN's Third
Committee, she emphasized a
prioritization of social and
economic rights and said one
of the officials of her office
is "on mission in
Silicon Valley" in the
US. There are questions
about this - but Inner City
Press which has covered human
rights and the UN for more
than a decade was for the
first time banned from access
a High Commissioner's speech.
This has been raised repeated
to Bachelet since she took
office but she has so far done
nothing, not even responded.
Meanwhile on October 12
Cameroon, from whose Paul Biya
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres took a golden statue
and favors in the Fifth
(Budget) Committee and remains
silent on the slaughter of
Anglophones, was elected to a
seat on the UN Human Rights
Council. This system is
failing - but if Bachelet
cannot even answer on Guterres
maintaining a secret banned
list including not only Inner
City Press but also "political
activists," then the UN has
hit a new low.
Inner City Press was never
given a hearing by Smale
before her August 17 letter
with withdrew Inner City Press
media accreditation. Nothing
in it said anything about a
ban from entering the UN as a
person, a tourist, or in
another other way. But this is
what happened, without any
recourse. Pure Kafka-esque
censorship, by a former New
York Times Berlin bureau chief
to hinder coverage of the
corruption of the former
Portuguese prime minster
Antonio Guterres, see
September 23 New York Post
here. What next? Watch
this site.
***
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