UNITED NATIONS,
October 26 – There is in The
Bronx an exhibition of
photographs from Liberia by
two martyred journalists, Tim
Hetherington and Chris
Hondros. Inner City Press went
to see it - and an exhibition
opening speech by senior UN
official Amina J. Mohammed.
Video
here. This is,
therefore, a hybrid review -
but we'll start with the
photographs. They are
stunning. Child soldiers,
internally displaced people in
a former Masonic Lodge in
Monrovia, US Marines guarding
the port.
Any positive UN
role at the time of the
photographs is harder to find.
But people assume that the UN
is good, or project on it all
of their good feeling. And so
Deputy Secretary General
Mohammed, arriving
characteristically later
accompanied by unneeded
security guards whispering
into microphones that a
question might be asked - was
the keynote speaker, pitching
her Nigerian government's role
in all these West African
conflicts. But what about
Biafra? What about Mohammed
herself remaining silent less
than a year ago about her
Nigerian government illegally
detained and sent to
Cameroon UN-registered
refugees, Ayuk Tabe and 46
others? This was beyond the
scope of the (excellent)
exhibit.
In full
disclosure, Inner City Press
has in the past known the
organizer, Michael Kamber,
when he photographed the Inner
City Press homesteaders
fixing abandoned buildings in
the Crotona Park East area of
the South Bronx for the now
defunct Village Voice. Inner
City Press made point of
telling him afterward, I'm
going to praise the exhibit
but tell the truth about the
UN. He said he understood,
that is Inner City Press' way.
And so:
In 2017 it
emerged that Amina Mohammed,
just before she left her
position as Nigeria's Minster
of Environment, signed
thousands of back date
certificates for illegally
exported rosewood sent
to China from Nigeria and
Cameroon. Inner City Press,
then in the UN, sought to
question her about it. Soon
Inner City Press was roughed
up by UN Security and thrown
out onto First Avenue on 3
July 2018, video here,
and banned
since.
In
fact the UN of Mohammed and SG
Antonio Guterres who nominated
her - and whose son Pedro does
UNdisclosed
business in Angola,
Namibia, Sao Tome and Cabo
Verde - have a secret
banned from the UN list,
on which they have put Inner
City Press amid its questions,
and which their Security
official Matthew Sullivan is telling NYPD not to
disclose. No self respecting
Bronxite would put up with
such a scam, and Inner City
Press is not different. As we
told Amina Mohammed as she
fast-toured the exhibition
after her speech, the UN
should belatedly take action
on the slaughter of
Anglophones in Cameroon, and
UN Censorship must end. She
could end it - but will she?
The request is in. These
questions might seem
aggressive. But that is
journalism. The UN cannot be
allowed to rough up and ban
the Press that asks the
questions.
There was
a speaker from the Office of
the Mayor - which, when Inner
City Press asked under the
Freedom of Information Law for
its knowledge of the UN's
secret banned list which
includes "political
activists" conferred
with the UN and then seeks to
delay
response to 2019.
But, back
the positive, the work of
Bronx Documentary Center and
Reporters Instructed in Saving
Colleagues (RISC), training
freelance war correspondents
in emergency medicine, must
continue. We recommend their
work, and the exhibition. It
is as 364 East 151st Street in
The Bronx. Tell us what you
think.
***
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