Burundi's
Government Bans UN Staff, Its
Supporters Rally to DPI
Gallach's Anti-Press Threats
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
January 9 --
While corpses are found in
Burundi and the government
blocks the deployment of both
the UN Police and UN Conflict
Prevention staff ostensibly
called for by the UN
Secretariat and Security
Council, the government's
supporters try to side with
either UN censors like Under
Secretary General Cristina
Gallach, who evicted and
restricts the Press which
reports on Burundi, or more
generally UN staff.
It is more than a
little ironic. UN staff are
being PNG-ed and having visas
denied from Burundi.
A list of some
recent finds:
On 2 January
2017, two( 2) persons namely
Gilbert Bandika aka Juma and
Nestor Nkeshimana were killed
in Nyamaboko in the District
of Kanyosha;
On 4 January
2017, a dead body of a person
identified as Donatien
Ndereyimana was found at the
edge of Lake Tanganyika;
On 5 January
2017, a teenager was shot dead
and another wounded as police
quarreled with farmers in
Mahwa in the District of
Ryansoro;
On 8 January
2017, a dead body of a 50
year-old Habonimana Cyrille
aka Mujos was found in an
abandoned house in Musaga, 1st
street. Testimonies suggest he
was tortured and several parts
of his body amputated before
his remains were dropped in an
abandoned house.
While the UN says little and
does nothing about this, they
made a point of ordering Inner
City Press to stop
broadcasting on Periscope,
with voice-over, a Town Hall
meeting with new Secretary
General Antonio Guterres,
which was on the UN's public
UN Webcast website. And the
government supporters, saying
Inner City Press entered the
meeting (it didn't) and
picking up on the anti-Press
maze Cristina Gallach of Spain
and DPI has created, piled on.
The UN of Gallach has brought
this on; this is how the UN is
perceived and to this has it
sunk.
There is also a strange
announcement of a 500 Euros
loan being arranged from a
shadowy, seemingly dormant
company “Biz Planners.” We'll
have more on this.
When new UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres held his first Town
Hall meeting on January 9,
Inner City Press went in early
to stake it out - that is,
stand in front and speak to
attendees -- as it has in
previous years.
But
this year, due to a
retaliatory eviction by former
Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon's head of
communications Cristina
Gallach and Ban's spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, Inner City
Press could not pass through
the turnstile on the UN's
second floor. And there was no
one in Gallach's Media
Accreditation and Liaison Unit
office. Inner City Press and
its coverage were banned.
But the
Town Hall was on the UN's own
external UN Webcast website,
so Inner City Press from in
front of MALU then the focus
booth it has been reduced to
working out of broadcast the
screen by Periscope, with
voiceover.
Three
hours later, holdover
spokesman Dujarric insisted in
the day's UN noon briefing
that it was only on the UN's
"internal" website, to which
Inner City Press does not have
access. Video
of Q&A here. It's
simple to check, but Dujarric
didn't.
So here
now, there being no other
way, is the link to the
Periscope.
And to the belated
stakeout in front of the
meeting, and an
explanation afterward.
And here
now some dispatches from the
Town Hall meeting. A UN staff
representative from Nairobi --
where Ban Ki-moon promoted his
own son in law Siddharth
Chatterjee to the top UN job
-- complained of corruption
and a lack of accountability.
Guterres
called the comments "tough"
and pointed out that some say
it is too hard in the UN to
fire people for not working.
It did not seem he meant Under
Secretaries General like
Cristina Gallach and Herve
Ladsous, but rather lower
level UN staff. He spoke about
accountability. We'll see:
those two particularly Gallach
are litmus tests.
A staff
member from the UN Department
of Management said that some
455 electronic questions or
comments had been received. A
speaker from the UN in Beirut
said the online link should
remain open. We agree - and
note that one should be set up
for the impacted public.
Already people are asking
Inner City Press and the Free
UN Coalition For Access how
to reach Guterres, like bkm
[at] un.org.
To a
speaker from South Sudan,
Guterres said that the country
would be one of the topics at
his lunch with members of the
Security Council later in the
day. (One wondered if Yemen
and Burundi, even Western
Sahara, will as well).
UN
Spokesperson Dujarric, who
answers at best 10% of Press
questions, late on Sunday
highlight praise by British
actor Tom Hiddleston at the
Golden Globes award of aid
workers in South Sudan. Fine,
but why didn't the UN protect
them at Terrain in Juba?
As before,
Dujarric seems to relish or
benefit from absurd censorship
threats hanging over the head
of the Press. How long, in an
ostenstibly new UN
administration, will this be
allowed?
Inner City
Press asked Dujarric at the
noon briefing because another
UN official came into the
focus booth to order it to
stop -- which it did -- and
sent this:
"Dear Matthew,
Please note that the SG
townhall meeting is for UN
staff and is not an open
meeting.
Therefore, broadcasting it is
a breach of the guidelines.
With kind regards,
Media Accreditation and
Liaison Unit "
This
is censorship: the meeting was
on the UN's external website.
Not a good start.
***
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