| Burundi
Shut Down of
UN Rights
Office But UN
Kafando Praises
Museveni As
Guterres Bans
Press
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Photo,
Video,
CJR
UNITED NATIONS
GATE, February 2 – Burundi's
Pierre Nkununziza government
wanted all human rights
presence out. Typically, UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres said nothing
meaningful. On December 6, the
day after
Guterres like
any dictator
moved from his
Mercedes with
guards to a
fancy dinner refusing a Press
questions
about
corruption in
his
organization,
Inner
City Press asked Guterres and
his spokesmen: "December 6-1:
On Burundi, on which you have
been refusing to respond to
Inner City Press' written
questions, please immediately
confirm or deny that Burundi
has asked the UN system to
decrease its human rights
presence and state the SG's
view and response. Also, what
is the UN's comment on the
reporting about the Nkurunziza
government's “torture house”?"
Still,
no answer at
all, despite
USG Alison
Smale's
promises such
questions
would be
answered. Now
only through
regional media
we learned
that Guterres'
part time
Burundi envoy
Michel Kafando
used public
funds to visit
Uganda's Museveni
on January 31
and, according
to the story,
praise him for his
tireless
efforts on Burundi?
Really? How?
This as
Museveni's
foreign
minister Sam
Kutesa took $500,000 from
UN briber
CEFC China
Energy, to
which Guterres
himself is
connected, and
roughs up and
bans the Press
which asks.
This is
thuggery. And
UN
Spokesman
Stephane
Duajrric said on
camera he
would be
answering
questions, here.
Now this, from
Burundi:
"After a
categorical
refusal of
collaboration
with the OHCHR
office decided
by the Government
of Burundi, it
has closed
this office
permanently. According
to an internal
source of this
office, the
Government of
Burundi sent a
note to the United
Nations High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights in
Geneva to
serve to
definitively
close the
office of the
Office for
Human Rights
in Burundi... Four
regional
offices of the
Office for
Human Rights
in Burundi,
the Bujumbura,
Makamba in the
south of the
country,
Gitega and
Ngozi in the
north of the
country had have
been closed as
of December
31, 2017....
[And so]
Governance
during this
month of
December 2018
was also
characterized
by the closure Office
of the Office
of the United
Nations High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights, the organized
spoliations or
looting of
property
belonging to
politicians in
exile, public
demonstrations
to mobile
awareness of
political
hatred, the
recurring
crisis
fuel and its
effects on
prices of
basic needs,
the departure
of
international
NGOs following
the
restrictive
and immoral
measures taken
by the
Bujumbura
regime."
Nor
will Spokesman
Stephane Dujarric
answer on
Guterres obvously
incomplete
Public Financial
Disclosure, here.
More
here.
***
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