On
Cameroon, UN's Mohammed Tells
ICP Biya Trio Informed What's
Not Kosher, Further Dialogue?
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
August 10 – After a delegation
from Cameroon's Paul Biya
government met with UN Deputy
Secretary General Amina J.
Mohammed on August 8, Inner
City Press waited in the UN
lobby and asked them if for
example the detention of
former UN legal adviser Felix
Agbor Balla had come up in the
meeting.
They said no -
then the delegation led by
Paul Ghogomu proceeded to a
part of the UN building that
they and other journalists,
but not Inner City Press,
could go.
On August 10,
after managing to ask UK
Ambassador Matthew Rycroft
about Deputy Secretary General
Mohammed meeting (see here
and below), Inner City Press
waited again in the lobby to
ask Mohammed herself.
When she emerged
from the elevator, near the
UN's 7 pm “witching hour” for
Inner City Press since the UN
evicted
it for pursuing the John
Ashe / Ng Lap Seng corruption
story, Inner City Press asked
if she would answer one
question.
She said yes. So
Inner City Press first asked
about Agbor Balla, since he
was a former UN legal adviser
in Afghanistan and elsewhere,
now imprisoned and facing the
death penalty.
Amina Mohammed
replied, "All the issues came
up in the context of why it
was they were responding the
way they were, whether it was
heavy handed or otherwise. So
it was a general bring-up, of
those who were accused of
human rights abuses, those who
were burning flags."
Inner City Press
pointed out that even the
country's former Supreme Court
justice is imprisoned.
Amina Mohammed
continued, “For us, what was
important was the delegation
came, we engaged with them,
and we told them where we were
concerned about issues. Now we
have a basis
to open up further dialogue
and push. And that's my
approach. My approach is not
to just whack them with a
sledgehammer but it's to say
firmly, this is not kosher.
And so, how can we engage with
you and continue to do the
right thing.” We'll see - the
answer was appreciated.
As
was UK Ambassador Rycroft's
response, earlier on August
10, video here.
Inner City Press: Amina
Mohammed also on Tuesday met
with this delegation from
Cameroon. I just wanted to get
your thoughts on whether the
UN should be doing more, could
be doing more? Have you seen a
read out?
Amb Rycroft:
Obviously I wasn’t in the
meeting myself but I was very
glad to hear that the
delegation were here and they
had a meeting with Amina
Mohammed. I think that
demonstrates that the UN is
keeping it on their radar as
they should and I support
that.
Earlier in the
year Inner City Press asked
the International Monetary
Fund, where it is also
accredited and which unlike
the UN allows it the same
access as all other
journalists there, about the
impact of the Biya
government's 94-day cut off of
the Internet in the Anglophone
regions of the country. The
IMF said this was a financial
risk factor. On
IMF site, here,
from 34:56. IMF
transcript.
It
has been surprising that it
took so long for the UN
system, and its country team,
to speak out even against the
blatant censorship represented
by the Internet cut off. But
as Amina Mohammed and
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres, due back in the UN
on August 14, have been
informed in detail, the UN in
2016 without
any hearing or appeal
evicted Inner City Press,
assigning its long time office
to an Egyptian state media
which rarely comes in, even
during this month's Egyptian
presidency of the UN Security
Council, and never asks
questions.
Without its
office, Inner City Press is
unable to access much of the
second floor of the UN, is
unable to access the building
after 7 pm, and is hindered
from covering not only the
Cameroon delegation but, for
example, a meeting about
Lebanon earlier on August 10.
Inner City Press and the Free
UN Coalition for Access have
asked Mohammed, or Guterres
upon his return, to reverse
this censorship.
There is a petition
with over 2,000 signatures to
this effect. FUNCA has offered
to help find another more
appropriate space for the
rarely present Egyptian Akhbar
al Yom, now in August, well
before the UN General Assembly
week and resolving the issue
before the fresh-start arrival
of new DPI chief Alison Smale.
We are awaiting a response,
and resolution. We'll have
more on all this.
***
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