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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT NYP

UNITED NATIONS GATE, March 3 –After Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years on January 28 had his opponent Maurice Kamto arrested, Inner City Press again asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and his spokesmen for their comment and action, if any. This came after Guterres had Inner City Press roughed up on 3 July 2018 after it interviewed Biya's Ambassador about the two men's Budget Committee deals and banned from the UN since - Guterres even tried to get Inner City Press banned from the Park East Synagogue, here, which was denied / dodged by his spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Guterres' and Dujarric's supposed concern about the killing of civilians in Cameroon appears a fiction - and now the absurdly timely Cameroon film festival set for Buea is being postponed: Camiff has been cancelled due to the growing insecurity in the Anglophone regions. The festival was to take place in Buea from 22 through 27 April but the security situation in city -- houses burned by Biya's army -- has now led organizers to cancel the event.  The founder of Camiff said the event was canceled after consultation with local Government authorities, the police and Embassies and it was clear the crisis affecting the Anglophone regions would make it difficult for participants to access Buea.  “Our International celebrities have been advised by their governments and security teams to avoid visiting Cameroon at this time,”Agbor Gilbert Ebot complained. “We did attempt to come up with an alternative date but sadly we were advised that this would be too impractical for both sponsors and partners as we cannot foresee a break or an end to this ongoing saga in 2019.  The event has thus been postponed to April 20-25, 2020 with all submissions for this year carried forward to next year. And what will be different by then? Impeachment? Of whom? On March 1 after the Nigerian federal high court sitting in Abuja declared illegal and unconstitutional the deportation of Ayuk Tabe and 46 others from Nigeria to Cameroon in January 2018, Dujarric who refuses questions from Inner City Press he has banned took a fake question from one of his favorites, who said "Anglophones did some shooting" - and said NOTHING about the new ruling. The refoulement took place with Guterres' Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed there, and joining in censorship since. We'll have more on this, and this:  Azanwuli Chikere, a member of the panel which heard the case, said the Nigeria federal government lacks the power to deport refugees and asylum seekers from Nigeria. Ruling on an application filed by Femi Falana, human rights lawyer, the court awarded N5 million damages to each of the applicant and also ordered the government to ensure the Cameroonians are brought back to Nigeria.  Among those deported were Julius Tabe, Nfor Nfor, Fidelis Che, Henry Kimeng, Awasum, Cornelius Kwanga, Tassang Wilfred, Eyambe Elias, Ojong Okongho and Nalowa Bih. Amid Guterres' shameful silence, in Cameroon opposition leader Maurice Kamto on February 27 argued he cannot be tried in a military court - the UN seems fine with this - while supporters were held over in Kondengui prison until at least March 19. Meanwhile Guterres' UN system and affiliates, in a system that like a fish rots from the head, lavish praise and money on Paul Biya as he burns villages and takes untold money to his hotel in Geneva. It has gone beyond the money the Secretariat is raising for Biya - now the World Bank is shoveling in money for a dubious dam project: "The Cameroonian President authorized last February 22 the economy minister, Alamine Ousmane Mey, to sign a loan agreement with World Bank’s subsidiary, the International Development Association (IDA), for an amount of €24.5 million, or XAF16.3 billion." How much will go for Biya's hotel bills in Geneva, paid in cash? The UN World Health Program's Matshidiso Moeti praised Biya on, if it can be believed, health while Biya is in fact killing people. Shesaid she "was touched when the Minister of State 'told me that when we train health personnel we need to tell them not only to be efficient and knowledgeable but also to treat members of the public with kindness and compassion.'" Paul Biya and compassion? That's like Antonio Guterres false claim to care about and comply with freedom of the press. Doctor, heal thyself.

On February 25 in Geneva, amid a Guterres junket full of false claims of his commitment to freedom of the press and to human rights, Biya's Foreign Minister Lejeune Mbella Mbella in his speech to the UN Human Rights Council bragged of being elected to this Council, amid his government's slaughter in October 2018, and thanks Antonio Guterres. He called the opposition "armed terrorist groups" and did not mention the imprisonment and possible death penalty against for example Maurice Kamto, nor the military trial against Ayuk Tabe and those illegally refouled from Nigeria. Nor does Guterres speak about those abductions, which took place while his deputy Amina J. Mohammed was in Abuja. This is the travesty that Guterres is turning the UN system into. In Cameroon, the ten standing "trial" before the Yaounde Military tribunal have been told despite showing refugee and asylum seeker status that they cannot appeal. Their lawyers walked out, and silence from the UN of Antonio Guterres who not only does not allow appeals but provides for no hearing before having a journalists who questions him about Cameroon roughed up and banned, now for 232 days. In Cameroon, Barrister Ndong Christopher proferred two groups of documents ; one from recognizing Shufai Blaise Berinyuy, Nfor Ngala Nfor, Tassange Wilfred and Eyambe Elias as refugees.  The other set of documents established Julius Ayuk Tabe, Kwanga Cornelius, Ogork Egbe, Nde Fidelis, Kimeng Henry and Awasum Augustine as asylum seekers. Their lawyers state they will be filing an appeal at the Mfoundi High Court.  And the UN is silent; Guterres took Biya's golden statue and his ambassador Tommo Monthe's favors in the UN Budget Committee, had Inner City Press roughed up as it reported on it and banned since. This race to the bottom by Paul Biya has been in parallel with Guterres' six calls to Biya, which Dujarric refuses to answer questions about.  But Guterres and Dujarric have offered no answer to this Inner City Press question: "what is the SG's comment and follow up action, if any, on that Kamto is currently held at the building of the Groupement spécial d’opérations in Yaoundé. According to his lawyers, Kamto could be charged with: insurrection, hostility against the homeland, criminal association, threats to public order, rebellion, group rebellion, and inciting insurrection,and that there are currently up to 200 people, of whom the majority are MRC supporters, in detention following protests on January 26, and, again, on the arrest and detention of journalists Théodore Tchopa and David Eyengue Nzima merely for covering the opposition gathering in Douala. Again, what are the read-outs of his six conversations with Paul Biya and most recently of Francois Fall's visit there?" No answer. An UNacceptable fraud. After Guterres bragged again, this time in French, about his talks with Biya's government, Cameroon forces burned down the hospital in Kumba in the Anglophone Southwest Region. The UN usually calls attacks on medical facilities a war crime but as we have seen, Biya's Cameroon is a special case for Guterres, since it chaired the UN Budget Committee. But Guterres has nothing to say about Biya's burning of a hospital. Before 9 am on Febuary 11, Inner City Press in writing asked Guterres, Amina J. Mohammed, Alison Smale, Farhan Haq and "Spokesman" Stephane Dujarric: "February 11-1: On Cameroon, what is the SG's comment and action on the deadly burning down of the hospital in Kumba in the Anglophone Southwest Region, and on the imprisonment of nurse Njongwan Emeline for "unauthorized" filming the authorities mass arrests in Buea? In this context, please immediately specify the SG's statement on "dialogue avec le Premier Ministre [du Cameroun] et il nous a promis que tout ce fait pour créer des conditions de respect des droits de l’homme et de dialogue pour que la situation puisse se normaliser"?" Weeks later, nothing. Guterres has no credibility on Cameroon - he covered up Biya's slaughter since Cameroon was chair of the UN Budget Committee, took Biya's golden statue, had Inner City Press roughed up and banned 242 days and counting and bragged he spoke six times with Biya - while refusing any read outs.  More here.

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