On
Cameroon UNSG
Guterres Met
Patton Boggs
Team on July
11 After He
Banned Inner
City Press
From UN
By
Matthew
Russell Lee, 30/7 CJR,
19/6
Video, Filing
UNITED NATIONS,
August 8 – As the
Cameroon
government of
36 year
President
Paul
Biya
slaughters
civilians in
the Anglophone
regions as well as in
the North, it
has
re-engaged Washington
lobbying firm
Patton Boggs,
on a retainer
of $100,000 per
quarter
plus
expenses, documents
show. Now
after twice
asking the
Spokespeople
for UN
Secretary
General
Antonio
Guterres (from
the bus stop
outside the
UN Delegates'
Entrance since
Guterres
has banned
Inner City
Press since
July 3), UN Deputy
Spokesman
Farhan Haq on
August 8
belatedly told
Inner City
Press, "On
your first
question, we
can confirm
that, on 11
July, a
high-level
Cameroonian
delegation was
dispatched to
UNHQ to brief
the
Secretary-General
on the efforts
carried out by
the Government
to address the
crisis in the
North-West and
South-West
regions. The
Secretary-General
stressed the
importance of
finding a
peaceful
resolution to
the crisis
through an
inclusive
dialogue and
reiterated the
UN’s readiness
to support
such efforts,
including the
provision of
humanitarian
assistance to
the affected
regions." But
Inner City
Press'
question was,
"On Cameroon
beyond the
questions you
have left
unanswered
from August 3
and August
6-1, please
state if
anyone in the
UN Secretariat
met with a
Cameroonian
government
delegation in
the US from
July 11 (whcn
they met UK
Ambassador
Pierce) to
July 20 and if
the UN was
aware that
this Biya
delegation's
lobbying trip
was stage
managed by the
DC-based
lobbying firm
Patton Boggs."
No answer on
this -
tellingly. And
why did Guterres
and his
Alison Smale
target and ban
Inner City
Press at this
time? After
Guterres remained disturbingly
quiet
about Biya's
killing for a
full year, when Cameroon
was the chair
of the Budget
Committee
whose support
Guterres
wanted for his
proposal like
moving jobs
from Geneva to
Budapest,
New York to
Mexico City,
Entebbe to
Kenya? We'll
have more on
this. This
also means that the
July 11
meeting with Cameroonian
ministers
bragged about
by this
month's UN
Security
Council
president,
Karen Pierce of
the UK, was
actually in
connection
with a
lobbying trip
stage
managed by
Patton Boggs.
Inner City Press has
asked the
UK Mission,
see below,
and also on
the morning of
August 7
asked
Secretary
General Antonio
Guterres'
deputy
spokesman
Farhan Haq
before "his"
noon
briefing Inner
City Press
was banned
from for the
35th day in a
row. Guterres'
Haq never
answered
(though perhaps
relatedly
envoy Francois
Fall is
supposedly
going to
Cameroon). Now
Inner City
Press has
reviewed
Patton Boggs
long history
with Paul
Biya, as he
has become
more and more
brutal. It
began in 2004
with a letter
from Patton
Boggs' Joseph
Brand (still
involved in
2018) to Biya's
Pierre Moukoko
Mbonjo
for Peter
Mafany
Musonge, here.
We'll
have more on
this. UNanswered
as of August8
by Guterres'
team: "August
7-1: On
Cameroon
beyond the
questions you
have left
unanswered
from August 3
and August
6-1, please
state if
anyone in the
UN Secretariat
met with a
Cameroonian
government
delegation in
the US from
July 11 (whcn
they met UK
Ambassador
Pierce) to
July 20 and if
the UN was
aware that
this Biya
delegation's
lobbying trip
was stage
managed by the
DC-based
lobbying firm
Patton Boggs."
Neither Haq
nor the others
in Guterres'
team whom
Inner City Press
asked - Deputy SG
Amina J. Mohammed,
Eihab
Omaish, Alison
Smale and her
officer in
charge (of
censorship)
Hua Jiang
answered that
specific
question.
Instead Haq at the
briefing said
he trying
to "get
language"
about Guterres'
envoy Francois
Lounseny
Fall, who
equated secessionists
with extremists,
may go to the
country this
week. What,
some ask, for
Patton Boggs?
Inner City Press
asked the UK
Mission's two
spokespeople
Matthew Moody
and
Amy.Quantrill: "Good
morning. This
is a formal
Press request
for an answer
I have sought
from the UK
Mission to the
UN since
August 1. On
July 31
Ambassador
Pierce stated
on Twitter
that she (and
presumably
others at the
UK mission)
had met on
July 11 with
Cameroonian
ministers.
On August 1,
for the
Program of
Work press
conference I
was and am
banned from by
USG Alison
Smale and SG
Antonio
Guterres,
after being
roughed up by
UN Security
while covering
an event and a
meeting on
June 22 and
July 3, I
asked both of
you:
"Did she mean
government
ministers or
religious
ministers? If
the former,
who were they?
Which
departments?
And what was
it mean to say
“we were
watching the
situation
closely.” Does
this mean the
UK or the
Council? Is
there a role,
does the UK
think, for UN
envoy Francois
Lonseny Fall?
Or should
another
mediator be
assigned?"
I have
yet to receive
an answer,
including
after tweeting
substantial
the same
question to
Amb Allen
yesterday. Nor
did I receive
any response
to my August 3
question to
you,
explicitly
your UK's
capacity of
President of
the UNSC,
about Yemen
and a Saudi
letter.
This time I am
addressing
this to
Stephen Hickey
as well.
(Hello).
I am
requesting an
immediate
answer to
these Cameroon
questions:
Name the
ministers Amb
Pierce met
with on July
11.
State whether
Amb Pierce or
anyone else at
the UK mission
was aware this
this Biya
administration
"tour" July
11-20 was
stage managed
by DC-based
lobbying firm
Patton Boggs
(reflected on
documents
Inner City
Press has this
morning
published),
including US
ex-Amb Frank
Wisner.
State
whether any
non-Cameroonians
were present
at the July 11
meeting and if
so, who they
were.
state whether
Amb Pierce has
had any
meetings with
Cameroonian
opposition or
Federalists or
separatists,
and if not,
why not.
Also,
as I asked on
August 1 in
advance of
these week's
UNSC meeting I
remained
banned from,
Last month
Sweden said at
the beginning
of the month
that it would
be seeking
agreed Press
Elements from
every
consultation.
Will the UK be
seeking Press
Elements from
this Western
Sahara
consultation?
And if not,
why not?
On
deadline.
Thanks you in
advance.
-Matthew."
Nothing.
The documents
show the agreement is to run to mid 2019,
long after
Biya's next
"election" in
October (also
made a
mockery of by
French
President
Emmanuel Macron
inviting Biya
to an event in
Paris as head
of state in November).
The
"confidential"
letter
agreement is
addressed by
Patton Boggs' Robert S.
Kapla to
Biya's Prime
Minister
Philemon Yang,
to be signed
by Ghogomu
Paul Mingo and
cites
Prof. Nkot.
It
says Joseph
Brand and "Ambassador
Frank
Wisner"
will work on
the Biya fileAfter
the abuses by Cameroon's
security forces have been
ignored by the UN, as
Inner City Press has
repeatedly asked about
them until being banned from
the UN on July 3 and
since, new
leaked videos
show summary executions
and manhandling
of prisoners. On
July 14 and 25
Inner
City Press
raised the
issue, and
that of the
UN's censorship
to
the French
Mission to
the UN, and also
directly to
Deputy
Ambassador
Anne Gueguen.
Nothing,
from France
and from the
Security
Council as a
whole, not
even an "Any
Other
Business" briefing,
with none as
yet foreseen
under August's
Security
Council
president the
UK, whose
Liam Fox
bragged of UK
New Age's
gas deal with
Biya; Inner
City Press
asked UK
Ambassador
Karen Pierce about
it here,
before Guterres'
Security's
ouster and
ongoing ban on
which the UK
has done
nothing. July 20
video here.
After
that, Pierce said on
Twitter
- while ignoring
Inner City Press'
question as her
mission has in
recent days,
also on
Yemen - that she
had met with
Cameroon
ministers on
July 11. Inner
City Press
asked the UK
Mission in writing
on August
1 to
explain: "Amb
Pierce
disclosed in
yesterday's
Twitter
Q&A that
she “spoke to
a delegation
of Cameroon
ministers at
the UN on 11
July.” Did she
mean
government
ministers or
religious
ministers? If
the former,
who were they?
Which
departments?
And what was
it mean to say
“we were
watching the
situation
closely.” Does
this mean the
UK or the
Council? Is
there a role,
does the UK
think, for UN
envoy Francois
Lonseny Fall?
Or should
another
mediator be
assigned?"
Nothing, still
no answer as of
noon on August 6 from
the UK
Mission.
(Inner
City Press'
later on
August 6
online question
to returned-toTwitter
Deputy
Ambassador Jonathan
Allen on this
has yet to be
replied to.) Instead,
Pierce said
the initiative
is with
Biya
and his
government.
Now it
emerges that
Paul Biya sent a
delegation of
five from
July 11 to 20,
to DC and New
York to
meet members
of the UN Security
Council. This
while UNSG
Antonio
Guterres had banned
from the UN
Inner City
Press, which has ask
him for more
than a year
about the slaughter
in Cameroon and
his inaction,
as he needed the support of
the Cameroonian
chair of the
UN Budget Committee.
New filing on
Guterres and conflict
of interest, here.
We'll
have more on
this -
and this: ghoulishly
in Cameroon,
where there
is supposed to
be an election
in October,
French
Ambassador
Gilles
Thibault, of
whom Inner City
Press has
asked French
Permanent
Representative
Francois
Delattre
before being
banned from
the UN since
July 3,
has invited
Paul Biya to an Emmanual
Macron "Peace" event, as
Cameroonian
head of
state.. in
November. We'll
have more on
this. On
August
1 in a
briefing Inner
City Press was
banned from
Pierce said
the initiative is
with the
President and
government of
Cameron - that
is, 36 year
ruler Paul
Biya. On
August
2 Inner
City Press emailed
Guterres'
spokesmen and
team
including Alison
Smale and
officer in
charge Hua Jiang, "On
Cameroon and
refugees from
Cameroon in
Nigeria, what
is the
comment,
response and
action if any
of the
Secretargy
General to the
deaths of
eight
Cameroonian
refugees in
Ikom, Cross
River who died
of fumes from
a generator in
their room?
What has the
SG done about
the conflict
and crisis in
the Anglophone
areas of
Cameroon since
his visit to
Younde in
October 2017?
What has he
done in the
last 12 days?"
Haq did not
email any
response back
before heading
out to lunch.
On his
way back
in, Inner City
Press
reiterated the
question and he just
walked
by, as did Hua Jiang,
schooled in
this with
UNMIS in Sudan
it seems, part
of the censorship,
minutes later.
Video here.
This is
today's UN.
On
July 30 Guterres'
sleazy basis
for roughing
up and banning
Inner City
Press for 27
days and
counting was reported
in the Columbia
Journalist
Review: Guterres'
spokesman Stephane
Dujarric has
gone
further, in an article
published July
30 by the
Columbia
Journalism
Review. Dujarric - who
Inner City
Press
directed to
the CJR
reporter to -
is quoted
that " Lee
Periscoped
while
shouting, 'Fuck
you!'
repeatedly.
(Lee says he
was
complaining
that Dujarrac
had given the
Al Jazeera
crew a private
interview, and
excluded him.)
'He
creates an
atmosphere of
incivility
within our
working
environment,'
Dujarrac says."
This is a lie.
Inner City
Press on June 19
when Dujarric
gave a "private
briefing" to Al
Jazeera about
Nikki Haley
and Mike
Pompeo
announcing the
US pull out
from the UN
Human Right
Council said
in the hall
that is was a
"sleazefest."
After closing
the door of
the focus booth
it has been
confined to work in
for two years
by
Dujarric, and long
after the Al
Jazeera trio
including
James Bayes
and Whitney
Hurst were
done, said on
Periscope, F-You. Periscope
video - still
online
during this 27
day "investigation" -
here.
So
Dujarric is a
censor,
justifying the
beating up and
banning of a
journalist for
something he
broadcast in
a soundproof
booth to his
audience. This
is disgusting, all
the more so
because as
Inner City
Press reported
on July 20,
Dujarric told
an
interlocutor
on June 20,
before the two
beat-downs of
Inner City Press,
that things
would be worse
for it. Guterres and
Dujarric and
it seems Smale
are.. thugs. Disgusting.
On Cameroon,
the CJR
article quotes
Inner City
Press:“The UN
is in bed with
the government
there; they
don’t report
on human
rights
violations." Entirely true. Now
as the Mayor
of Buea, Ekema
Patrick,
prohibits an
Anglophone
confab that
even the Biya's
government
pretends to
support, if
only as window-dressing
comes news of
the ravage not
only of
Cameroon's
people (on
whose fate
Guterres' UN
has shown
its position)
but also its environment,
about
which he and
his Deputy purport
to care.
"Sudcam, a
subsidiary of
Singapore
rubber firm,
Halcyon Agri,
is responsible
for
devastating
forest
clearance in
Cameroon,
resulting in
dispossession
of community
lands and
other impacts
on human
rights. Greenpeace
Africa says the
Sudcam
Cameroon
concessions
overlap with
the customary
land of
forest-dependent
communities,
including the
indigenous
Baka people
and its
acquisition
amounts to
land grabbing. “It’s
pathetic that
the
Cameroonian
government
still
accommodates
the
threatening
activities of
Sudcam.
Indigenous
community
settlements
inside the
concession
have been
completely
destroyed
without a
resettlement
plan or
compensation.
This is a
clear
violation of
the UN
Declaration on
the Rights of
Indigenous
People,” said
Sylvie
Djacbou,
Greenpeace
Africa Forest
Campaigner. The
Sudcam rubber
project is
directly
adjacent to
and identified
as a new and
serious threat
to the Dja
Faunal
Reserve, a
Unesco World
Heritage Site
that is home
to 14 species
of primate and
megafauna like
elephants,
buffalos,
giant
pangolins and
bongo
antelopes."
The story,
sadly, has it
all: UNDRIP
being
disrespected,
UNESCO like
Guterres and
his Deputy
doing nothing (and
both censoring
the Press).
We'll have
more on this.
Inner
City Press
has, even while
banned from
the UN by
Secretary
General
Antonio
Guterres who
took Biya's
golden statue,
asked a number
of
non-Security
Council UN
member states
for their position
on convening
a meeting in
the General
Assembly as
has been done
regarding
other
countries; watch
this space. As to
Italy
Inner City
Press sent a
formal request
to the
Italian
spokesperson who
told it that,
Giovanni
Davoli, and
elsewhere
including the
Mission's official
email
address in UN
Protocol's
Blue Book,
info.italyun
[at] ester.it,
as well as
press.italyun
[at] esteri.it:
"Hello - This
is a request
for your
Italian
Mission's and
Ambassador
comment on the
human rights
abuses by the
Cameroon army
and security
forces, not
only in the
Anglophone
areas (which I
have been
asking about
in the UN
since early
2017) but now
also in the
north, video
linked to in Inner
City Press here,
as
verified by
Amnesty
International, here.
Since
the UN
Security
Council has
not even taken
up the issue
in an Any
Other Business
briefing, with
blockage by
former
colonial
powers France
and the UK,
which recently
bragged of a
UK firm's
natural gas
deal with the
Cameroonian
government,
this is also
to know
whether your
Mission -
which is still
technically on
the Security
Council but
not much seen,
even before
Inner City
Press was
banned since
July 3 for
covering the
UN Budget --
would support
General
Assembly
action on
these Cameroon
and regional
issues, under
Uniting for
Peace or
otherwise.
I am asking
these
questions in
writing now
because I have
been banned
since July 3
from entering
the UN and
could not ask
them inside
the UN
building.
This notifies
your Mission
that I have
been banned
from the UN
since at
latest July 5,
with no due
process. See,
The
Independent
(UK), July 12,
2018, “UN
'roughs up and
bans'
investigative
reporter long
considered
thorn in side
of world body
officials, Mr
Lee has
written about
UN in
connection to
Haiti,
Burundi, Sri
Lanka and
other nations." As
your Mission
knows, Italian
journalist
Giampaoli Pioli
lobbied to get
Inner City
Press thrown
out...
What is your
Mission's
response to
that, and this
aftermath? The
ban ongoing
since July 3,
UN Spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric told
The
Independent,
is based on
two
“incidents.”
As captured on
Periscope
video one of
which is
featured it
The
Independent
story, these
incidents
actually
consist of my
having been
roughed by by
UN Security
led by
Lieutenant
Ronald E.
Dobbins, first
while covering
an Eid al Fitr
speech by the
Secretary
General on
June 22 then,
shirt torn and
armed twisted,
computer
damaged, on
July 3 while I
covered the
Fifth
Committee
meetings on
the
Peacekeeping
budget. Video here. I am told there is
an
investigation
but so far,all
I've seen in twenty
days
“covering” the
UN from
outside the UN
gates, has
been a
one-hour
interview by
UN Security in
the basement
of the UNITAR
building."
We'll
have more on
this, on other
formal
requesting
including
to incoming Security
Council
members...
***
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