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UNITED NATIONS,
November 1 – UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres left
the Central African Republic
after four days and stopped
over in Yaounde the capital of
La Republique du Cameroun,
meeting with Paul Biya to
assess the situation in the
Anglophone areas where Biya
has killed hundreds since
their last meeting, and
accepting a golden statute as
a gift from Biya. On Otober 31
Inner City Press asked
Guterres spokesman about the
gift: how much is it worth? Where
is it now? This as the UN now
admits there are tens of thousand
of Anglophone refugees from
Cameroon into Nigeria, without
saying what they are fleeing.
(Dujarric cited "renewed violence,"
then told Inner City Press the
UN can't know from whom the
violence comes. Did Guterres
ask Biya? Or just take the
gift? On November 1, after
Cameroon's PR echoed Guterres'
Alison Smale's DPI's threat to
Inner City Press, here
with audio, Inner City Press
asked Guterres' spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press: I noticed
that the Secretary-General met
with Ambassador Delattre and
some others about this
protection of
journalists. So, I
wanted to… I mean, I guess you
don't read out meetings with…
with Permanent
Representatives, but I wanted
to ask you, given… and I'll
use Cameroon as an
example. As CPJ and
others have said, there are
any number of journalists
sitting in jail for reporting
on… on the very conflict that
he discussed with… or
mentioned with President
Biya. Did the issue… can
you say in that meeting
whether any issue of press
freedom was raised given that…
Spokesman: In the
meeting with President Biya?
Inner City
Press:
In the meeting with President
Biya. Yes.
Spokesman: No, as I
said, I will stick to the
readout I gave you in the
meeting with President Biya. Inner
City Press: So
how is it… because I saw the
readout that the idea was to
plan together how to forward
protection of
journalists. And so, how
is it forwarding protection of
journalists if the
Secretary-General meets with a
Head of State whose named by
CPJ and others as a major
arrestor of journalists
misusing counterterrorism
legislation, not raising it,
how does that…Spokesman:
A, I didn't say he didn't
raise it. And, B, I
think it's important for the
Secretary-General of the
United Nations to have a
dialogue with just about any
leader on this planet. Inner
City Press: No, no, I'm
saying…Spokesman: Thank
you." No, thanks YOU - for
evicting and restricting Inner
City Press, and covering up.
Two days after the gift, with
Biya and his wife preening at
CEMAC in Chad, northern
Cameroon opposition figure
Aboubakar Siddiki was
sentenced to 25 years in jail
for contempt of President.
We'll have more on this. The
UN begrudgingly told Inner
City Press that Francois Fall,
so far Guterres' point-man on
the killings, was with him.
But to what end? Inner City
Press on October 30 asked
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: I've been
asking Farhan [Haq] last week,
but now I'll ask you — about
the visit of the
Secretary-General in
Cameroon. Thanks for the
short readout. It said
it referred to the situation
in the anglophone areas, and
there's a lot of interest in
knowing what more. But
there also… first, I was
suspect of it, but it seems a
photograph is on the web page
of the Cameroon presidency of
the Secretary-General
receiving kind of a gold
statuette or some kind of an
award. And so I'm
wondering, can you say
anything about that?
Spokesman: No, I think
it was a… it was not an award
of any kind, as far as I'm
aware. It was a
traditional protocol gift so
I… Inner City Press: Mr.
[François Louncény] Fall, is
he still in the country?
And how does he explain… there
was an interview that he did
that was put up on UN Radio in
which he said in French that
the… that there are, of
course, some extremists trying
to promote secessionism in the
area. And, obviously,
the people that are there that
think that they were somehow
swindled by the decolonization
of 1961, they don't think that
the mere fact of calling for
secession makes them an
extremist, and it becomes
dangerous because that's a
word that's often interchanged
with terrorism.
Spokesman: I haven't
listened to the full
interview. I don't think
the Special Representative was
painting everyone with that
same brush. Mr. Fall, as
far as I understand, has now
left Cameroon. He was
present with the
Secretary-General during the
meeting with the President."
But the UN has refused to
explain, more for more than
two days, its own Department
of Public Information's
broadcast of Fall sayin
g of Anglophones, There are
extremists demanding
secession, others who want a
return to Federalism. We are
not there... We want the
government to continue its élan
of appeasement. This type of
statement should get a
mediator or envoy fired, but
the UN won't explain. So here
is the audio, via Patreon from
DPI's UN Radio under Alison
Smale (whose DPI has threatened
Inner City Press'
accreditation for publishing
audio clips of what UN
officials say.) Even the day after
Guterres' stop over the UN had
issued no read-out or photo of
the meeting, UNlike Biya's
office here, complete with photos
of Biya giving Guterres a
statuette or award, like
the one Ban Ki-moon received
from the now discredited South
South News, along with Francis
Lorenzo who pleaded guilty to
UN bribery. After Inner City
Press asked for a read-out and
where Guterres is, one came
back, which we published in
full, below. But Inner City
Press immediately asked
Guterres' top three
spokespeople: "Since it seems
SG Guterres met only Paul Biya
while in Cameroon, this is a
request for all available
information about the visit of
Mr Fall, who Inner City Press
was told on Friday by the UN
(and before that by others)
accompanied SG Guterres. Will
he be going to NW or SW
Cameroon? Will he meet with
opposition? And can you
explain Fall's equation, in a
radio clip on UN radio, of
secessionists with
"extremists"? Here
at 1:40." Six and a half hours
later, nothing, nothing at
all. The read-out: "Dear
Matthew, In response to your
question, the
Secretary-General and
President Paul Biya discussed
the situation in the Central
African Republic; refugees in
Cameroon; the situation in the
Lake Chad Basin; and the
situation in the Anglophone
regions of Cameroon." So what
might Biya have said about
this region in which he has
killed so many? And why didn't
Guterres listen to any of
those impacted? The UN still
refuses even to say where
Guterres was, until Monday,
spending public funds in UNdisclosed
amounts. In UN headquarters on
October 28, where Guterres'
Department of Public
Information under Alison Smale
has threatened Inner City
Press' accreditation for
reporting what Guterres'
officials say, UN excutions
expert Agnes Callamard said it
would have been better if
Guterres had issued a read out
of his meeting with the
Philippines foreign minister.
But Guterres is untransparent,
and more. This is today's UN.
with his team of UN
"storytellers" trying to make
him and the UN look good. His
spokespeople refused three
times to confirm to Inner City
Press that he would stop, if
only for four hours, in
Cameroon where hundreds have
been killed by the government,
which as repeatedly cut of the
Internet to prevent exposure
of its crackdown. Then
Guterres handed the "news" to
Agence France Presse, which
never asked him about Cameroon
at the UN. So on October 27,
Inner City Press again asked
Guterres' deputy spokesman
Farhan Haq, UN transcript here: Inner
City Press: I wanted to ask
you about, as I have the last
three days in a row, about the
Secretary-General's stopover
in Yaoundé. I saw he was
quoted by AFP [Agence
France-Presse]. Quote,
we're going to be able to… we
are going to be able to assess
the recent evolution of the
situation in the Anglophone
community. So some
people are wondering how a
four-hour stopover in an
airport and speaking with Paul
Biya, who's actually the one
accused of the killings and
turning off the internet in
the Anglophone areas, is going
to make the Secretary-General
able to assess the
evolution. Is he going
to speak to anyone else on the
other side of it? And
also, why was it so… why was
it so difficult to confirm
this trip, and why did he do
it in the way that he
did? Deputy
Spokesman: The
Secretary-General is the one
who confirms when he will go
to certain places. He
did announce it yesterday, and
after which, we made it very
clear that that's where he was
going. Up until then, it
wasn't officially
confirmed. He will go
there, and we'll try to get
some details from his
meeting. But, of course,
this is not the only way that
we've been assessing the
situation. There have
been efforts by other
officials, including his
envoy, François Lonseny Fall,
to deal with the situation,
and we'll continue with those
efforts. Innner City
Press: So it was said right
after 1 October and all the
killings that Mr. Fall was
going to go. Now it's 27
October. Has Mr. Fall
gone? Deputy Spokesman:
He will, I believe, be
accompanying the
Secretary-General on this
visit." But Fall is the one
who, on UN Radio, calls
secessionists in Southern
Cameroons "extremists." We'll
have more on this.
Guterres' head of
Global Communications Alison
Smale, as recounted and documented
by Inner City Press, has said
that positive stories by her
Department during Guterres'
trip will "show what we can
do." And what's that? Smale's
DPI has used public money to
produce a vanity two-minute video
of Guterres in CAR, complete
with adoring crowds reaching
out to touch his hand, in the
background Jean-Pierre
Lacroix, the fifth French head
of UN Peacekeeping in a row.
This amid a scandal of
frightened people having to
pay contractors to protect
them as the UN peacekeepers
won't. The previous day Smale
was promoting
a multimedia story about a
poster-child peacekeeper in
CAR - from Cameroon.
The story
has the peacekeeper, Gladys
Ngwepekeum Nkeh, helping a
girl who has been raped (not
as has often happened by a UN
peacekeeper.) The UN for two
days has refused
to answer Inner City Press if
it ever disciplined, and if
Guterres is meeting with,
Renner Onana who was
criticized in the UN's own
report on its sexual abuse in
CAR, noted even in Smale's New
York Times, here.
(Renner has been shown in a tweeted
photo in December 2016 with
Fabrizio Hochschild, one of
Guterres' advisers, more on
which below.)
While the UN
images, by a UN photographer
flown from New York to Bangui
days before Guterres and his
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
went, are welcome, the written
story does not even mention
the rapes by UN peacekeepers,
much less the human rights
record of the Cameroonian
security forces.
Meanwhile,
Smale's Department of Public
Information on October 20
issued a threat to Inner City
Press to "review" its
accreditation for its
reporting, including on
Guterres' team on the UN's
38th floor. This is a clear
conflict of interest, between
the openly stated goal of
making Guterres and the UN
look good and the power to
threaten the accreditation of,
and continuing retaliatory
restrictions on, the
independent, critical Press.
Smale herself has not answered
repeatedpetitions
to her in the seven weeks she
has been on the job; the same
is true to the top of the UN.
This all is shameful.
For the entirety
of Guterres' term as Secretary
General, he has been seen by
many as under-performing on
the crisis in Cameroon, as the
Internet was cut off for 94
days then hundreds killed,
thousands displaced. Why?
Inner City Press, which even
under restrictions imposed by
Guterres' Department of Public
of Information now under
Alison Smale, has asked
Guterres and his spokesmen
about each escalatory step of
the crisis, was first to bring
to light the role of Khassim
Diagne Guterres' main Africa
adviser. Diagne was UNHRC's
representative in Yaounde, and
Inner City Press has quoted
him saying that Cameroon's
35-year president and his
foreign minister are doing a
good job. The next day, Inner
City Press received a letter
threatening its accreditation,
including for "over-reporting"
conversations on the UN's 38th
floor.
But there's more.
Guterres deafness is also a
product of not even having a
Special Adviser on Africa.
When the Egyptian Ban Ki-moon
gave the job to, Maged
Abdelazziz, left and became
the UN representative of the
League of Arab States,
Guterres offered the post to
Angola's foreign minister and
was turned down. Likewise he
made job offers to two senior
officials of the Kenyatta
government in Nairobi,
including as exclusively
reported by Inner City Press
Monica Juma, and was turned
down. Why don't these people
want to work for Guterres? If
this happened in Washington,
there would be much reporting.
But at the UN, it is only
Inner City Press - and they
threaten its accreditation.
Before Guterres' current trip
to the Central African
Republic, Inner City Press
asked him about UN sexual
abuse there, and about the
UN's inaction on mass killings
in neighboring Cameroon.
Guterres purported to answer
on the former, and "didn't
hear" the 15-second question
on Cameroon.
(Then Guterres' Department of
Public Information two days
later threatened Inner City
Press' accreditation, see
below.)
On October 25
once Guterres was in CAR, with
a personal photographer
deployed in advance and his
spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
Inner City Press asked deputy
spokesman Farhan Haq if
Guterres in CAR will meet with
Mr. Renner Onana, named as a
bad actor in the UN's own
report on its sexual abuse in
CAR. Video here;
UN transcript here. A full day
later, during a trip that
DPI's Alison Smale said will
be a litmus
test of UN story-telling, the
UN hadn't even answered this
basic question.
So on October 25,
Inner City Press asked Haq
again, noting it had found
online a photo
of Renner Onana, with a
promotion, greeting Fabrizio
Hochschild, a main adviser to
Guterres. Haq said he was
still checking - this just
after he'd said Guterres is
working on freedom of
information - and that Onana
might still be employed by the
UN but on leave. How hard is
it to find out? Story-telling
indeed. Unless the UN intends
to try to replace the
independent press, isn't
answering factal questions
part of the litmus test? Or is
attacking and censoring
critics the goal? Smale and
her deputy who brought about
the threat
to Inner City Press'
accreditation after calling it
too negative then blocking it
on Twitter, were both on
October 24 at the New York UN
Day event, which UNlike other
correspondents Inner City
Press could only reach, later,
with their minder. Alamy
photos here.
Deputy SG Amina Mohammed was
informed - but Cameroonian
diplomats quote her as saying
Anglophone Cameroonian
aspirations will never be
supported because... Biafra.
Maybe she said it; we know
what the Cameroonian said but
after DPIs threat are it seems
not supposed to run audio.
Today's UN seems corrupt, in
CAR and at Headquarters. This
is UN Day. The UN delivered a
threat
to Inner City Press to
“review” it accreditation on
Friday afternoon at 5 pm. The
UN official who signed the letter,
when Inner City Press went to
ask about the undefined
violation of live-streaming
Periscope video at a photo op
by UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres, had already
left, minutes after sending
the threat. What to make of
the letter's vague statement,
"filming and recording on the
38th floor are limited to
official photo opportunities,
and recording conversations of
others in the room is not
permitted. It has been brought
to our attention that you
breached that rule recently"?
It's not only vague as to
when, but absurd: once a
Periscope is authorized to
start streaming, it is
impossible to not record
someone who speaks loudly at
the photo op. This comes two
days after Inner City Press asked Guterres about the
UN inaction on threatened
genocide in Cameroon, and the
UN claimed
Guterres hadn't heard the
15-second long question.
Recently at a photo op,
Guterres' adviser on Cameroon
Khassim Diagne spoke loudly.
Inner City Press later reported,
based on sourcing, that Diagne
who was previously the
representative to Cameroon for
UNHCR,
the UN refugee agency Guterres
ran, speaks in favor of
Cameroon's government. Is this
letter a response to the
reporting? Is it retaliation?
Is it intimidation to stop
reporting on this threatened
genocide? We can't ask the
complainant, Maher Nasser:
after the threat was
delivered, he blocked Inner
City Pres on Twitter, here.
It also
comes after Alison Smale the
head of the Department of
Public Information which would
“review” Inner City Press'
accreditation has ignored threeseparatepetitions
from Inner City Press in the
six weeks she has been in the
job, urging her to remove
restrictions on Inner City
Press' reporting which hinder
its coverage of the UN's
performance in such crises as
Yemen,
Kenya,
Myanmar,
and the Central African
Republic where Guterres
travels next week, with
Smale's DPI saying its
coverage of the trip will be a
test of its public relations
ability. But the UN official
who triggered the complaint is
Maher Nasser, who filled in
for Smale before she arrived.
His complaint is that audio of
what he said to Inner City
Press as it staked out the
elevators in the UN lobby
openly recording, as it has
for example
with Cameroon's Ambassador
Tommo Monthe, here,
was similarly published.
A UN “Public Information”
official is complaining about
an article, and abusing his
position to threaten to review
Inner City Press'
accreditation. The UN has
previously been called
out for targeting Inner
City Press, and for having no
rules or due process.
But the UN is entirely
UNaccountable, impunity on
censorship as, bigger picture,
on the cholera it brought to
Haiti. And, it seems, Antonio
Guterres has not reformed or
reversed anything. This threat
is from an official involved
in the last round of
retaliation who told Inner
City Press on Twitter to be
less "negative" about the UN -
amid inaction on the mass
killing in Cameroon - and who
allowed pro-UN hecking of
Inner City Press' questions
about the cholera the UN
brought to Haiti and the Ng
Lap Seng /John Ashe UN bribery
scandal which resulted in six
guilty verdicts. We'll have
more on this.
***
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