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By Matthew Russell Lee, 30/7 CJR, 19/6 Video, Filing

UNITED NATIONS, August 9 – 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, nor on August 9, amid news of an arson attack on community radio station Sky FM in the  North-West region of Cameroon, which destroyed the building and equipment.  Sky FM's station manager, Bernard Tata Gibip, found a cutlass, gasoline container, and a box of matches near the radio station. Guterres' envoy Francois Fall is in the country, murky and silent; Guterres is in no position to speak about freedom of the press - not that it will stop him, or his statement-generating team. 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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