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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT NYP

UNITED NATIONS GATE, June 4 –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 French spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who put up then took down a podcast in which he brags about his "mutually assured destruction" relationship with journalists, here.

 On June 4 Guterres' envoy Francois Fall told the UN Security Council, in French, that Paul Biya's government is providing aid. Tellingly, he quoted Guterres on the territorial integrity of Cameroun. France through deputy Anne Gueguen said much the same; Belgium, as translated, referred to the "management of trans-humans." The UK's deputy Jonathan Allen said the UK shares Guterres' view. Maybe that's why his Mission withheld Cameroon and Yemen documents from Inner City Press, and minister Liam Fox bragged of UK-based New Age Oil's deal with Biya.

Inner City Press live tweeted the shameful UNSC session and uploaded Fall's failing statement here.

 Afterward, this from NRC: "Cameroon tops the Norwegian Refugee Council’s annual list of the world’s most neglected displacement crises launched today.   “The international community is asleep at the wheel when it comes to the crisis in Cameroon. Brutal killings, burned-down villages and massive displacement have been met with deafening silence,” warned the Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Jan Egeland.  Conflict has so far uprooted half a million people in South-West and North-West Cameroon. Hundreds of villages have been set ablaze. Hospitals have been attacked. Health workers fear being abducted or killed. Over 780,000 children have seen their schools close and thousands of people, currently hiding in the bushes, have received no humanitarian relief. Still there has been no major mediation efforts, no large relief programmes, minimal media interest and too little pressure on parties to stop attacking civilians.     “This culture of paralysis by the international community has to end. Every day the conflict is allowed to continue, bitterness is building and the region edges closer towards full-blown war,” said Egeland, who recently visited the central African country.     The annual list of neglected displacement crises is based on three criteria: lack of funding, lack of media attention and political neglect. Cameroon scored high on all three" - thanks, Inner City Press notes, to Antonio "Golden Statue" Guterres, who advised Biya's delegation, according to their leaked read out, how to control the "Anglo-Saxon" Press....

 The day before, a number of generally pro-UN groups, not one of which has taken any public action about Guterres' open targeting of Inner City Press with roughing up on 22 June and 3 July 2018 and banning for 334 days since, nor openly criticized Guterres' shameful golden statue performance on Cameroon, sent equally inactive UNSC members a letter including: "The UN Security Council, with the support of the OHCHR, should urge the Cameroon authorities to investigate members of the security forces alleged to have carried out human rights abuses and prosecute those responsible. It should also publicly announce to armed separatist groups that their leaders will be held responsible for serious crimes committed by their fighters. The international community should encourage mediation between Anglophone communities and the government, as well as an inclusive national dialogue in order to find a lasting and sustainable solution to the crisis, which addresses root causes and underlying grievances.  Signed,   1. Action by Christians for the Abolition of Torture (ACAT-France) 2. Amnesty International 3. Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) 4. Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect  5. Human Rights Watch 6. Nouveaux Droits de l’Homme Cameroun 7. Presbyterian Church (USA) 8. Réseau des Défenseurs des Droits Humains en Afrique Centrale (REDHAC) 9. World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)." No call, to Guterres - unlike even Refugees International.

  This before a meeting by Guterres' pro Biya envoy Francois Lonceny Fall, on an afternoon where these same groups seem sure to same more about another country other than Cameroon. They are phoning it in, and thus is the UN dying.

 One would have thought that former UNHCR chief Guterres would not collude in this, but that was before the golden statue and UN Budget Committee deals with Biya's ambassador Tommo Monthe.  Guterres is killing what's left of the UN's credibility with his corruption and no due process censorship.

  More here.

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