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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Goot PFT NYP

UNITED NATIONS GATE, February 18 -- After Paul Biya who has ruled Cameroon for 36 years lied that Transparency International was observing his re-coronation, and burned village after village in the Anglophone regions while hiring lobbyists to seek and get support from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, on October 22 he claimed to win over 71% of the vote and even that 16% of those eligible voted in the Anglophone North-West and South-West regions. None of this is credible. On February 18 the UN's deputy spokesman Farhan Haq who has refused to answer questions from Inner City Press not only on Cameroon but also the UN killing people in Haiti and South Sudan, held a briefing with questions on Heather Nauert (on which he gratuitously brought up the deceased Vitaly Churkin). On Cameroon, he has not answered this: "February 18-1: On sexual abuse and exploitation, Cameroon and the UN's increasing lack of transparency, please immediately provide all if-asked and other information about the allegations including attempted rape allegation against Cameroon peacekeepers in CAR and the South African in DRC. Again, what is the SG's comment and action on the report today from Serbia that "The United Nations states that it was a complaint that was received in January, that it was an alleged victim and that the proceedings against the suspected leader were also within the UN and Serbia. The Ministry of Defense did not answer the question of the Whistleblower whether an investigation and a disciplinary procedure is being conducted against that member of the Serbian Armed Forces.... the case of sexual exploitation for which the suspected Serbian soldier was first reported by an independent American journalist Matthew Lee, who has been writing about abuses in the United Nations for years." Explain why you have refused to provide the if-asked information Inner City Press requested." Nor, three days later, this: "February 15-1: On Cameroon, what is the SG's comment and action on that "More than 150 people have been charged with "hostility to the homeland" and "insurrection" for their role in anti-government protests in Cameroon, the vice-president of the country's main opposition party said.  The president of the Movement for the Rebirth of Cameroon (MRC) opposition party, Maurice Kamto, was among those charged on Wednesday in a crackdown criticized by human rights campaigners.  He and around 150 other people were arrested in late January and have been held for nearly three weeks by police in the capital Yaounde.  They have gone before a judge in groups, starting with Kamto overnight Tuesday to Wednesday. He was charged with "rebellion, insurrection" and "hostility to the country".  Around twenty of those detained have been released on bail, MRC's vice-president Emmanuel Simh said.  "Hostility to the country" is punishable by the death penalty in theory, but the penalty has not been carried out in Cameroon for more than 30 years"?  Haq previously made much of a presentation in Geneva by Guterres' Resident Coordinator, now controlled by Nigeria's Amina J. Mohammed, Allegra Baiocchi. Haq who has refused to provide this information to Inner City Press blathered about failed envoy Francois Lounceny Fall, who equated secessionists with extremists and whose UN visits Inner City Press is banned from covering. Given Haq's outrageous and unprofessional failure to answer Press questions about Cameroon and Guterres' failures there, here is Haq's road to this gatekeeper position: running either through the defunct newspaper the City Sun, or being the son of UNDP economist Mahbub ul Haq. In either case, this is a new low, withholding information about a UN "international" engaging in sexual exploitation in so often mistreated South Sudan - all the more so give Haq's online connections to women's studies in the Garden State: his "co" Ethel Brooks is an associate professor in Rutger's Department of Women's and Gender Studies - what about covering up murders in Cameroon? - with an interest in "Visual cultures, Artistic practice, Representation, Productivity, Camps and Encampment, Digital media and Belonging; Critical Political Economy, Transnational Networks, Social Movements, Feminist Theory, Comparative and Historical Methods, Economic Sociology, Political Sociology; Romani Studies, Central American Studies, South Asian studies, Nationalism, Post-colonialism and Critical race theory." Yeah. Here is the question Haq got and has not answered, on top of others about UN murders and rapes. On Cameroon with Biya's minister the UN put up a video clip -- which did not mention Biya's burning of villages, nor show who was co-presenting and asking for money with Baiocchi: Biya's own  Civil Protection Director, Ms. Yap Mariat. The raw video they put out showed the correspondents the UN allow in, nodding and taking transcription, no question. Inner City Press which asks why Guterres took Biya's golden statue and UN Budget Committee favors and stayed silent, was roughed up and still banned after 205 days, including from a film screening in the UN on January 23 that Amazon invited it to (but then allowed Guterres' censorship). We'll have more on this. On January 21 Inner City Press asked Guterres' spokes- / hatchetman Stephane Dujarric, in writing, "January 21-5: Given the SG's statement on January 18 that he has spoken with Paul Biya six times, please immediately state in what time frames, the dates, topics and read-outs of the meeting. When was the last such conversation?" No answers at all from Haq or Dujarric, despite his on camera promise of answers. To this depth of censorship for corruption have Guterres, Haq and Dujarric brought the UN. We'll have more on this.

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