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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFTracker

UNITED NATIONS GATE, June 23 -- While UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres who refused to disclose his links to UN briber CEFC China Energy and roughed up and banned the Press for asking about it, considers China's Andy Tsang to take over his Office of Drugs and Crime, the UN FAO on June 23 announced that Chinese government minister Qu Dongyu has been elected as the new director general of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), to succeed José Graziano da Silva from Brazil for a 4-year term at the corrupt FAO.

As to FAO: Guterres says he has a "zero tolerance" policy for sexual harassment, and for retaliation. But after Guterres imposed on Inner City Press on ongoing ban against entering the UN, made permanent by his Alison Smale in an August 17 unappealable letter, his two spokesman on  are refusing to answer written questions from Inner City Press about Guterres ignoring victims of abuse and harassment, and about his own son Pedro Guimarães e Melo De Oliveira Guterres, doing business to Angola and Timor Leste as exclusively reported by Inner City Press. This is an exclusive, too: in a 31 October 2018 meeting in Conference 6 in the UN from which Guterres has in retaliation banned Inner City Press for 119 days and counting, staff were initially told that "off color jokes" could not be sexual harassment. This from a UN official who admitted that if it were his family member who was the victim, he would go to the 17th Precinct of the New York Police Department. What hypocrisy, when this same part of the UN refuses to investigate and act on Guterres' Lieutenant Ronald E. Dobbins' July 3 (and June 22) assaults on Inner City Press with other UN DSS officers unnamed, and UN Security lobbies NYPD not to respond to Inner City Press' Freedom of Information Law requests. Another UN official said that harassed staff members are pressured not to go to the press. And in Rome, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization mimics Guterres by attacking - there legally, not like Guterres physically with Security and lawlessly with a secret list - the media that reports on it. The Italian Insider has reported in detail on sexual harassment charges against FAO's human resources official Fernando Servan.

On 22 May 2019, Inner City Press now banned from any entry of the UN for 322 days and counting, in writing asked Guterres and his spokesman Stephane Dujarric, "On sexual harassment, also, AGAIN, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that women attending a UN international civil servants conference complained to organisers over the presence of FAO Human Resources Director Fernando Servan who has been dubbed a 'sex predator'? UN trade union sources said they were raising with the UN Secretary General (SG) Antonio Gutteres their concerns about the Peruvian executive’s presence at the International Civil Service Commission meeting in New York given the SG's supposed policy of 'zero tolerance' of sexual harassment."

 Twelve hours later there was no answer at all. Guterres is entirely corrupt and should be impeached.

Back on November 6, still banned from the UN noon briefing for the 125th day and with no one who is allowed in asking about this, Inner City Press asked Guterres' spokesmen and Deputy and USG Smale questions including: "November 6-4: On UN system sexual harassment, what is the SG's comment and action on the involuntary kissing of an FAO staffer by Peruvian human resources official reported in The Italian Insider, and on FAO / official suing Italian Insider?" There was no answer to this, despite the promise Guterres' USG Alison Smale made not only to the Government Accountability Project then to Inner City Press, but also to the UN's own Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Information David Kaye, in her evasive answer two months after to his (some of) his questions about her ouster of Inner City Press -- no answer on appeal. Inner City Press asked the question again, sharpened, on November 7:

Hours later, rather than response by Guterres who claims he takes sexual harassment seriously, another buckpassing and bout of impunity as with Michel Sidibe at UNAIDS: "Regarding your questions on FAO, FAO has the following to say: 'The allegation was made in an article by the Italian Insider on a rumour concerning activities outside the workplace and, pending any formal complaint, it would be inappropriate to comment at this time.
FAO has a policy of zero tolerance towards any form of sexual harassment, sexual exploitation or abuse. The Organization is committed to ensuring a work environment that is free of harassment, in particular sexual harassment, as well as the highest standards of conduct for its employees with regard to sexual exploitation and abuse.'" So when UNSG Guterres is asked about FAO allowing rank sexual harassment, Guterres' spokesmen provide only the self-serving response of FAO which is suing the press that reported on the harassment, with Guterres silent or cheering, as he bans Inner City Press... Guterres after his junket in Lisbon is meeting with the UN Chief Executives Board, who have put up with his censorship and debasement of the UN, including the Director of FAO. We'll have more on this.
This Guterres cover up extends to what the UN views as separate, sexual exploitation and abuse. Inner City Press asked, without answer by close of business: "November 6-5: On UN sexual exploitation and abuse, yesterday you said “Vannina in my office has more information.” But all I was sent was the script / note that was read out, nothing additional. So what was the additional information you said on camera was in your office? Please immediately provide it - including figures for civilian personnel, partners, and personnel of UNSC authorized operation (not, it seems, on the Conduct and Discipline website)."  In the October 31 meeting - we have the names but out of respect for now for some current UN staff don't use them - an intern complained about the prevalence of sexual harassment for delegates or diplomats. It was claimed that Guterres is working on this - while he most recently had a female foreign minister change from a meeting in his office on the 38th floor to his residence on Sutton Place and even then summoned her upstairs, not from the flags and meeting room on the mansion's first floor but up into his personal quarters. A fish rots from the head. This meeting and the claims made about Guterres' responses were a matter of derision and disgust among many staff members - we'll have more on this.

This also was an Inner City Press exclusive: at the International Civil Service Commission, sexual harassment at which Inner City Press asked Guterres spokesmen about in person until roughed up and banned, the chairman Kingston Rhodes facing complaints is rounding up signatures of support, much like Louis Loures and now Michel Sidibe at UNAIDS. This is Guterres' UN: no standards, every man for himself and smash and ban the Press that asks. Here is a photo of the "petition" Kingston Rhoades has launched. We are also informed from UN / OIOS sources, not the filer, that a filing has been made with the Office of Internal Oversight Services, which has yet act on Inner City Press' filings on Cameroon, Guterres, Dujarric, Smale and others. This is Guterres' UN. And so, since corrupt Guterres, Smale and Dujarric continue to ban Inner City Press from their dying briefing since July 3, but we are here asking these questions: How many signatures one would need to clear a perpetrator?
How many signatures are needed to protect victims not only from sexual harassment, but from continuous retaliation and intimidation?
What are the duties of the UN staff during an investigation, are they allowed to harass further the victims and whistle blowers?
Is this how SG Guterres is protecting from victims from retaliation as he promised?
Is this what 'gender equality and empowerment of women" when women are used by those in power to attack the victims further?"   We'll have more on this.

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