At
UN, Guterres Latvian Photo Op
Cut Short, Spox Won't Answer on
UN Reforms Needed
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
January 11 – When UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres held
a photo opportunity and
meeting with Latvian Foreign
Minister Edgars Rinkevics on
January 11, the Press was told
to leave as soon as the two
sat down, before any banter. Photo;
Periscope
here.
This differed
from Guterres' first four days
in office, when he invited the
press back in and urged his
counterparties to also speak
to “your media.”
In another change, on January
10 UN holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric issued a
statement on an attack in
Kabul, Afghanistan “for the
United Nations.” On January
11, Inner City Press asked
Dujarric about the change,
particularly since many
mistake the UN Security
Council for the Secretariat
including in calling for
budget cuts.
We'll have more
on this - and on Dujarric
refusing to answer
UN-specified questions about
the January 10 unsealed
indictment of just-left
Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon's brother and nephew,
who was allowed to work at the
UN's landlord Colliers
International. Can Ban's new
Seoul spokesman really answer
on this?
Guterres
held his second
and third photo
opportunities and
meetings as UN
Secretary General
on January 6, with
Japan's Deputy
Minister for
Foreign Affairs
Shinsuke Sugiyama
(Photos
here, Periscope
here) and
Greek Foreign
Minister Nikos
Kotzias (photos
here, Periscope
here.)
Slightly late to the first
meeting, Guterres cited the need
to prepare for the Astana
(Syria) and Paris (Palestine)
conferences.
Guterres
to his credit made a point of
saying a bit, in public, before
each meeting. With the Japanese
delegation he joked about a
dinner where at least “no one
vetoed the dessert” -- yet --
and with the Greeks, he joked
that their gifts, a book and
music CDs and a box, were too
heavy.
In this Guterres differed from
Ban Ki-moon, but not earlier in
the day when led around to take
selfies with the correspondents
the UN has not, like Inner City
Press, evicted from their
offices for covering UN
corruption, like the Ng Lap Seng
/ John Ashe bribery case. Video
here, story
here.
The Greek meeting followed one
on January 6 with Turkey's
Foreign Minister Mevlüt
Çavusoglu. Photo
here; video
here.
Beyond the pleasantries - and
there were more of these than in
the final days of Ban Ki-moon's
tenure - it was noteworthy
that along with the UN's Cyprus
envoy Espen Barth Eide, Ban's
Under Secretaries General
Feltman, Ladsous and O'Brien
were all there. The "P3 men,"
some call them. Will they be
switched not only for gender,
but nation?
Guterres'
new chief of staff Maria Luiza
Ribeiro Viotti was there; his
Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed
won't formally begin until next
month. Will that trigger the end
of Ban Ki-moon's era of
censoring and restricting the
Press?
***
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