UNSG Guterres Disappears For
Weekend After Cameroon, UN Hides
Lisbon Trip Costs
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Photos
UNITED NATIONS,
October 27 – Under Antonio
Guterres the UN's lack of
transparency, and undisclosed
spending of public funds, gets
worse and worse. On October 27,
after Guterres' spokespeople
stonewalled Inner City Press for
three days on his plans for a
grip and grin meeting in a
Cameroon airport with Paul Biya,
who has killed hundreds this
year, they also refused to say
where Guterres is going next, or
how much it costs, how it is
paid for. From the UN
transcript: Inner City Press:
The notice that you put out of
the Secretary-General's schedule
said he'll be back in New York
Monday. I was wondering,
as happens with leaders of
organizations around the world,
where will he be between Friday
and Monday? Deputy
Spokesman: We will provide
information as that comes
along. Like I said, we
were able to confirm the stop in
Cameroon. If there's
anything else, we will confirm
it at that point. Inner
City Press: Will it be Lisbon,
Portugal? Deputy
Spokesman: It may
be. But at this point,
we're just trying to work out
his itinerary. When we're
done with that, we can
say. Inner City Press: If
he goes to Lisbon, Portugal,
does he take UN security with
him? In which case, where
do they stay, and what are the
costs? How are they borne?
Deputy Spokesman: However
he does his stopovers, he does
it at the least cost to the
UN. And a lot of times,
what that means is traveling
with a smaller delegation, and
it also means traveling on
commercial flights. He
does take specific steps, and
he's been very conscientious
over these months of making sure
that he travels with as slim a
delegation as he has. Inner City
Press: My question is just who's
paying for his security if he
goes to Lisbon? And also
I'm aware that he sent some
people in advance to CAR.
They didn't travel with him, but
they were actually part of the
party. So is there an
attempt to bifurcate traveling
trips so that some people are
not considered to be traveling
with him. For example, the
UN photographer, I'm aware, went
days in advance. Why was
that?
Deputy Spokesman: Well,
sometimes advance teams go out
when it's needed to do
that. For us, in terms of
the Department of Public
Information, there are many
times when it's useful for us to
send our media crews in advance
to get different coverage for
the sort of pieces and features
that they do. Inner City
Press: Can we just get the
cost? It's a straight
transparency question. Deputy
Spokesman: The costs of
travel are calculated over the
year and shared with the Member
States, and that's how we do
it. All right. Have
a good weekend, everyone."
Antonio sure will - on the
public dime. Back on July 29,
the day after guilty verdicts on
six counts of UN
bribery in the case of Ng
Lap Seng, UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres flew to Split
for a seven day vacation on the
Dalmatian islands, according to
sources there. Guterres'
spokespeople did not disclose
the travel or any week-long
absence to the press covering
the UN, at least not to the
Press evicted and still
restricted for covering Ng's
bribery. This lack of
transparency stands in contrast
to the executive branch in
Washington and even New York
routinely disclosing travel
including vacation travel. But
the UN has no press protections
either - Guterres has been asked.
Meanwhile his spokespeople says
the UN should get paid for the
UNreformed corruption shown in
the Ng trial and verdict. We'll
have more on this. When UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres on July 27 had a brief
meeting with Qatar's Foreign
Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin
Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Qatar
state media and other UN based
photographers went up. Alamy
photos here.
There were complaints how short
the handshake was; Inner City
Press noted that on the UN side
of the table were only four
people, all men, including
Jeffrey Feltman. Periscope video
here.
Guterres was scheduled to be at
another meeting in 25 minutes
time. So will the UN help solve
the stand-off in the Gulf? It
seems unlikely. The UN never
answered Inner City Press'
questions of if Feltman had
visited Saudi Arabia and if not,
why not. Back on July 19
Guterres.had a meeting and photo
op with Spain's Foreign Minister
Alfonso María Dastis Quecedo.
Inner City Press went to cover
it, Alamy photos here,
Periscope video here
including of whether Dastis
should write "una poema"
in the UN visitors' book. Inner
City Press barely arriving on
time due to the crowd of
tourists at the UN's visitors
entrance. It has been this way
since Spain's now-gone Under
Secretary General Cristina
Gallach had Inner City Press
evicted from and still
restricted at the UN after Inner
City Press asked
her about attending indicted
Macau-based businessman Ng Lap
Seng's South South Awards, and
allowing Ng fundees improper
events in the UN. Although
Guterres did not continue
Gallach's contract - she lobbied
to stay, but failed - her
negative impacts are still in
evidence. The Spanish Mission to
the UN, now off the Security
Council, likewise did nothing to
reign Gallach in. But surely
they are lobbying Guterres to
get another Under Secretary
General position, even as their
Fernando Arias Gonzalez runs
against six others to head the
Organization for the Prohibition
of Chemical Weapons. We'll have
more on this. The day before on
July 18 Guterres had a meeting
and photo op with the Dominican
Republic's Foreign Minister
Miguel Vargas Maldonado (Alamy
photos here,
Periscope video here);
it came one day after in the UN
bribery case against Ng Lap Seng
a video of then then-President
Leonel
Fernandez
Reyna visiting
South South
News near the
UN was
discussed.
That video is
here.
South South
News was a
bribery
conduit, its
funds used for
gambling by
Dominican
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Francis
Lorenzo in Las
Vegas and
Atlantic City
while the UN's
Department of
Public
Information
let SSN's
content into
UNTV archives
and let Ng
fundees have
impermissible
events in the
UN. On July
18, Guterres'
Deputy
Spokesman
Farhan Haq
refused to
answer Inner
City Press'
yes or no
questions
about South
South News and
the UN. After
the July 18
photo op,
Inner City
Press had
nowhere to
edit - for
seeking to
cover an event
in the UN
Press Briefing
Room in
pursuing the
UN / SSN
corruption
story, Inner
City Press was
evicted and still
restricted.
And in the DR
there are
protests about
corruption. So
what did the
minister and
Guterres
discuss?
Haiti? These
days there are
no read-outs
at the UN.
On July 13 Guterres had a
meeting and photo op (Periscope
here)
with Estonia's President Kersti
Kaljulaid, listed in the
country's delegation was the
coordinator of its run for a
Security Council seat, Margus
Kolga, previously the country's
UN ambassador. Of the run, he
has said "there are very many
small nations. We are a small
nation which came out from under
occupation. We may serve as
example to them, that this is
possible and that a small nation
has another perspective on the
world which needs to be
represented at the council. Most
nations have spent far above the
million we intend to." At least
that is transparent. By
contrast, Guterres' UN Spokesman
Stephane Dujarric earlier on
July 13 refused
to answer Inner City
Press' questions about the Ng
Lap Seng / John Ashe (RIP) UN
bribery case, and even declined
to answer Inner City Press'
question about member states
asking (it)
whether Guterres will produce
any document on reform prior to
his July 22 retreat. So much for
We the Peoples. But hello in the
Security Council, it would seem,
Estonia. Dujarric has repeatedly
refused to provide a list of who
works on Guterres' 38th floor;
by eye Inner City Press noticed
former French Mission legal
adviser Tanguy Stehelin.
Seconded? Dujarric has not
answered. We'll have more on
this. On July 12 when Guterres
swore in six UN officials (some
of them simply being
re-shuffled), Inner City Press
went to cover it. While Guterres
swore in Olga Algayerova as
Executive Secretary of the UN
Economic Commission for Europe,
the mobile phone seemingly of
Miroslav Jenca went off with a
loud BBC news bulletin about
Donald Trump Jr and Russia.
Periscope video here.
Achim Steiner was installed as
head of the UN Development
Program, at the very time that
UNDP is losing control of the
Resident Coordinator system to
Gutteres' and Amina J.
Mohammed's Secretariat. More
seriously, when the Ng Lap Seng
/ John Ashe prosecution
continues in Federal court in
lower Manhattan, there are been
few reforms at the UN. There is
still a lack of transparency,
and business people buying their
way in a Ng did through the UN
Department of Public Information
under Cristina Gallach. As Inner
City Press covered it, Gallach
had Inner City Press evicted and
still restricted; the acting
head of DPI, Maher Nasser, has
done nothing to reverse it.
There is still no new Special
Adviser on Africa - Inner City
Press is told that an Angolan
turned it down - and the new
head of OCHA, Mark Lowcock,
doesn't start until September.
The UN must reform. Also sworn
in on July 12 were UN veteran
Jan Beagle,
Under-Secretary-General for
Management; able former Iraqi
Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim,
Executive Secretary of the UN
Economic and Social Commission
for Western Asia; Namvamanee
Ratna Patten,
Special
Representative
of the
Secretary-General
on Sexual
Violence in
Conflict; JIM
veteran Virginia Gamba, as
Special Representative of the
Secretary-General for Children
and Armed Conflict (as Yemen was
the topic in the Security
Council.) On July 10 Guterres
has a photo op with Colombia's
Foreign Minister Maria Angela
Holguin Cuellar. It was supposed
to be in his office in UN
Headquarters at 4:30 pm. But on
little notice he moved it to his
- make that, the UN and the
public's - mansion on Sutton
Place and 57th Street, at 4 pm.
Inner City Press jumped on the
city bus up First Avenue,
broadcasting a Periscope video
about the change, when suddenly
it was urged
to stop broadcasting by a
board member of the UN
Correspondents Association,
which Guterres' deputy spoke
before last week and whose
former president Giampaolo
Pioli's Hampton's gratiuty-fest
the UN acting head of Public
Information Maher
Nasser attended, the UN
Censorship Alliance. This is
today's UN. Still, up on Sutton
Place UN Security brought up a
sniffing dog in a UN 4x4, and
two quick photos were allowed
before Guterres escorted Holguin
onto "his" elevator. Back
at the UN, the door to the UN
Security Council stakeout was
locked, and the turnstile where
targeting Inner City Press' ID
pass no longer works was guarded
by new UN Security who didn't
even recognize the UN minder.
Still, we got this
Periscope, despite UN censorship
which continues. Much later at
8:30 pm, Guterres' holdover
spokesman issued this.
Will there be reform?
On July 5 Guterres had as a
series of five credential photo
ops on July 5, Inner City Press
Periscoped all of them, with a
particular eye on Zambia and
Mauritania. Zambia's returning
Permanent Representative Lazarus
Kapambwe gave the greeting of
his president; one wondered if
in the ten minute closed door
meeting that followed the
continued lock-up of opposition
figure HH was raised. (Inner
City Press has repeatedly asked
Guterres' holdover spokesman
about it, with only vague
generalities resulting).
Mauritania, Guterres called "un
pillier" (just as he ten minutes
later called Moldova a pillar) -
but did Western Sahara, on which
there has been no UN envoy for
some time, come up? Moldova's
past Permanent Representative
moved in the South South News
world of Ng Lap Seng, now on
trial for UN bribery, although
that may have been in his
"personal capacity." And last
was South Centre, which is
testifying this week to the
World Intellectual Property
Organization, whose director
Francis Gurry's retaliation and
patent work for North Korea
Guterres has apparently not
raised with him. Guterres was
slated to present reform plans
at 11 am, but in the Ecosoc
Chamber which evicted and
restricted Inner City Press is
required to seek a minder to
cover, unlike other less
interested media like Egypt's
state Akhbar al Yom. This is
today's - and now Guterres' -
UN. Back on June 19, Guterres
had a meeting and photo op with
Bangladesh's Foreign Minister
Shahidul Haque, Periscope video
here;
the skies outside the 38th floor
conference room were dark,
Emergency Flash Flood warnings
going off on officials' cell
phones. Department of Political
Affairs staff who previously
worked on Sri Lanka were there;
Tanguy Stehelin was working in
the small dining room next door.
Bangladesh gives a lot of
peacekeeping troops to the UN,
and thereby evades what little
scrunity the UN does these days.
Guterres was se to meet US Rep.
Jim Costa and then Philippe
Douste-Blazy: no topics, no
read-outs. Inner City Press' Haiti
questions remain unanswered,
among with Cameroon, the Rif and
more. Guterres will hold a press
conference on June 20 - Inner
City Press asked his spokesman
to confirm all topics are on the
table. He said yes. We'll see.
Guterres swore in three new
officials on June 7, Inner City
Press went to the photo op
(photos here)
and small ceremony, which
included reclusive
head of UN Peacekeeping
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN's
head of Information Technology,
Atul Khare and Miroslav Jenca,
previously head of the UN's
office in Turkmenistan. It's to
there that Guterres tonight
takes off on his most recent
trip, amid crises in the Gulf
and elsewhere, UN failures in
Cameroon and Yemen, and
continuing Press censorship and
lack of reform. Guterres swore
in Ursula Mueller as Assistant
Secretary-General for
Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy
Emergency Relief Coordinator in
the Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs (she's
already been on the job for 100
days, she said); Fekitamoeloa
Katoa Utoikamanu on Tonga,
Under-Secretary-General and High
Representative for the Least
Developed Countries, Landlocked
Developing Countries and Small
Island Developing States; and
Alexander Zuev as Assistant
Secretary-General for Rule of
Law and Security Institutions.
With him, Guterres hearkened
back to his interview, and said
thank you in Russian. Periscope
video here.
As to the still unfilled
Department of Public Information
post vacated by corrupt
censor Cristina Gallach,
Inner City Press is informed of
interviewees currently based in
Paris and Geneva. It is not or
should not be a system run
without rules by the top person,
but rather one in which the
media have due process and
appeals rights, and retaliatory
action are reversed. Flier
here. Guterres will soon
by the flier: we'll be covering
it. The evening before on June 6
when Guterres did a photo
op (Periscope here) and
meeting with Gabon's Ali Bongo,
who along with his father Omar
have consecutively ruled Gabon
since 1967, it began a full 15
minutes late. Not because Bongo
was picking up another dubious
award on the sidelines of
the sometimes dubious Ocean
Conference (see
here), but because
Guterres had another, unlisted
visitor. It was, Inner City
Press saw, Saudi Arabia's
ambassador to the UN, presumably
about the standoff with Qatar.
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric has repeatedly
said Guterres is not involved.
We'll have more on this. On
Bongo, he stayed upstairs for 45
minutes and then left with the
media he'd brought in, in a
caravan of vehicles with a
police escort. Periscope viewers
told Inner City Press Gabonese
were protesting Bongo, who they
call a killer, in front of the
Peninsula Hotel. Watch this
site. On June 5, Guterres met
with Fiji's Josaia Voreqe
Baininarama, there was a rare
attendee: Deputy Secretary
General Amina Mohammed. Perhaps
it was because Fiji is the
co-President, with Sweden, of
the Ocean Conference. Earlier on
June 5, Deputy Mohammed had been
listed as the briefer - and
presumably answerer - at a press
conference about a more than
1000 page UN book. But Mohammed
left; Inner City Press stayed
and asked a scientist who seemed
to say he'd been at a conference
in 1946 about fisheries
subsidies. Likewise, Baininarama left
the 1 pm stakeout in front of
the UN General Assembly before
he could be asked any questions.
This is also how Guterres did
it, speaking in the third person
about Cyprus, on Sunday evening.
It seems to be catching in his
UN. Back on May 30 when Guterres
met
with Romania's Foreign Minister
Teodor Melescanu, it was part of
Melescanu's campaign for his
country to win a two year term
on the UN Security Council, to
follow its six-month rotating
presidency of the European
Council in first half of 2019
(for which it is seeking a
bigger building in Brussels). Melescanu has most
recently, in Istanbul, defended
his country's delaying of
Turkish basketball player Enes
Kanter after he criticized Erdogan.
Melescanu
will
be in New York through June 3.
Guterres, after yet another trip
(this time for a G7
speech on Africa and
technology with no mention of
the Internet cut-off in
Cameroon), was back in New York,
NYU
earlier in the day, then with an
unscheduled or undisclosed
meeting with a Security Council
ambassador that ran past 7 pm.
In the meeting with Melescanu
were Tanguy Stehelin and
Fabrizio Hochschild, among
others. The UN's restrictions on
the Press, unlike on never
present Egyptian state media
Akhbar al Yom, continued. But on
the 38th floor there was
laughter. Last week Guterres met
Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister
and was given an oil painting;
before that Guterres held a
meeting with his senior
management group since after a
two week trip he is in New York
for only three days, leaving
tomorrow. At the appointed time
for Azerbaijan, streaming out of
Guterres' conference room were
USg Jeff Feltman, Jean Pierre
Lacroix who declined
to answer Inner City
Press' question about France's
20+ year rule of UN
Peacekeeping, Oscar
Fernandez-Taranco, Fabrizio
Hochschild and others. Earlier
on May 24 Inner City Press asked
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric to "please
state if a David J Vennett is
now a/the principal advisor to
the SG, if so why he is not in
iSeek and how he was recruited
and hired and, again, please
provide a list of who works in /
or the Executive Office of the
Secretary General and whether
they are paid by the UN, by a UN
affiliate like UNOPS, or by a
country and is so which." There
was no answer. Dujarric
announced, "Tomorrow, the
Secretary-General will be
heading out of New York for
Italy to attend the G-7 meeting.
On Saturday, he will participate
in the outreach session of the
summit, which is taking place in
Taormina. The focus of the
discussion will be "Innovation
and Sustainable Development in
Africa." He will leave
Taormina Saturday afternoon."
Does it take from Thursday to
Saturday to get to Italy? Is
there a stop over on the way
back? What was in Guterres'
budget speech on May 24, a copy
of which Inner City Press requested?
Why was corrupt
censor Cristina Gallach
speaking in the General Assembly
Hall on May 24, and why has her
censorship continued, without
hearing or appeal? Back on May
22 when Guterres met
Slovenia's President Borut
Pahor, it was Guterres first
such meeting at UN Headquarters
in two weeks. In his first 141
days, Guterres is often on the
road, this time including London
and China and Geneva, maybe
Lisbon, while the promised
reforms at the UN are still not
easy to see. Pahor is running
for re-election and was to host
a reception later on May 22 for
Slovenia's 25th anniversary in
the UN, at the Intercontinental
Barclays. The country's
ambassadors at the UN and in
Washington are set to change,
the latter amid probably unfair
criticism that First Lady
Melania Trump's Slovenian roots
have led at last to Slovenia
distinguishing itself from
Slovakia (which is set to take
up the Presidency of the UN
General Assembly in September).
Guterres, too, needs to
distinguish himself from his
predecessor. On Yemen, holdover
envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed
continues to oversee bombing and
now cholera, spun by holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric who
has also defended the UN's World
Intellectual Property
Organization's patent work for
sodium cyanide in North
Korea. On Press Freedom,
there are still no UN rules and
evictions
and restrictions remain in
place. Back on May 5 when
Guterres met with the Dominican
Republic's foreign minister
Miguel Vargas Maldonado there
was an indicted elephant (not)
in the room: former Deputy
Permanent Representative of the
Dominican Republic to the UN
Francis Lorenzo, who has pleaded
guilty to bribery in the
UN through South
South News which he ran.
That case is moving toward
trial, but the UN has done
nothing in its wake - except
evict and still restrict Inner
City Press which covers that and
other corruption, including in
the January 2016 "incident"
the Department of Public
Information used and uses as a
pretext to confine Inner City
Press to minders. On May 5 the
Dominicans covering the photo op
were an energetic bunch, with
GoPro cameras taking photos out
the 38th floor windows that
Inner City Press was ordered not
to take. We asked: what issues
would Guterres raise? Would they
include next door Haiti, where
UN introduced cholera still
causes suffering? After the
meeting, the Dominican side
issued a read-out, the the UN
should do more concretely on
Haiti. So on May 9 Inner City
Press asked, UN transcript here,
Inner City Press: the
Secretary-General met with the
Foreign Minister of the
Dominican Republic on
Friday. And, since then
they’ve formally put out a
readout, and they’ve said that
they told… said that the UN
system should do more concretely
for Haiti, not just talk but
give money. And… and so I
guess I’m wondering, can you
give some UN side readout or
what…
Spokesman: I don’t have…
I don’t have a readout, but
I’ll see what I can get you.
But six
hours later when Guterr's
holdover spokesman Dujarric
left, no read-out had been
provided, none at all. We'll
stay on it. On May 3 when
Guterres did a photo op and
meeting with the "new"
Permanent Representative of
The Gambia on May 3, Guterres
welcomed him "as a democratic
country, we are proud to have
you in our ranks." Video here.
There was only one problem: it
was the same Ambassador who
had represented strongman
Jammeh, Mamadou Tangara. Inner
City Press had repeatedly asked
Guterres' also holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
about Mamadou Tangara during
the time Jammeh tried to hang
on. Now Mamadou Tangara is
being feted as a
representative of democracy.
Did Guterres not know this? Or
was this quiet diplomacy? In
other photo ops on May 3,
World Press Freedom Day,
Guterres' Deputy SG Amina J
Mohammed came to attend the
one with new Nigeria rep
Tijjani Muhammad Band,
Periscope here,
but not Uganda's knowledgeable
Adonia Ayebare nor Seychelles'
Ronald Jean Jumeau. Back down
on the UN's second floor,
Inner City Press remains
confined to minders, even on
World Press Freedom day. We'll
have more on this. Back on
April 20, Guterres met
Lilianne Ploumen, Minister for
Foreign Trade and Development
Cooperation, Kingdom of the
Netherlands, on Guterres' side
of the table were four men and
one woman, Katrin Hett, who
asked one of the men who'd sat
next to Guterres to get up and
move. The previous evening as
Inner City Press rushed to
leave a Department of Public
Information event in the
General Assembly lobby before
the 7 pm censorship witching
hour imposed on it by DPI,
Inner City Press was told, in
a friendly way, to give more
positive coverage to Dutch
Sigrid Kaag, so the UN doesn't
remain a "patriarchy." It's a
good point, but Kaag like
failed Cameroon Resident
Coordinator (promoted by
Guterres) Najat Rochdi
probably shouldn't block
the press they don't like. On
April 20 on the 38th floor was
the Officer in Charge of DPI,
Maher Nasser, who has made no
substantive response to Inner
City Press' April 1 formal
request to end
the now 14 months of minders
and censorship for having
covered a meeting in the UN
Press Briefing Room in
connection with the Ng Lap
Seng / John Ashe UN
corruption case.
Guterres is 110 days in, and
what has changed? Not the
censorship and targeted
requirement of minders. On
April 18 when Guterres did photo
op and meeting with
Ukraine's deputy Foreign
Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya, his
close adviser Katrin Hett came
to tell the assembled staffers
they would not be needed, the
meeting would be held with
only four on each side in
Guterres' office overlooking
the East River and Queens.
Things are getting more and
more private: Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Duajrric
for example has twice refused
to answer Inner City Press if
as reported Guterres tried to
reach Cameroon's president of
decades Paul Biya, about the
cut off of the Internet there.
Others have noticed the rash
of German officials getting
jobs: Achim Steiner at UNDP
and prospectively Horst Kohler
on Western Sahara. But some
office on 38 now have blank
signs. Kyslytsya had just
given a right of reply in the
Security Council, about
Crimea. The mystery and
payback for Guterres getting
all of the Permanent Five
members of the Council on his
side to get elected has still
not be revealed. But earlier
on April 18, Inner City Press
which remains evicted from its
UN office and confined the UN
minders was told, by the
minders, that it cannot
even work at a table in the
UN lobby. This has been
raised, yes, to
the 38th floor. So they
know. There are no rules - a
topic, in another context,
that Kyslytsya raised
in the Security Council.
Back on April 10
when Guterres did a photo
op with the Club de
Madrid - World Leadership
Alliance including another
candidate for Secretary
General, Danilo Turk, it was
impossible not to wonder what
might have been. How might
other of the candidates fared?
What reforms, and reversal of
Ban Ki-moon mistakes from Yemen
and children and armed
conflict to censorship
might they have accomplished
or at least begun? The ex
heads of state barely fit into
the photo, Periscope video here, and
very little banter was heard
before the press was ushered
out. On the way in, Guterres
came amiably through the hall,
turning into the office of
Miguel Graca. But where is the
requested list of who works on
the 38th floor, and who pays
them? Is it true, as Inner
City Press has heard, that
Guterres has interviewed Achim
Steiner for UNDP? At the lower
profile Department of Public
Information, why hasn't the
Officer in Charge given any
substantive response to simple
requests before him, and
would any successor at least
have to commit to free press
due process rules? Why is the
holdover
spokesman allowed to refuse to answer the Press'
questions on Burundi, while engaging others about Sex and
the City? We'll have more on
this. After 100 days of
Antonio Guterres as UN
Secretary General, what has
been accomplished? Guterres
focused early on South Sudan,
but as Inner City Press reports
today on his 100th day,
the Salva Kiir forces are
using tanks near Wau while UN
Peacekeeping, still under
French control, says nothing
publicly. The Cyprus talks are
set to continue, but we've
heard that before. Yemen is as
bloody as ever, and Guterres
extended Ban Ki-moon's (or
Saudi Arabia's) envoy Ismail
Ould Cheikh Ahmed without even
getting him to make any
public financial disclosure.
Discrepancies
in Guterres own disclosure
filings between 2013 and 2016
have yet
to be explained by
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric. What has
changed? Not the Department of
Public Information's targeted
restrictions on Inner City
Press, able to cover meeting
on the UN's second floor only
with a minder, and sometimes
(as on the Rwanda genocide on
April 7) not
at all. Inner City Press
has filed a request
for reversal with DPI's
Officer in Charge, nine days
ago, with no substantive
response. New Inner City Press
song
here. We remain
constructive, eager to see
reforms occur and succeed. But
what has changed?
When
Guterres held a brief
photo
opportunity and meeting
with Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau, it was
Guterres' first in a while,
after several rounds of
travel. And it was over
quickly: the media was told to
leave before a single word was
said. There were complaints
about that, and more
substantive complaints about a
lack of transparency. There
are no read-outs of meetings.
On April 5 Inner City Press
reported on inconsistencies
even in Guterres' own public
financial disclosures from
2016 and 2013 (his Yemen envoy
makes NO public disclosures).
On April 6 Guterres' holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric declined
to offer any explanation
of the differences. As noted,
under Ban Ki-moon he had Inner
City Press thrown
out of the UN Press
Briefing Room and UN, where it
is still
restricted even as the
Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe UN
bribery case it was covering
is coming
to trial. Is the UN
reforming? Watch this site.
Back on
March 23 when Guterres met
UK Foreign Secretary Boris
Johnson, unlike in other
recent meetings with the Democratic
Republic of the Congo
and Tajikistan,
there were women on Guterres'
side of the table (Periscope video here):
Katrin Hett and the Chief of
Staff, who had just met with
Alain Leroy, former head of
Peacekeeping now with the EU.
Also on Guterres' side of the
table was OCHA's Stephen
O'Brien, who greeted and was
greeted by Boris Johnson. Will
the UK, and separately
O'Brien, hold onto the OCHA
post? The emergence reported
by Inner City Press of
outgoing Dutch Labor Party
foreign minister Burt Koenders
as a candidate for UNDP, over
David Miliband, may help
O'Brien. But with budget cuts
looming, the increasing lack
of transparency in the UN
Secretariat's business is a
problem. And this: according
to at least one senior
official on the 38th floor on
March 23, Guterres "has no
interlocutor" in Washington,
to which we'll soon turn.
Watch this site.
As to
Boris Johnson, after four
pre-selected questions all on
the London attacks, Inner City
Press audibly asked about
Cameroon's Anglophone's
Internet cut, what the UK is
doing. We'll have more on this
too.
Back on March 15 when Guterres
met
with Bahrain's foreign
minister Shaikh Khalid Bin
Ahmed Al-Khalifa and a
delegation that appeared to
include that country's former
president of the General
Assembly, Guterres began by
apologizing for keeping them
waiting. Periscope video
here. His previous
appointment had been with a
delegation called "United
Cities and Local Governments."
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric has met to
answer Inner City Press
clearly on why some meeting
and calls are not disclosed,
such as a call with the King
of Morocco
and a working lunch with
Michael Bloomberg, nor how
some media were handpicked
to memorialize Guterres' most
recent trip to Kenya and
Somalia. Video
here. If these happened,
as it has, in Washington there
would be an outcry. And
perhaps one is growing in
Turtle Bay.
Earlier on
March 15 in the UN's basement,
Bahrain human rights defender
Maryam Alkhawaja spoke. She
was not on the 38th floor;
Guterres' interlocutors at
Human Right Watch, after they
met with him, refused
to give any read-out of what
issues they raised. It seems
clear these did not include,
from the UN spokesman's
non-answers, that the cut-off
of the Internet by the
government in Cameroon's
Anglophone areas, now 57 days
and counting, nor the UN's censorship
and restriction
of the Press. We'll have more
on this.
On March
13, before the snow day in New
York, Guterres met another
Gulf foreign minister, United
Arab Emirates' Sheikh
Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
UAE Ambassador Lana Zaki
Nusseibeh asked of Guterres'
recent cultural moves in New
York City. After a pause,
Guterres cited art shows in
Chelsea and at the Frick. Not
mentioned at least at that
time was former UN official
Bernardino Leon, who
negotiated a job at the UAE
Diplomatic Academy while at
the same time representing the
UN in Libya, much less any
mention of Yemen. Will there
be a read out? There was no
read out of Guterres meeting
with Tanzania's foreign
minster Mahiga, about which
Inner City Press asked
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric on March 13;
he also had no answer on Cameroon,
where the Anglophone areas
have had their Internet cut
off by the government for 56
days, almost contemporaneous
with Guterres' tenure of 72
days. We'll have more on this.
On March
10, Inner City Press was
blocked from covering a 38th
floor photo op others were
allowed to. No reasoning was
given, just as no
rule was cited when
Inner City Press was evicted
from the UN by the Department
of Public Information's Cristina
Gallach, and still remains
restricted to minders more
than a year later. Some
thought the era of a lawless
and censoring UN would be over
by now. When?
Back on
March 3, when Guterres met
with Gabon's FM Pacôme
Moubelet Boubeya on March 3,
it came before when the UN
called a two day trip by
Guterres to Kenya, from Sunday
to Thursday. Last Friday when
Inner City Press e-mailed
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric with the
simple question of where
Guterres was, Dujarric never
answered the e-mail.
When on Monday Inner City
Press asked in person in the
noon briefing, Dujarric said,
Portugal. And this time? Why
be murky?
That is
becoming a theme. Who is
working on the 38th floor? How
are they being paid? Inner
City Press asked and was
promised a chart, including a
list of who is "seconded" from
countries' mission. It has not
been provided. On March 3,
Dujarric who previously played
a role in Inner City Press'
eviction and continuing
restriction for covering the
Ng Lap Seng UN bribery case
refused to answer its last
question, saying "Tomorrow"
(which is Saturday) and "I'm
lazy." Video
here. And so it
goes.
Dujarric
told Inner City Press there
was no read-out of Guterres'
telephone call with Morocco's
King in the name of quiet
diplomacy. But why wasn't
Guterres' working lunch with
Michael Bloomberg put on his
schedule, as a meeting days
later with Gordon Brown was?
Both, Dujarric answered, are
still UN special advisers, as
apparently is Han Seoug-soo
despite being on the boards of
directors of UN bank Standard
Chartered and Doosan
Infracore, which sells
equipment to countries where
Han gives speeches as a UN
official.
Also this
week, Guterres' Deputy
Secretary General Amina
Mohammed arrived and within
two hours of being sworn in
did a four question stakeout.
Inner City Press asked
about the Green Bond of
Nigeria, and if she and
Guterres will work to make the
Security Council more
representative. UN reforms are
sorely needed. Is the pace
fast enough? Watch this site.
(Gabon was
at the UN on World Wildlife
Day. Inner City Press, still
restricted, was one of only
three media to ask questions
of CITES and Interpol, about
the illegal
trade of primates from
Guinea. The UN needs more
coverage, more access, not
less. This too much change.)
Back on February 21 when
Guterres met with Ukraine's
Foreign Minister Pavlo
Klimkin, Guterres joked that
having two UN flags and none
from Ukraine was "UN
chauvinism." Klimkin replied,
"It's the kind of chauvinism
we can tolerate. Otherwise..."
Periscope video here.
Earlier in
the day Guterres in the
Security Council expressed his
condolences at the death of
Russian Ambassador Vitaly
Churkin, saying he had been
flying back from Lisbon (and
Munich before that) when the
commander of the plane passed
a note that Churkin was dead.
Klimkin on the other hand
blocked draft a Presidential
Statement, and confirmed it at
a stakeout in which Inner City
Press asked if he would urge
Guterres to invoke Article 99
of the UN Charter more, to
raise issues.
While
Guterres has rightly scheduled
a press conference for
February 23 on South Sudan,
Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria,
those are on the Security
Council's agenda, the latter
in connection with Boko Haram.
The plight of the Rohingya in
Myanmar and Bangladesh, on the
other hand, is barely
mentioned by Council members.
Is this a test for Guterres?
On
transparency, too, Guterres
has opened the process for
finding new Under Secretaries
General of Management and
Public Information - the
departing one Cristina Gallach
evicted
Inner City Press from its
office which sits unused and restricts
it still, with no
hearing or appeal, for
covering the UN. That has yet
to be reversed, and it is
unclear if the USG position
for Humanitarian Affairs will
be opened to applications, as
UNDP has. Watch this site.
Back on
February 8 when Guterres held
a photo
opportunity and meeting
with Cote d'Ivoire Foreign
Minister Marcel Amon-Tanoh, on
the UN side of the table was
Tanguy Stehelin, until quite recently
the French Mission's legal
adviser.
That's how
it is in the UN, at least as
to Peacekeeping and former
French colonies. As Inner City
Press has exclusively
reported, now
"competing" to replace Herve
Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman
in a row atop UN Peacekeeping,
are Jean-Maurice Ripert, Jean
Pierre Lacroix and likely
winner Sylvie Bermann, now
Ambassador in London, previous
like Ladsous in Beijing. It's
the French Connection.
At this
photo op, after Amon-Tanoh's
long vistors' book signing, no
works were spoken until
Guterres' "merci." His
spokesman Stephane Dujarric, a
holdover from Ban Ki-moon and
Kofi Annan before that, has
stopped giving read-outs of
such meetings. His Office
called the end of day "lid"
with no reference to a
balance, and without answering
Inner City Press' question
from noon about Burundi. Yes,
it's the French Connection.
Still even
working from a small booth,
still evicted and restricted
by UN censor Cristina Gallach
after one year, for seeking to
cover an event in the UN Press
Briefing Room, Inner City
Press is hoping a more
transparent UN.
Back on February
3 the photo op with German
Foreign Minister Sigmar
Gabriel came less than an hour
after Guterres spokesman
declined to explain to Inner
City Press the lack of UN
read-outs of such meetings.
On
February 2, there was no
read-out of Guterres' long meeting
with Saudi Foreign Minister
Adel Ahmed Al-Jubeir. Inner
City Press went to that and
was surprised to see that UN
Children and Armed Conflict
(CAAC) expert Leila Zerrougui
wasn't there.
(Meanwhile
we note that at Sigmar
Gabriel's meeting, UN / DPA's
Katrin
Hett was there. Periscope
video here.)
When
Guterres' predecessor Ban
Ki-moon took the Saudi-led
Coalition off the CAAC annex
for killing children in Yemen,
it was said discussions would
continue about putting them
back on.
Then
Zerrougui told Inner City
Press she is leaving on March
31. Earlier on February 2
Inner City Press asked
Guterres' (and Ban's before
that) spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press:
I understand from Leila
Zerrougui that she's leaving
31 March. And so I
wanted to ask you how this
impacts the supposed review of
putting the Saudi-led
Coalition back on that
list. Who's going to do
the review…?
Spokesman: The… the… the
office continues. The
mandate continues. And
there is a… an open vacancy on
the public website, but it
doesn't, it has, it doesn't
change the work of the office
or the mandate of that office.
Inner City Press: Will a
report be issued even if
there's not a person in place?
Spokesman: I think we
very much hope that a person
will be, will be in place by
then, and there's no reason to
think that the work of the
office and its mandate will
change.
At the
February 2 meeting, Zerrougui
was not there, but Dujarric
was, and Jeffrey Feltman whom
the Saudis greeted warmly and
one
of his team. Video
here.
Afterward
in the lobby after Jubeir
whispered to pro-Saudi media
Inner City Press asked quite
audibly if Children and Armed
Conflict and Yemen had come
up. There was no answer. Video
here. We'll have more on
this.
Sometimes
Guterres photo ops are more
illuminative, and on February
1 he answered
this Press question. On
February 3 he briefs the
Security Council on South
Sudan and Burundi and, we're
told, US immigration orders.
Then he meets Germany's
foreign minister Sigmar
Gabriel at 2:30 pm.
We'll be there.
On
February 1 Guterres had a photo
opportunity and meeting
with Igor Crnadak, Minister
for Foreign Affairs, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Guterres said
the UN is worried by news of
the possibility of a
referendum. Periscope
video here, from Minute
2:51.
Before
that, Inner City Press was
ordered by UN Security to stop
or suspend its Periscope
broadcast, which it had begun
one minute before the meeting
time at 3:35. Periscope
here, 0:50, abruptly
cut-off.
Earlier on
February 1, Guterres to his
credit stopped and answered
Inner City Press' question on
if he plans to hire Louise
Arbour as migration adviser.
He said he'll first take the
proposal the UN's Advisory
Committee on Administrative
and Budgetary Questions.
UN
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric on January 31
declined to answer Inner City
Press' related questions
including if French Mission
legal adviser Tanguy Stehelin
is working in Guterres'
office.
On February 1,
Stehelin was one of Guterres'
team at the conference
table. Does he still
work at the French mission?
He's still listed there. We'll
have more on this:
transparency will help the UN.
On January 25 with French
Minister for Development and
Francophonie Jean-Marie Le
Guen, this latter said, "It's
almost a historic day." Periscope
video here, Tweeted
photo here.
Some
wondered if Le Guen might be
referred to the news the new
Administration in Washington
is considering a 40% cut in
its contributions to the UN,
with full cuts to parts of the
UN system accused of violating
human rights.
Thus far
Guterres has yet to hold a
press conference in UN
Headquarters, so it has not
been possible to ask him about
the cuts, or the seemingly
slow pace of transition and
reform so far.
Dubious Under
Secretaries General like
Frenchman Herve
Ladsous at Peacekeeping
and Spain's Cristina
Gallach for "Public
Information" remain in
place; deputy SG Amina
Mohammed will not begin until
at earliest March 2.
Still the
talk on the 38th floor was of
a new energy, of meetings well
into the evening, with
Guterres and his chief of
staff and others.
Inner City
Press intends to report in as
much detail as it can -- it is
still constrained
by Gallach's eviction
and pass-reduction order from
eleven months ago -- but on
January 25 the photo op was
send, by a "sign," before
Guterres said anything beyond
"Comment allez-vous."
Back on January
13 when Guterres met with
President Rafael Correa of
Ecuador, the new chair of the
Group of 77 and China, Correa
gave him a painting. Photo
here; Tweeted
video here. Then,
without words, the Press was
ushered off the 38th floor.
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.”
While
Inner City Press has
exclusively reported this week
on Guterres-proposed changes,
such as combining the UN's
Rule of Law and Elections
units, UN holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric has refused
to confirm or explain,
describing only "co-location."
But when
Inner City Press on January 13
asked for further information,
such as how many staff in UN
headquarters work on Mali,
there was no response.
We'll have more
on this - and on Dujarric's
continuig refusal 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.
All of Inner City
Press' questions, including
about the UN's Office of
Internal Oversight Services,
were referred to Ban's
Seoul-based spokesman at a
phone number that is only a
telephone menu tree all in
Korean.
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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