Inner
City Press Asked SG
Guterres of Cameroon,
UNheard Now DC Fundraiser
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Photos,
Video
UNITED NATIONS,
October 19 – When UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres
announced his Central African
Republic trip on October 18,
Inner City Press asked him
about the issue of sexual
abuse and exploitation - and
about Cameroon. Video
here.
He
answered on the former - and
on October 19 his spokesman
Stephane Dujarric told Inner
City Press Guterres told him
he hadn't heard the Cameroon
question. Periscope here.
Dujarric also announced that
Guterres "will travel to
Washington, DC later today,
where on Friday he will meet
with US President Donald Trump
at the White House. He
will also attend a dinner
hosted by the Kuwait-American
Foundation later this evening."
Though Dujarric didn't say it,
the dinner is a fundraiser for
UNHCR the UN's refugee agency,
while the refugees streaming
from Southern Cameroons into
Nigeria are largely without UN
help. (There's also the UNHCR
staffer who posted on social
media that there should be
harder repression in Cameroon,
another story).
A "UN officials" who declined
to be identified told the LA
Times it was not known which
UN officials would appear at
the dinner: but it's the
Secretary General. And, unlike
Trump, NYC Mayor Bill de
Blasio and many others,
Guterres neither has nor
allows a pool reporter, and inside
the UN allowed the Egyptian
state media his DPI is trying
to install in Inner City Press'
office to be the one and only
"pool"
for his meeting with Egypt's
Sisi. We'll have more on this.
From the UN's October 18
transcript: Inner City Press:
on sexual abuse and
exploitation, even in the last
month, there have been at
least four separate reports of
alleged abuse by peacekeepers
from Mauritania, Morocco,
Pakistan. So, I'm wondering,
do you think your new approach
is yet having an impact?
What...would you repatriate
some, some battalions if they
don't punish them? And, since
everyone else is [asking a
non-CAR question], I need to
ask you about Cameroon. I'm
sorry to ask you, but since
October 1, there have been
hundreds of people killed
there. Your envoy, François
[Louncény] Fall, has said he
was going to go but hasn't
gone. People are extremely
concerned. And I'm just
wondering, are we missing
something? Are you preventing
conflict in this instance or,
or what is the UN doing? Thank
you. Secretary-General:
First of all, we have already
repatriated one of the forces
that was present in the
Central African Republic, so
these are things that we are
taking very seriously. And
this visit with our Victims'
Rights Advocate is exactly to
demonstrate, and to
demonstrate to the countries,
our total commitment. And I
have to say that I am having a
very positive response. We
have presented to Member
States, namely
troop-contributing countries,
a compact with a number of
very important things to
ensure prevention and also to
ensure training and to make
sure that there is no
impunity. I can announce that
72 countries have already
signed our compacts and 19 are
seriously considering it, in
the process of preparing the
signature, and that 57 Heads
of State have joined the
Circle of Leadership to commit
themselves to fight sexual
exploitation and abuse.So, we
are building an alliance with
Member States in order to make
sure that we all work together
for the zero tolerance policy
to become a reality. This, of
course, will take time to
produce results on the ground.
There is a lot to be done, but
we are totally committed to
this policy and to achieve
results in it.
Spokesman: [France 24].
France 24: "Thank you,
Mr. Secretary-General." A
month earlier on September 13
when Guterres held his
pre-General Assembly week
press conference, the majority
of questions were about
Myanmar. Inner City Press
asked about reform, in light
of the Ng Lap Seng UN bribery
guilty verdicts
and new reports
of peacekeepers' sexual abuse.
Guterres responded on the
latter. From the UN's
transcript: Inner City Press:
Matthew Lee, Inner City Press,
on behalf of the Free UN
Coalition for Access, hoping
for readouts of your
diplomatic merry-go-round
upstairs during the GA
week. I want... you
speak the lot about reforms.
It's something I tried to ask
at the stakeout but thanks for
giving me the question. This
case of John Ashe, who I know
has deceased~-- may he rest in
peace, but there was a court
decision this summer in which
basically it painted a picture
of the UN as being quite
susceptible to bribery. There
was a Chin... a Macau-based
businessman, Ng Lap Seng, was
found guilty. So, I won't go
through it all except to say,
I wanted to know what your
view of whether the UN...
beyond just some reforms to
the PGA's (President of the
General Assembly) office,
whether it has instituted
enough reforms. Your...
your... the former PGA
yesterday sitting here said
that there are crows picking
around the side of the UN.
There are a lot of business
interests... basically, they
try to buy their way into the
UN by hooking up with a small
state. So, I wanted to
know whether your reforms will
address that. And there's also
a Code Blue report out today
about sexual abuse where they
say that, of cases they've
uncovered, many of them are
not disclosed in the conduct
and discipline website. What's
your plan during this GA week
to try to address the sexual
abuse issue of peacekeeping?
Secretary-General: Well,
in addition to the sexual
abuse, as you know, we have
taken already a number of
measures. A global victims
advocate was appointed, and
four victims advocates were
appointed in the four
situations that are more
dramatic in several African
contexts. We are
preparing a compact to be
signed with Member States in
order to make sure that there
is effective commitment in
relation to this. I'm creating
a circle of leadership with
Heads of Government and State
to assume engagement of states
in making sure that everything
is investigated properly. And
so, we are really committed to
make the best we can in this
area, knowing the difficulties
and the problems and sometimes
even the... especially, my
main concern is with the
victims that sometimes have an
enormous problem in coming
with their cases because of
the risks that they might face
in different conditions with
the community or even with the
country or even if the UN
Mission is not properly
organised. So, we are deeply
committed to that. But
the best protection in
relation to abuses is the
whistleblower policy
protection. We have introduced
a first group of measures to
enhance the whistleblower
protection when I assumed
functions immediately in
January. So, it's probably my
first measure. And after
that, we have introduced a
number of other reforms, which
I believe are bringing our
whistleblower protection
policy to the state of the
art. And if that's not the
case, if there are other
things to be suggested, we are
ready to introduce them,
because that is the best
guarantee that people can
detect and denounce things
that happen and that they will
be protected if they do so.
This is, for me, an absolute
must and the best possible
guarantee an organisation can
have in relation to the risks
of abuse of power or abuses of
any other kind or of
corruption or whatever.
So this is a big concern for
me, and I think we are acting
as we can but with total
determination to address the
problem." We'll have more on
this.
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
Past
(and future?) UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA
For now: Box 20047,
Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2017 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com for
|
,
