On Togo, ICP Again Ask
UN of Crackdown on Protests,
Nothing,
Like Gabon & Cameroon
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
August 22 – After major
protests in Togo were
crackdown on with authorities
shooting and killed two or
seven protesters, Inner City
Press on August 21 and 22
asked UN Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, with no UN comment
whatsoever. Video
here; UN August 22
transcript here:
Inner City Press: yesterday,
I'd asked you about this
crackdown in Togo, and I
wanted to know whether… you
said, you know, you were
looking for something or the
UN was monitoring.
Spokesman: No, I…Inner
City Press: How many people do
you think were killed in it?
And are there any… there've
been… some people have called
for people to flee to Ghana
and other nearby questions.
Spokesman: I don't, I
wish I had something for you,
but I don't have anything on
Togo for you today.
Nor by the
end of the day, nothing. UN
August 21 transcript here:
Inner City Press: Togo, as you
may have seen, there’ve been
major protests against the now
50-year rule of the same
family, and several protesters
were killed. The
Government says two, the
opposition says seven.
I’m wondering, you know, you
have an office on West
Africa. What is the UN…
are they following this?
Do they intend to…
Spokesman: We are
following it. I don’t
have any language on Togo
right now, but we’ll see what
we can get.
Five
hours later, nothing. This is
a trend, and not only in
Cameroon. When UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres
earlier this summer 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. Now Jean Ping
is calling for UN action,
saying pointedly that he
"cancelled plans to visit the
United Nations and meet with
U.N. Secretary General Antonio
Guterres. 'I don’t need to be
just received. But I have the
impression that (anything
beyond that) is a long way off
because of the system.'"
Reuters neglects
to note that Ping was not only
a chair of the African Union,
but a President of the UN
General Assembly. Then again,
Reuters is barely reporting on
the UN bribery
trial of one of Ping's
successors as PGA, John Ashe.
We'll have more on this. Ali
Bongo, fresh off this award(s)
in New York, unilaterally
suspended the media Echos du
Nord, here.
The UN itself evicted (audio)
and still
restricts Inner City
Press, and when Inner City
Press asked Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
who did it, about Gabon
including as relates to the
closed door briefing of
Francois Fall of UNOCA set up
in Gabon, Dujarric's response
was about the sports team the
New York Mets. This is today's
UN.
Watch this site.
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.
***
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