SG Guterres In DC, His
Spox Won't List Who Met, Claims Opens Doors
For Press, Burundi Stonewall
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
June 28 – The day after the UN
bribery case against
Macau-based businessman Ng Lap
Seng began,
and following a UN Security
Council visit to Haiti in
which victims of the UN's
cholera criticized
the failure to follow though
on individual reparations,
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres headed to Washington
on June 27. But UNlike the US,
the UN did not disclose in
advance the dinner hosted by
Kuwaiti Ambassador to the US
Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber
Al-Sabah. It's "Daily
Schedule" for Guterres is
still dated June 24. The UN is
UNtransparent and corrupt, a
censor. On June 28 Inner City
Press asked Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
UN transcript here:
Inner City Press: D.C., DC-1
and Burundi. On D.C., I
did see… I think your office
tweeted these pictures of the
Secretary-General with various
Congresspeople… and put his…
like, who is in this photo,
and it had Mark Meadows, Chris
Smith, but I saw, for example,
Eliot Engel. I'm just…
I'm not critiquing your
tweeting style except to say
can we get a list of the
Congresspeople with whom he
met and… and…?
Spokesman: Well, he met
with House Foreign Committee
members, House Freedom Caucus
members, State… Senate, State
and Foreign ops…
Appropriations
Subcommittees. So… he
met with Chris Smith.
Some of these meetings were
with specific Congresspeople,
kind of more bilateral
meetings or meetings with two
of them. Some of them
were committee meetings.
So, we may not even have the
full list of those members
going… I mean, from what I
see, there's a lot going on on
the Hill these last few days,
so some members come in, come
out, and we may not have the
exact list of all the members.
Inner
City
Press:
But for today, it's reported
that… that at 1:10 p.m.
Secretary of State Tillerson
will meet with him. So,
can you update? I know
that you said it here, but I'm
saying, on his daily agenda…
Spokesman: No, I said…
we'll try to do that.
Inner
City
Press: Okay.
The other one is just DC-1,
since you said you're happy to
check into Abdelhamid's
request, can you check whether
“non-resident correspondents”
have the same right to access?
Spokesman: As I said,
I'm… I don't physically open
doors. [ICP: quite the
opposite, video
here, memo here.]I
figuratively open doors.
I'm happy… they're two doors…
one, two… three doors down to
our colleagues at MALU.
They are mandated to assist
the press corps, resident or
not, in any way they can so…
Inner City Press: And
Burundi, did you have an
answer to the question
yesterday?
Spokesman: No, nothing
yet.
When
Guterres held a press
conference on June 20, Inner
City Press about the UN having
brought cholera to Haiti under
his predecessor Ban Ki-moon
but now reneging even on what
Ban belatedly proposed for
individual reparations. Inner
City Press mentioned upcoming
protests in Haiti that it will
be covering from there, June
22 and 23. Guterres announced
that he was just then -
minutes later the announcement
went out - naming as a new
special envoy on Haiti Josette
Sheeran, formerly the director
of the UN World Food Program
and now the head of the Asia
Society. Video here.
Transcript here
and below. He seemed to say
the UN was never going to
compensate individuals or
families impacted by the
cholera the UN brought. On
June 21 Inner City Press asked
Guterres' deputy spokesman
Farhan Haq to clarify. UN
Video here,
from Minute 16:21. From the UN
transcript:
Inner City Press: this was
something that the
Secretary-General said on the
record when I asked him about
the seeming change in the
cholera in Haiti plan.
And he said that that policy
was announced by his
predecessor and had two
dimensions; one is fighting
cholera, and the other is the
possibility to support
communities impacted. It
was devised not as individual
support. And just, since
then, I went back and actually
looked at the November
A/71/620 document, and there’s
a whole section on individual
support. It was called
track 2B. So I just
wanted to--
Deputy Spokesman: And I
was here at the time.
And I remember the discussions
that the former
Secretary-General, Ban
Ki-moon, had about this.
And, at that point, it was not
determined whether it would be
individual or
community-based. Even at
that point, I believe the
discussion was towards
community-based. So
that’s something that’s… a
process that’s been crafted.
Inner City Press: I wish
I’d had that document in front
of me when he answered,
because there are many people
that are in Haiti that have
seen the new announcement made
by Amina Mohammed as a
retrenchment, as a taking back
of that before even consulting
people. Mario Joseph and
others have put out a press
release; they’re protesting on
Thursday. So I wanted to
just get your quote before
that protest, that at one time
the idea of individual
reparations to people harmed
by cholera was in a UN
document as being considered
and it’s now not being
considered at all?
Deputy Spokesman: I
wouldn’t say that it’s not
being considered at all.
And I wouldn’t say that
initially it was something
that was devised as the
primary idea. This is
something that’s been under
consideration. It
remains under consideration,
but the primary focus, for
reasons that were described at
the end of last year and again
at the start of this year,
have been
community-based. And if
you look at what Ban Ki-moon
said in December, again, it
mentions the community-based
approach.
But the UN
document in November 2016 has
a Track 2B, individual. Here's
the beginning of the press
release for the protests:
"Port-au-Prince: Haitian
cholera victims and their
advocates called on the UN
Security Council to deliver on
the promise of a new,
victim-centered approach to
cholera during its visit to
Haiti this week, by meeting
directly with victims and
committing to funding the $400
million initiative before
MINUSTAH --the peacekeeping
mission that caused the
cholera epidemic—pulls out in
October. 'The UN’s apology and
promises were promising in
December,' said Mario Joseph,
Managing Attorney of the
Bureau des Avocats
Internationaux (BAI) that has
led the fight for justice for
cholera victims. 'But seven
months later, with only a
pittance raised for the
so-called "New Approach" and
not a single promised
consultation with the cholera
victims, they look like empty
public relations gestures. It
is time for the UN to
deliver.' The 15-member
Security Council is in Haiti
from June 22-24 to finalize
the transition from MINUSTAH
to a new mission focused on
supporting justice that will
be known as MINUJUSTH. The BAI
announced two protests during
the visit: one at the UN
logistics base in Haiti on
Thursday at 11 am, and a
second one in Champs de Mars
on Friday at 11." We'll have
more on this: Inner City Press
will be accompanying and
covering, in as much detail as
possible, the UN Security
Council's visit to Haiti from
June 22 to 24. Watch this
site.
Footnote: on
behalf of the Free
UN Coalition for Access,
to which Guterres' spokesman
Stephane Dujarric does NOT "lend" the
briefing room and which has
never and will never ask for a
journalist to be thrown
out or restricted, Inner
City Press urged Guterres to
more routinely take questions,
for example on his way in and
out of the Security Council.
We'll see.
Inner City Press:
Matthew Lee, Inner City Press.
On behalf of the Free UN
Coalition for Access, thanks
for the briefing. Glad to have
it. Stakeouts would also be
useful when you speak to the
Council. But I wanted to
ask you about cholera in
Haiti. As you may know, while
you were away, your deputy
gave... gave the speech, and
many people in Haiti
interpreted it as a... as a
pulling back from the idea of
compensating victims of the
cholera that was brought.
Maybe they misunderstand it,
but they put out a press
release. There's a protest
planned there on Thursday
during the Council's
visit. So I wanted to
ask you, I know that Member
States haven't come forward
with what they might have, but
are you going to put more time
in? Do you think that the idea
of actually compensating the
people whose family members
were killed by cholera is
still alive?
Secretary-General: First
of all, in relation to Haiti,
the policy that was announced
by my predecessor had two
dimensions. One is fighting
cholera, and the other is the
possibility to support,
namely, to support communities
impacted. It was devised, not
as individual support, but
community support for the
communities impacted. As
you mentioned, there has been
little voluntary funding for
these projects. So we have
presented a proposal for the
amounts that were not spent in
the previous mission in Haiti
and that should be given back
to countries, for countries to
be ready to accept not to
receive those amounts back in
order to be able to fund the
cholera programme. And,
at the same time, we have just
appointed Ms. Josette Sheeran
as my Special Envoy for Haiti,
centred, of course, in the
fundraising for cholera. She
was, as you know, the World
Food Programme leader a few
years ago. She is now
President of the Asia Society,
and she accepted, with a
salary of $1 per year, she
accepted to be fully engaged
in fundraising for a programme
that, indeed, until now, has
received very little support
but that is very important
from the point of view of the
people and from the point of
view of the credibility of the
UN.
***
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