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By Matthew Russell Lee, Photos, Periscope

UNITED NATIONS, November 13 – UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres flew through the night to Manila, but to what effect? The UN has issued just two read-outs; the UN in the Philippines Facebook page has a few photos welcoming "Don Antonio Guterres." Is anything being accomplished on the Rohingya issue in Myanmar, where Guterres provided support to cover up artist Renata Lok-Dessallien? Guterres had this to say, with the word Rohingya absent: "I cannot hide my deep concern with the dramatic movement of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Myanmar to Bangladesh. It is a worrying escalation in a protracted tragedy and a potential source of instability in the region, and radicalization. The United Nations welcomes constructive approaches by ASEAN, including the provision of humanitarian aid to Northern Rakhine. Since the beginning of the crisis, and beyond the end of violence, I have called for unhindered humanitarian access to affected communities; and the right to safe, voluntary and dignified return of those who fled, to their places of origin. Addressing the underlying issues by implementing the recommendations of the Advisory Commission on Rakhine will also be critical to reverse this tragedy." The draft ASEAN statement does not use the term, or move the issue forward. With Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam Guterres discussed "the Sustainable Development Goals, and reaffirmed the importance of the UN delivering as One" - Myanmar not mentioned. With Thongloun Sisoulith, Prime Minister of Lao People’s Democratic Republic Guterres "highlighted... the Sustainable Development Goals, and noted the adoption of country-specific SDG 18 on reducing the impact of unexploded ordnance in Lao PDR." Even on UN - Duterte relations, Guterres' UN blocked the Press from his meeting with Duterte's foreign minister Cayetano, then delayed any read out (until Inner City Press repeatedly asked) such that UN special rapporteur Agnes Callamard issued rare intra-UN criticism of Guterres' pervasive lack of transparency. The only rationale is that some quiet diplomacy is being done. But are conflicts being prevented? Look for example at Cameroon: no. We'll have more on this. When Guterres presented his proposed “peace and security” reform to the General Assembly in UN Conference Room 2 on November 9, it was initially going to be in a closed meeting. Inner City Press asked about it two days in a row and, an hour before the meeting, it was changed to open “but no UN webcast.” (But see below). Then on November 10, when Guterres and his Deputy Amina J. Mohammed embroiled in the "Rosewood Racket" scandal touching on not only Nigeria but also Cameroon, presented their development reform proposals in ECOSOC, Inner City Press could only cover it with a minder. Other correspondents could go there freely - but did not. Even with the minder still required by the UN Department of Public Information's Alison Smale, the UN Security officer in front of ECOSOC indicated he'd make sure Inner City Press remained "minded," even as tourists wandered freely. This is censorship. Inside ECOSOC, questions included what the role of states would be in appointing Resident Coordinators? Ecuador for the Group of 77 said the process must be transparent - on a day the UN canceled its noon briefing, and did not answer Inner City Press' e-mailed questions. Mexico said it wants ECOSOC to be more of debate or deliberative body. The US spoke (briefly) against duplication and waste. In the middle of this, Mohammed tweeted about the Sahel: a robo-tweet? The duo, set to leave New York, left with UN Security and entourage, no answers. Earlier on November 10 Guterres has gotten even less transparent. When he left a media stakeout for which the day's noon press briefing was canceled after a mere three questions, none on Yemen much less Cameroon, it was not disclosed where he was going. Guterres' public schedule did not list anything after this. But it emerges Guterres is at the Lotte Palace Hotel, in the Villard Ballroom on the second floor. Previously, Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric has refused to tell Inner City Press with whom Guterres had a one on one lunch meeting on the 38th floor of the UN before flying off on the public dime to his home in Lisbon. But how could this one not be on his public schedule? Dujarric, before refusing to answer any follow up questions, told Inner City Press, "The UN70 is a group of member states and they are organizing the retreat. It’s an internal meeting." In the Lotte Palace, tweeted by at least six states? On November 9, Inner City Press told the UN it would Periscope and was led to the photo booth; there due to Kafka-esque threats from the UN, it unilaterally decided only to broadcast what Guterres, paid by the global public, said. It was a mouthful: Guterres called Kenya's Ambassador Kamau “sincerely unfair; as the meeting was gaveled closed he turned on his microphone to tell Djibouti how support to AMISOM in Somalia would be effected. Russia raised many questions; others provided rote support. Reviews afterward were mixed. But Inner City Press remains under restrictions imposed by the UN Department of Public Information 20 months ago for covering UN corruption. It raised the issue again to the head of DPI on November 9; watch this site. When  Guterres held his pre-General Assembly week press conference on September 13, Inner City Press asked him 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, see below. Now a month later, Guterres is pitching a reform plan that many do not understand, and others don't agree with. Inner City Press went to cover Guterres' presentation to the UN's Fifth (Budget) Committee on October 11, but was quickly told by UN Security, "No Press." So it went to the photo booth and streamed a Periscope video, here. Guterres sat next to Cameroon's Ambassador, here. There were speeches by Ecuador, Trinidad and Tobago (fresh off its elimination of the US from the World Cup), the EU and Australia. Then Guterres left, before the US spoke. There was nothing else on his schedule for the day. We'll have more on this. Here's a sample Guterres "reform" proposal: "A Standing Principals’ Group of Under Secretaries General (USGs) and the EOSG, to provide leadership for all strategic, political and operational functions and ensure a coherent 'whole-of-pillar' approach... Interaction with the global operational support and management departments would be facilitated at the level of the Standing Principals’ Group as well as through dedicated capacity within the Departments at the strategic and operational levels, including within the integrated operational team [IOT] concept." Sources close to Guterres exclusively complain to Inner City Press this is little more than "Lacroix' DPKO trying to grab the IOTs." They point to the lame duck status of Jeffrey Feltman at the Department of Political Affairs as leading to DPA "losing the turf war with Peacekeeping." Meanwhile, the sources say, there is increasing frustration on the UN's 38th floor at the "message" not getting out, even talk of hiring outside communicators, rather than holding those already getting paid accountable. The new head of Global Communcations, Alison Smale, never responded to a detailed petition to her before the General Assembly week, nor to one after the week - nor since (it was raised to her again on November 9). Ah, Communications, f/k/a DPI which evicted and still restricts Inner City Press which every day asks questions and reports, in favor of no-show state media like Egypt's Akhbar al Yom which has not asked a single question during Guterres' tenure. The UN is UNreformed. From the UN's September 13 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.

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