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UN GATE / SDNY COURT, Oct 9 – In the increasing corrupt United Nations of Secretary General Antonio Guterres, on October 13 Gabon, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and others stand for election to the UN Human Rights Council.

  Inner City Press has shown how the UN and Guterres have been purchased by China. But few UN-insider groups are saying anything about family dicatorship (and FrancAfrique staple, like Cameroon) Gabon.

  There was an invitation online for an October 8 press conference by Louis Charbonneau, UN director, Human Rights Watch Sophie Richardson, China director, Human Rights Watch Sara Kayyali, Syria researcher, Human Rights Watch Adam Coogle, Middle East and North Africa division deputy director, Human Rights Watch When: Thursday, October 8, 2020 from 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. EDT, complete with a Tiny URL to HRW's Zoom room, here.

 In order to ask not only about China but also Gabon, Inner City Press clicked on the link at the appointed time. It entered its name and a response screen said, the host will admit you.

 But after a time, the Zoom screen said, The host has removed you from the meeting. That would be HRW. Video here.

Meanwhile, on October 9 here is a statement by Chinese human rights activist Yang Jianli: "On October 13, the UN General Assembly will be electing new members for the Human Rights Council’s 2021-2023 term, and China is running for the fifth time. During the one-year period of time when China was waiting to be eligible again to run for the Council’s membership, the Chinese government—under the increasingly draconian rule of Xi Jinping—has escalated human rights repression across the board, especially, with its crackdown on critics of the government’s handling of COVID-19 pandemic, persecution of ethnic religious minorities in Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia, and annihilation of civil and political liberties in Hong Kong.  Nothing can be further from the truth than China’s voluntary pledge for its current bid for Human Rights Council membership. It claims, for example, that “since the outbreak of COVID-19 the Chinese Government has been giving top-most priority to people’s lives and health” and that “China has acted with openness, transparency and responsibility, updating COVID-19 information in a most timely fashion.”   In July of this year our organization, Citizen Power Initiatives for China, issued a comprehensive research report entitled “Examining China’s Response to the Covid-19 Outbreak.” Based on meticulous analysis of data, much of it directly from sources in China, the report establishes a day-by-day, objective record of the Chinese government’s response to the virus outbreak, especially in the critical month between December 26, 2019 and January 25, 2020. The report concludes among other things:   The Covid-19 epidemic could have been stopped in its early state. The Chinese government prioritized political stability over peoples’ lives and health.   The Chinese Government deliberately suppressed information about the source and extent of the outbreak and the overall threat of the pandemic. The Chinese Government deliberately misled the international community. This is just one example.   By any standard, China has grossly violated the Council’s founding principles and does not measure up to its membership criteria. Any statement suggesting otherwise is as cynical as ridicules.  We urge UN member states, especially the democracies, to seriously consider China’s human rights record. If this were an election for a “Human Rights Abusers Council” it would be more than proper to vote for China as it leads the entire world in violating human rights.   But sadly, I find it imperative and necessary to remind democratic governments around the world that this is an election for the UN Human Rights Council and not the UN Human Rights Abusers Council. The only choice that commensurates with the values you claim to uphold is to vote “No” on China.   Although the vote next week will be cast in a secret ballot, I urge the people of democracies to ask how your governments vote. You and we, the victims of the Chinese government abuses and China’s human rights defenders, deserve to know. "

   The other candidates: Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan; Ivory Coast, Malawi, Gabon and Senegal; Russia and Ukraine;  Mexico, Cuba, and Bolivia and HRW's two friends, Britain and France.

  HRW not only downplayed the slaughter of Anglophones in Cameroon (telling Inner City Press is was not a top 98 problem; its Cameroon expert blocks Inner City Press and many others) - it also colludes with the UN censorship alliance.

Consider some history:

The former UN Ambassador of Sri Lanka Palitha Kohona, who has been accused of war crimes in the White Flags Killings.  

 In an article he published earlier this year in Asia Tribune, Kohona writes / admits once Inner City Press (he says, "the blogger") "began undermining Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, we mounted a quiet campaign against him within the UN press corps itself... information from our own sources was made available to many members of the UN press corps with a view to impugning the credibility of the man. It took a while, but his bravado unraveled when he fell afoul of the President of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), Giampaolo Pioli, who commenced proceedings to take him to court. Then he began to spar with a number of respected journalists who were beginning to approach us... The UN proceeded to evict him from the room that he was occupying and eventually from the UN itself." See Guterres action, continued by Melissa Fleming, here.

  Who is Kohona referring to, as helping him? Well, as a first example - there are more - here's an article Inner City Press published at the time, with people who are still at the UN working with Guterres:

  The letter, signed by signed by Reuters' Louis Charbonneau, Talal Al-Haj of Al-Arabia, Margaret Besheer of Voice of America and Timothy Witcher of Agence France Presse, was to set up a "Board of Examination" to "investigate" Inner City Press with an eye to expelling it.

  But on June 3, a major government aligned newspaper in Sri Lanka, the Sunday Observer, quoted with approval the UNCA Executive Committee indictment of Inner City Press.

  The newspaper concluded that that "if the allegations against Lee are proven, the UN headquarters will be made out of bounds for him. If the harassment charges are proven he could face a jail term of up to six years."

 It also reports, citing "authoritative diplomatic sources," that

"The United Nations Correspondents’ Association (UNCA) has initiated an inquiry against Inner City Press correspondent Matthew Russell Lee who was operating from the UN Headquarters on his unethical and unprofessional behaviour, authoritative diplomatic sources told the Sunday Observer yesterday. The Executive Committee of the UNCA met on May 29 to discuss his conduct following many complaints received by the Association and voted 13 to one in favour of setting up a five-member board of examination.

Lee's unethical coverage in the Inner City Press dominated issues and sensitive affairs concerning Sri Lanka as well.

The meeting was attended by the President of UNCA Giampiolo Pioli and the Vice Presidents among others.

  Who might those "authoritative diplomatic sources" be? Who is this UNCA Executive Committee serving? The article is online at http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2012/06/03/new11.asp

  After publication of the article, Inner City Press wrote to each member of the UNCA Executive Committee with a copy of the article, formally asking them to disassociate themselves from and bring about the immediate cessation of this anti press freedom climate that has led to this article.

  None responded to this request in writing; only one gave so much as a phone call. Meanwhile as should have been or perhaps was foreseen by UNCA Executive Committee members, the anti Press flow is increasing.

  Click here for sample UNCA minutes released on the night of June 1 from behind Reuters' firewall. Beyond making clear that censorship of Inner City Press' Sri Lanka reporting has been a major focus of UNCA's leadership since at least September 2011, these minutes have material omissions, including that the complaint of Tim Witcher of AFP was about reporting on Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman in a row to head UN Peacekeeping.

  Witcher, at the behest of the French Mission to the UN, began the push against Inner City Press for its reporting that the Mission didn't know that its capital had switch to second choice Ladsous from Jerome Bonnafont, whose bragging he was getting the post was also exposd by Inner City Press. Ladsous then accepted Sri Lankan general (and alleged war criminal) Shavendra Silva as a Senior Adviser.

   So - a war criminal used UNCA to get Inner City Press thrown out of its UN work space and then the UN, for undermining Guterres (who was also questioned by Inner City Press about Cameroon, and undisclosed financial links with UN briber CEFC China Energy). These people are (war) criminals. We'll have more on this - for now, here's more from Kohona (he does not disclose that he paid UNCA's Pioli money) --

"he published a story headed, 'Fish balls (his term for Sri Lankan fish cutlets) and wine to tempt the journalists'. ... He was also known to exchange information with diplomats at very important missions, some of whom had excellent sources within Sri Lanka. He was also a useful tool to some to embarrass the former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Subsequently, he began undermining Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

But we mounted a quiet campaign against him within the UN press corps itself with a view to exposing him and even forcing him to reveal his financiers.  Information from our own sources was made available to many members of the UN press corps with a view to impugning the credibility of the man. It took a while, but his bravado unraveled when he fell afoul of the President of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), Giampaolo Pioli, who commenced proceedings to take him to court. Then he began to spar with a number of respected journalists who were beginning to approach us for information on the man.

Eventually, he clashed with the Alison Smale, UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, who declared that Lee’s “conduct has consistently breached” the UN’s media guidelines and “does not meet the established professional standards required of all correspondents granted access to United Nations premises.” As a result, his accreditation to cover the UN was withdrawn consistent with the terms of the US – UN Head Quarters Agreement (Agreement Between the United Nations and the United States Regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations, Signed June 26, 1947, and Approved by the General Assembly October 31, 1947). The UN proceeded to evict him from the room that he was occupying and eventually from the UN itself." 

And now even from HRW's Zoom room - for a press conference ostensibly about human rights.

What will Sophie Richardson, Sara Kayyali, Adam Coogle, and HRW's funders, do? Watch this site.

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