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UNITED NATIONS,
November 15 – Amid the
killing and displacement of
Rohingya from and in Myanmar's
Rakhine State, on November 10
UN Secretary General Antonio
Guterres citing a resolution
pending in the General
Assembly's Third Committee
which would request him "to appoint a
special envoy on Myanmar." But
on the day it was scheduled to
be voted on, November 14,
Guterres' Secretariat had not
prepared the required "Program
Budget Implication" document,
akin to a CBO score in the US
Congress, and therefore the
vote could not be held. Inner
City Press is informed it will
be held on November 16 at 10
am; after asking it's just
been told the PBI document is
now online here.
On November 15, Inner City
Press asked UN deputy
spokesman Farhan Haq, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press: it's
Myanmar related. It was
said when… on… one, if there's
any update on getting a… a
formalised Resident
Coordinator. And also it
was said that Ms. [Renata]
Lok-Dessallien, around whom
there was some controversy in
terms of dealing with the
Rohingya issue, it was said
that she's come back to
headquarters to assume another
role. And so I asked…
I've asked once before, but I
just want to know, what is
that role? Is it going to be
as Resident Coordinator in
another country? Is it for DPA
[Department of Political
Affairs]? What is the role?
Deputy Spokesman: "Well,
we don't have anything to
announce at present.
When we do, we will." So where
is Lok? What's she getting
paid for? Inner City Press
went to the November 14 noon
briefing and asked Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
why Guterres' Secretariat had
failed in this way. Dujarric
had no answer, nor if the past
is any guide will he get or
provide an answer. He didn't
answer, for the second day in
a row, detailed Press
questions about Guterres'
deputy Amina
J. Mohammed signing
thousands of certificates for
endangered rosewood already
sold and shipped to China. The
draft resolution, ready since
October, "Requests the
Secretary-General to continue
to provide his good offices
and to pursue his discussions
relating to Myanmar, involving
all relevant stakeholders and
including the concerns
addressed in herein, and in
this regard to appoint a
special envoy on Myanmar."
We'll have more on this. On
November 6 the UN Security
Council adopted a non-binding
Presidential Statement (here)
rather than the earlier
discussed draft resolution.
Afterward Myanmar's
representative denounced even
the Statement. Then at the
stakeout, Inner City Press
asked UK Deputy Ambassador
Jonathan Allen what he made
the Myanmar representative's
statement: was he representing
Aung San Suu Kyi or the
military? Allen replied that
what matters is what Myanmar
does. French Ambassador
Francois Delattre, responding
to a solicited question in
French, said that Presidential
Statements are of the same
value as resolutions. We'll
have more on this. Inner City
Press on October 30 asked
Ambassador Matthew Rycroft of
the UK, the UN Security
Council's penholder on
Myanmar, about the then-draft
resolution. Now on November 6
Rycroft's deputy Jonathan
Allen has confirmed that there
will be no resolution, only a
non-binding Presidential
Statement to be read-out on
the afternoon of November 6.
Periscope video here;
Inner City Press also asked
Allen about the blockade of
Yemen by the UK-supported
Saudi-led coalition, into
which Allen says inquiries are
being made. From the UK's
October 30 transcript: Inner
City Press: On Myanmar
[Burma], what’s the progress
on the resolution? When do you
think you might put it to a
vote? Amb Rycroft: "We’re
making good, careful progress
with our Council colleagues on
that. We want to keep everyone
together if we possibly can.
This is a difficult issue for
many of us. We are determined,
though, to step up, and we see
the atrocious situation of the
Rohingya in Rakhine state, and
for those who have fled into
Bangladesh... we now need to
work carefully to get that
into a resolution if there is
the appetite for that." When
Yanghee Lee, UN Special
Rapporteur on the situation of
human rights in Myanmar, took
questions on October 26, Inner
City Press asked her about the
government not approving a
replacement for UN Resident
Coordinator Renata
Lok-Dessallien, who is now
leaving at the end of October.
Ms. Lee confirmed that the
government has rejected a UN
Assistant Secretary General
being sent, not wanting that
special attention. Later on
October 26, speaking of UN
Security Council proposals on
Myanmar at a quiet film event
hosted by one of the too-quiet
proponents, Yanghee Lee was quoted
going beyond what she said in
the UN: "#UN Special
Rapporteur on #Myanmar:
#SecurityCouncil needs to
adopt strong #Burma
resolution- appeals to #China
#Japan& #Russia not to
block." Well, on November 2
Rycroft confirmed what Inner
City Press had heard: the
draft resolution is quietly
being down-shifted to a mere
Presidential Statement, non
binding. On November 2, before
heading out of New York City
for the so-called Finnish
Workshop with the six incoming
Council members, Rycroft said:
"At the moment, it’s still a
draft resolution. It could
turn into a PRST if that’s the
way to keep the Security
Council together, and if we
were to do that, it would be
in order to keep the Security
Council together. There would
be benefit in having a single,
united message quickly to the
authorities in Myanmar, and if
the way to do that is to turn
what is a strong, balanced
text into a PRST then we will
do that." As to Russia, its
foreign ministry
spokesperson Maria
Zakharova
said, "we
are ready for a constructive
discussion of further steps of
the UNSC on this issue." And
given China's recent absention
on extending the mandate of
the Syria chemical weapons JIM
investigative mechanism while
Russia vetoed and Bolivia
voted no, many are left
wondering about... Japan, as
referenced by Yanghee Lee.
While some might mechanically
cite rifts between Japan and
Yanghee Lee's South Korea (see
for example Japan opposing
registration at UNESCO of
"comfort women" documentation,
Inner City Press story here),
there's more to be said about
Japan, Myanmar and the
Rohingya. Watch this site. In
the UN Press Briefing Room,
Yangee Lee on October 26 told
Inner City Press that a person
already in the country could
be interim Resident
Coordinator and that while a
new UN Special Adviser might
be necessary, it would be
important who that person is.
Some might ask, why not her?
Two hours later on October 26
Inner City Press aske UN
spokesman Farhan Haq, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press: on Myanmar
and the UN's presence there,
the Special Rapporteur,
Yanghee Lee, in a press
conference this morning, you
know, acknowledged that the UN
had asked for an Assistant
Secretary-General to replace
Ms. [Renata] Lok-Dessallien
and had been rejected by the
Government. She's… would
be in a position to
know. So, I take… given
that, can you say, one, why
hasn't… why… you know, can…
will you confirm it as a
Secretariat representative?
And where does it stand… given
that we're now 26 October and
the… the Resident Coordinator
is leaving by the end of the
month, where does it stand in
terms of having a replacement?
What did Mr. [Jeffrey] Feltman
leave the country… what was
his understanding in terms of
who would be running the
country team in less than a
week? Deputy Spokesman:
I do expect, in the coming
days, we'll be able to have an
announcement about who will be
the Officer-in-Charge of our
operations in Myanmar.
We're not at that stage yet,
but, like I said, I do expect
to have an announcement
shortly, and we'll have the
details at this point. Inner
City Press: Given that she's
now said that an ASG
[Assistant Secretary-General]
was proposed… I'd asked you
about Mr. Magdy of… of UNDP
[United Nations Development
Programme], whether he was the
one, but it seems like… do you
have a problem confirming
that? She's also a UN
system official or Special
Rapporteur. Is she
wrong? Deputy Spokesman:
I'm not going to dispute the
words of the Special
Rapporteur. We don't go
into the discussions that
we're having on various
positions. Once we have
an announcement to make, like
I said, we'll make it.
We're not at that point just
yet. Yanghee Lee directed
Inner City Press to the Flickr
photographs on her mandate's
website; they are here,
including the toddler she
described in her closing
statement to the Third
Committee on October 25. This
is one side of the UN on human
rights; here is another: the
UN delivered a threat
to Inner City Press to
“review” it accreditation on
Friday afternoon at 5 pm. The
UN official who signed the letter,
when Inner City Press went to
ask about the undefined
violation of live-streaming
Periscope video at a photo op
by UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres, had already
left, minutes after sending
the threat. This comes two
days after Inner City Press asked Guterres about the
UN inaction on threatened
genocide in Cameroon, and the
UN claimed
Guterres hadn't heard the
15-second long question.
It also
comes after Alison Smale the
head of the Department of
Public Information which would
“review” Inner City Press'
accreditation has ignored threeseparatepetitions
from Inner City Press in the
six weeks she has been in the
job, urging her to remove
restrictions on Inner City
Press' reporting which hinder
its coverage of the UN's
performance in such crises as
Yemen,
Kenya,
Myanmar,
and the Central African
Republic where Guterres
travels next week, with
Smale's DPI saying its
coverage of the trip will be a
test of its public relations
ability. But the UN official
who triggered the complaint is
Maher Nasser, who filled in
for Smale before she arrived.
His complaint is that audio of
what he said to Inner City
Press as it staked out the
elevators in the UN lobby
openly recording, as it has
for example
with Cameroon's Ambassador
Tommo Monthe, here,
was similarly published.
A UN “Public Information”
official is complaining about
an article, and abusing his
position to threaten to review
Inner City Press'
accreditation. The UN has
previously been called
out for targeting Inner
City Press, and for having no
rules or due process.
But the UN is entirely
UNaccountable, impunity on
censorship as, bigger picture,
on the cholera it brought to
Haiti. And, it seems, Antonio
Guterres has not reformed or
reversed anything. This threat
is from an official involved
in the last round of
retaliation who told Inner
City Press on Twitter to be
less "negative" about the UN -
amid inaction on the mass
killing in Cameroon - and who
allowed pro-UN hecking of
Inner City Press' questions
about the cholera the UN
brought to Haiti and the Ng
Lap Seng /John Ashe UN bribery
scandal which resulted in six
guilty verdicts. We'll have
more on this.
***
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