As
Norway's
Brende Meets
Outgoing &
New UNSGs and
US Power,
Changes Needed
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 4 --
It was a slow
Friday
afternoon at
the UN when
Norway's
Foreign
Minister Borge
Brende met
with outgoing
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon on
November 4.
The
evening
before, Brende
met with Ban's
successor
Antonio
Guterres as
part of the
UN70
delegation,
along with
Colombia,
Ethiopia,
Ghana,
Indonesia,
Jordan, Mexico
and New
Zealand. They
made five
recommendations to Guterres:
“Be
your own boss:
invest in your
relationship
with member
states but be
independent
Be our
number one
diplomat
Be our
chief global
activist
Be the
advocate for
the world’s 65
million
displaced
people
Be a
leader in
integrating
human rights
into all UN
activities.”
Earlier on
November 4, he
met with US
Ambassador
Samantha
Power, about
Syria,
Somalia,
Yemen, South
Sudan and
Israel/Palestine.
On South
Sudan, follow
Ban Ki-moon's
November 2
firing of
UNMISS' Kenyan
force
commander
Lt-Gen Ondiek,
Kenya has
announced an
intent to pull
its
peacekeepers
out of UNMISS.
One wonders
what Brende
and Norway
think of how
it was handled
-- and how
Guterres views
it, for that
matter. Time
will tell.
In advance of
the Ban -
Brende photo
op, Inner City
Press tweeted
the South
Sudan question,
along with photos
from the 38th
floor of the
UN and updates
about being
the only
independent
media covering
the event.
Brende came
in, said
genially “I
saw your
tweet,” and
then while
signing Ban's
visitors' book
recounted that
his son told
him never to
show his
handwriting,
and never to
speak in
French. Vine
video here.
Ban said that
applied to him
too. Then
Inner City
Press was
ushered out.
For all the
geniality,
this year
Ban's UN has ousted
Inner City
Press after
ten years as a
resident
correspondent
watch-dogging
the UN.
The
head of Ban's
Department of
Public
Information Cristina
Gallach
ordered Inner
City Press
without due
process (as noted
by UN Special
Rapporteur
David
Kaye) to leave the UN
on two hours
notice,
then had its
files evicted
from its long
time office
(which is
being given to
an Egypt state
media Akhbar
al Yom which
never comes in
to the UN and
never asks any
questions).
Even after
some outcry, coverage
(here
in German)
and a petition,
for eight
months Inner
City Press has
been confined
to a “minder”
to cover the
General
Assembly and
ECOSOC, its
resident
correspondent
status not yet
returned. All
this for
seeking to
cover an event
in the UN
Press Briefing
Room which was
nowhere listed
as a Closed
meeting.
Perhaps
there is
another thing
Ban's UN does
not want to
show: it has
descended into
censorship and
targeting of
the
investigative
press, echoing
the very
regimes the UN
purports to
criticize.
We'll have
more on this.
, 
