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By Matthew Russell Lee, Video

UNITED NATIONS, July 30 – Even with Ethiopia now calling for the removal of UN sanctions on Eritrea, the idea was removed from the UN Security Council's 10 July 2018 Press Statement, below. On July 30 the UN Security Council met about the Mission in Somalia, AMISOM, and Somalia Eritrea sanctions - but Inner City Press remains banned from entering the UN for the 27th day in a row, by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, his Global Communicator Alison Smale and spokesman Stephane Dujarric, all three of them on vacation. Fox News story here, GAP blogs I and II. The resulting AMISOM resolution was extraordinary for calling, in Paragraph 30, for funding for a deadly (and sometimes rapist) peacekeeping mission, including Burundian troops charged with human rights violations, from "civil society." From the text of Paragraph 30: "30. Welcomes the support of the international community for peace and stability in So alia, in particular the European Union for its substantial contribution in supporting AMISOM, as well as support from other bilateral partners for both
AMISOM and the Somali security institutions and forces, emphasises the importance of new contributions, including from new and existing donors from the international community, the African Union Peace Fund, the private sector, civil society and other donations, in order to share the financial burden of supporting AMISOM." We'll have more on this - whether or not Guterres' and Smale's ghoulish Press ban continues. The UK's Karen Pierce, who will become President of the Security Council in two days on August 1 (after a Twitter Q&A at 11 am on July 31, watch this site) on Eritrea said "It's something the Council needs to discuss. I think the developments are very positive. They're very welcome, and at some point that will need to be reflected in the coming months on sanctions. But the Council hasn't had a full discussion of that yet, so it's something we need to talk about." This with Inner City Press banned and the UK doing nothing about it - in fact, the formal banner is the UK's own Alison Smale, on vacation, who never responded to or acknowledged a single one of Inner City Press' seven e-mail including one on June 25 after an improper ouster by a UN Lieutenant with retaliatory animus, requesting protection. After the July 30 meeting, Sweden's Olof B. Skoog who oversaw or at least aceepted Press censorship for 28 of the 31 days of his Council presidency read out these Press Elements: "The members of the Security Council welcomed the first visit to the Horn of Africa by the Chair of the Sanctions Committee for Somalia and Eritrea since 2010 in May. The members of the Security Council noted that the Chair was not able to visit Eritrea during his visit.
 
The members of the Security Council welcomed the continued commitment of the Federal Government of Somalia to political and security reforms, and to improving weapons and ammunition management in order to comply fully with the terms of the partial lifting of the arms embargo.
 
The members of the Security Council looked forward to further progress in this regard, and reiterated their readiness to support this process including through the Sanctions Committee and the Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group. 
 
They strongly commended the historic signing of the Joint Declaration of Peace and Friendship by the leaders of Eritrea and Ethiopia on 9 July, and the commitment by both parties to jointly endeavour to ensure regional peace, development and cooperation.
 
The members of the Security Council supported and encouraged Ethiopia in line with the commitment made by the Prime Minister of Ethiopia to help in normalizing relations between Eritrea and Djibouti in the same spirit that helped facilitate the historic agreement between Ethiopia and Eritrea.
The members of the Security Council further welcomed the announcement that Eritrea and Somalia would work together to foster regional peace and stability.
The members of the Security Council reiterated their readiness to support the region in these efforts." Inner City Press, thanks to Guterres and Smale with many assists, could not ask any questions. We'll have more on this. On July 27, US Vice President Mike Pence issued this read out: "The Vice President met today with Ethiopian Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed. The Vice President reaffirmed the United States’ longstanding partnership with the people of Ethiopia and applauded the historic reform efforts by Prime Minister Abiy, including improving respect for human rights, reforming the business environment, and making peace with Eritrea. The Vice President encouraged continued Ethiopian leadership in resolving regional conflicts in the Horn of Africa, as well as strengthening U.S.-Ethiopia trade and investment. The two leaders underscored their countries’ shared values and their commitment to building an even stronger partnership in the days ahead." On July 12, hours before his belated press conference arranged to be without press, Guterres rather than OCHA head Lowcock bragged about and took credit for public money directed to Ethiopia: "The UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) released today US$15 million to urgently scale up humanitarian assistance to people affected by escalating inter-communal violence in Ethiopia. Historical tensions between communities in southern Ethiopia escalated in April 2018 and led to large-scale displacements, damage of properties and loss of life.  Close to one million men, women and children are currently being sheltered with already food insecure relatives or residing in cramped public buildings without adequate food and water and substandard sanitation and hygiene facilities. “Under the leadership of Dr. Abiy Ahmed, new measures to bring unity and reconciliation have spurred great enthusiasm within the country and high international praise,” said UN Secretary-General António Guterres. “However, the impact of inter-communal tensions presents a challenge for the new leadership. Nearly one million people are displaced and require urgent help, especially during this rainy season. It is critical to act immediately and that is why CERF is releasing $15 million to enable urgent aid." In the past, such announcements were done by OCHA. But Guterres needs a win, and so wants "better" press coverage that he has allowed the roughing up, and now has banned, the Press. Fox News story here, GAP blogs I and II. It is easy to impose sanctions, at least on  country like Eritrea, but very hard to take them off even when the original reasons, support for Al Shabaab in Somalia, is gone. Cote d'Ivoire on July 10 carried the water of Djibouti; others including the penholder the UK have their own reasons. The about-face of Ethiopia - which hasn't changed its UN Ambassador despite the changes in Addis Ababa - didn't move the needle. Meanwhile Inner City Press, which exposed the use of the UN's Panel of Experts to call for regime change, remains banned from even entering the UN.
Fox News story here ("UN roughs up, ejects, bans reporter from headquarters: Caught on tape"); petition to Guterres here; GAP blogs I and II (“Harassment of US Journalist Intensifies at the UN”). The UN under Antonio "Winds of Change" Guterres is corrupt. And it is hard to know the UK's reasons, not only in light of the telling chaos of Boris Johnson's resignation, but due to secrecy. The UK denied Inner City Press' request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for documents, and banned it from its Mission's "background briefing," ostensibly finding tape recorder holders for Japanese media which write more about US rappers than the UN to be more "international media" that Inner City Press. The P2 are a joke. Back on 14 November 2017 before the Security Council voted again on Somalia and Eritrea sanctions, Inner City Press asked the penholder on the resolution, the UK's then-Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, if there is any evidence of Eritrea supporting Al Shabaab and if not, why not at least separate the two sanctions regimes. Rycroft acknowledged there is no evidence, but said discussions on separating the two hadn't been successful. Video here. Fromthe UK transcript: Inner City Press: On the Eritrea sanctions, is there any evidence that Eritrea has been supporting Al Shabab? And if there’s not, why aren’t there two separate sanctions regimes? Does the UK favour that? Amb Rycroft: "We did explore that actually with our Council colleagues and there wasn’t the appetite on the Security Council to do that. I think there has been progress on the Al Shabab issue. There’s no evidence at the moment that the Eritrean authorities have been supporting Al Shabab, and we very much welcome that. But as you know, there are other aspects to why there is a sanctions regime on Eritrea, and what we urge the authorities there to do is to engage with the monitoring group, to engage with the chair of the sanctions committee, so that those people can come back with that positive evidence which they say is there, and that would help change the dynamic in the Security Council." Later on the morning of November 14, after four abstentions from the combined sanctions, Inner City Press was informed by a well-placed wag that the UK was not opposed to splitting the two: "the UK would rather get 15-0 votes for Somalia then all these abstentions because of the Eritrea issue." We hope to have more on this. Back in May 2017, Rycroft said "six months ago, the Security Council was quite divided on whether there should be sanctions or not on Eritrea. Before the next decision on the sanctions regime on Eritrea, coming up in November, we are going to do a review today of whether there should be a sanctions regime. We, as penholder on that issue, are seeking to find a way to unite the Security Council so that there can be some specific measures in a roadmap that the authorities of Eritrea would need to meet in order to lift the sanctions regime. Our national position is that the conditions are not yet right to lift the sanctions. But that if Eritrea did some of the things which we will set out today then we would look at it on the basis of the evidence."

 When the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the State of Eritrea Sheila Keetharuth held a press conference at the UN on October 28, Inner City Press went to ask her if she considered the impact of sanctions on Eritrea. Video here.  She answered only in terms of arms embargo, they said she simply chose not to look at the issue.

On November 10, when Somalia Eritrea sanctions were voted on, five countries abstained: Angola, China, Egypt, Russia and Venezuela. Eritrea's charge d'affaires made a statement, which we've published on Scribd, here.

Before the vote, Inner City Press asked UK Ambassador Matthew Rycroft a question; he spoke about the Somalia Eritrea sanctions helping to limit support to Al Shabaab. Video here. But the current lack of evidence of Eritrean support to Al Shabaab has been repeatedly cited. And there are new reports calling the SEMG and its former officials into question, here. We'll have more on this.

   By contrast to Keetharuth, the Rapporteur on the Democratic People Republic of Korea Tomas Ojea Quintana answered detailed questions from Inner City Press about sanctions including unilateral sanctions on coal sales, for example. Is there no consistency between UN Special Rapporteurs? Video here.

There were only three journalists asking questions at the October 28 press conference - and yet Inner City Press was in 2016 ousted and evicted, and it is still under Antonio Guterres restricted to a minder. Petition here.

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