In Other Media-eg New Statesman, AJE, FP, Georgia, NYT,  Azerbaijan, CSM Click here to contact us     .

By Matthew Russell Lee, video

UN GATE, Nov 3 -- After covering the UN's failure on Sri Lanka, from the bloodbath on the beach through accepting Shavendra Silva as a UN Peacekeeping adviser, Inner City Press was roughed up and banned by Secretary General Antonio Guterres. FP and Reuters said nothing.

  In February 2019 when Silva became Army Chief of Staff, Inner City Press puts in among its written questions to Spokesman Stephane Dujarric a question on this. Despite Dujarric's on camera promise to answer Inner City Press' written questions, no answer.

 In August when Silva was further promoted, Inner City Press asked again and again in writing, including to Guterres new chief of "Global Communications" Melissa Fleming. No answer; Fleming banned Inner City Press from the UNGA week.

  Now Dujarric's office has handed a claim, quite possibly not true, to his teacher's pet FP, long time correspondent Colum Lynch and DC-based Robbie Gramer. Neither ever wrote a word about Guterres using UN Security to physically rough up Inner City Press and ban it 450 days since. They call this a scoop, when it is just spoon feeding for those who want to feel good about the UN. Reuters also reported it - and they actively lobbied Guterres' Dujarric to oust Inner City Press, here. No correction: corrupt.

  Nor has the UN of Guterres and Lacroix answered this written question: "October 30-2: On Sri Lanka in light of your and USG LaCroix's misleading annoucements on which you have refused to answer Press questions, what now are the comments and actions if any of Guterres and LaCroix on the published report that Nigeria’s army has a sent a delegation of six members, to receive five days of training from the Sri Lankan armed forces in Maduru Oya.  Major General G Oyefesobi, the director of the Nigerian Army, led the delegation and spoke with Sri Lanka’s Army Commander, Shavendra Silva.  According to a press release from the army, the delegation has stated they are considering “sending more troops to Sri Lanka for Special Forces training in [the] future”.  They have also released information detailing two Nigerian officers who are already receiving training in Sri Lanka."  Again, no answer, as the 10 new cases of UN peacekeepers' sexual abuse in the past two weeks.

  Now Inner City Press is informed that the UN may be moving to deploy 250 of Shavendra Silva's troops to Mali - and that beyond Guterres and Dujarric refusing questions on rapes, Lacroix's Department is not even answering it s purported interlocutors on this. All three should resign.

   On the morning of September 26, while simultaneous covering the SDNY Federal court where CEFC China Energy, financially linked to UNSG Guterres was convicted of UN bribery, Inner City Press asked Guterres, his spokesmen Stephane Dujarric and Farhan Haq and Melissa Fleming questions including "September 26-2: On Sri Lanka, please immediately explain why your Office refused to answer weeks of questions from Inner City Press about the impact of Shavendra Silva being made head of army (despite Dujarric on camera promise, and Smale's written promise, to answer ICP's questions) then handed the answer to FP and how that doesn't make FP and Reuters the UN's teacher's pets? Is the belated decision even true?"

  No answer. Now this: "Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha who is presently leading the Sri Lanka delegation to the 74th UN General Assembly Session, on Friday (27 September 2019) met with Mr. Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under Secretary General of the United Nations Department of Peace Operations (USSG/UNDPO) at the UN Headquarters in New York to discuss obstacles placed on Sri Lanka’s Peacekeeping contribution to the UN.  Upon the Foreign Secretary seeking clarification on the statement made on 25 September 2019 by the Deputy Spokesman of the UN Secretary General relating to Sri Lankan troops deployed for UN Peacekeeping, the Under Secretary General (USG) stated that only 25% of the troops from Sri Lanka presently engaged in peacekeeping operations will be replaced, when they complete their term in Lebanon. These places would be filled through a re-adjustment of existing peacekeepers presently in Lebanon. USG Lacroix confirmed that there will be no further reduction of Sri Lanka Peacekeepers.... Ambassador Kshenuka Senewiratne, Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, Brig. Vijendralal Gunathilleka, Military Advisor of the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN and other senior officials were associated with the Foreign Secretary. The Under Secretary General was assisted by Lt. Gen. Carlos Humberto Loitey, UN Military Adviser for Peacekeeping Operations, Mr. Peter Due, Representative of the Secretary General and Head of the UN Office in Belgrade (UNOB) and Mr. Marco Bianchini, Chief of the Front Office of the USG."

  The UN is corrupt and censoring joke with its own sold-out chorus under Guterres. And what about the other compliant media that reported the UN's pseudo heroic lie? More on this to come.

  The United Nations under Antonio Guterres is so corrupt that it not only accepts "peacekeepers" from the Sri Lanka army run by war criminal Shavendra Silva - it's had as as official of UN Security run by Gilles Michaud a man links to earlier crimes in Sri Lanka where Tamils were killed in the Madhu church: Parkrama Sriwardana. This while Guterres bloviates about protecting houses of worship. He is a hypocrite and a censor of the Press which asks him questions, including this one.

  Guterres' head of UN Security in Jordan is a man who conducted assassinations, perhaps even of Rafic Hariri, for Michel Aoun of Lebanon.

  The UN Security official's name is Antoine Abi Samra; he was a military officer under Aoun. He has been promoted and protected by one Igor Mitrokhin in the UN Department of Safety and Security, ostensibly run by Gilles Michaud. It is an outrage.   

   Inner City Press first asked Guterres and his spokesman Stephane Dujarric about Mitrokhin in connection with South Sudan, based on complaints it received from whistleblowers in the UN mission there, UNMISS.

  With Dujarric and Guterres and his head of communications Melissa Fleming refusing to answer banned Inner City Press' written question, it nevertheless asked then reported why "Igor Mitrokhin of UNDSS from Russia is pushing David Shearer, SRSG of UNMISS and Principal Security Advisor, Graeme to take Nikolay Kovalev of Russia at all cost disregarding all rules."  

Now as the first in a series about the decay and corruption of UN Security under Guterres and Michaud Inner City Press is today reporting that this same Mitrokhin as one of the many war criminals he has promoted in the UN got Abi Samra the job in Jordan.  

Not only does this constitute Guterres' UN ghoulish providing safe haven for war criminals, as it has also done regarding Sri Lanka and Cameroon - in Jordan, Abi Samra using public money to pay a DSS employee to do nothing more than tutor his own son.

 Sources working in Lebanon link "Tony" Abi Samra to the assassination of Rafic Harriri and more, and ask Inner City Press how the UN didn't even check its own records. These is the corruption of Guterres, who bans the Press which asks. We'll have more on this.

 Past 4 pm on Friday, August 30 the UN issued a denial of accreditation with no reasoning other than that accreditation had previously been revoked:

"From:  malu at un dot org
Date: Fri, Aug 30, 2019 at 4:23 PM
Subject: U.N. eAccreditation request for Matthew Lee Ref # M5413398 has been declined
To: Inner City Press:

Greetings Matthew Lee from Inner City Press,  Your media accreditation request, with reference no: M5413398, has been declined for the following reason: Media accreditation was withdrawn on 17 August 2018."

  This is Kafka-esque, and corrupt. We will have more, much more, on this.

***

Your support means a lot. As little as $5 a month helps keep us going and grants you access to exclusive bonus material on our Patreon page. Click here to become a patron.

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

Past (and future?) UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA
For now: Box 20047, Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017

Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

 Copyright 2006-2019 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com for