UNSC To
Meet July 5 on Southwest
Syria After SG Guterres June
29 Impactless Statement
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Video, Photo
UNITED NATIONS,
July 3 – The day after UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres met Jordan's Foreign
Minister Ayman Safadi without
issuing any read-out, on June
29 just before flying off
Guterres issued a statement
about Syria, below. Now on
July 3 Sweden, President of
the UN Security Council for
July, has just announced that
"in light of the rapidly
deteriorating humanitarian
situation in the South West of
Syria, Sweden and Kuwait has
requested a meeting in the
Security Council on Thursday.
We have asked OCHA to provide
the Council with an update on
the current humanitarian
situation and response and we
want to discuss if there are
tangible steps that could be
taken to seek to improve the
humanitarian situation in the
South West, where 270,000
people have now been forced to
flee due to the intensified
fighting. The increase in
violence runs contrary to
resolution 2401 and has also
resulted in grave protection
concerns with reported attacks
on civilians and medical
facilities. This indicates yet
another failure by the parties
of the conflict to protect
civilians and civilian
infrastructure. Efforts must
be intensified to deescalate
violence, also to enable the
UN cross-border convoy from
Jordan that is on standby at
the border to deploy as soon
as possible. It’s imperative
that the Council follows these
developments very closely.On
the agenda for Thursday July
5: 10:00AM
Consultations: The Middle
East, Yemen
Briefers: Special Envoy for
Yemen Martin Griffiths and
OCHA USG Mark Lowcock
AoB: The humanitarian
situation in Syria
Briefer: Director John Ging
from OCHA." Here was Guterres'
statement: "The
Secretary-General is deeply
alarmed by the military
offensive in southwestern
Syria and its devastating toll
on civilians. He calls for an
immediate cessation of the
military operations. The
Secretary-General recalls that
the southwest area of Syria is
part of a de-escalation
agreement agreed between
Jordan, Russia and the United
States in Amman in July 2017,
and calls on its guarantors to
uphold their commitments. The
Secretary-General calls on all
parties to respect their
obligations under
international humanitarian law
and human rights law, protect
civilians and facilitate safe,
unimpeded and sustained
humanitarian access. All
stakeholders must immediately
stop attacks directed against
medical and educational
facilities and put in place
security conditions for United
Nations cross-border
humanitarian deliveries to
resume without further delay.
The Secretary-General urges
the international community to
unite to put an end to this
expanding conflict, which
risks further de-stabilizing
the region and worsening the
deep humanitarian crisis in
Syria and neighboring states.
He calls all concerned to
focus on moving the political
process forward building on
the recent consultations in
Geneva. The Secretary-General
and his Special Envoy for
Syria, Staffan de Mistura,
will continue to do their
utmost in the pursuit of this
goal." On June 28 before
the Jordanian delegation
arrived, Guterres new
(American) Under Secretary
General for Political Affairs
Rosemary DiCarlo came in,
followed by Assistant
Secretary General for
Humanitarian Affairs John
Ging. Clearly, something big
was afoot - at noon Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
who evicted Inner City Press
and now excludes
it from background briefings,
was asked if the plan was to
open Jordan's border to Daraa
in Syria. Ging said to DiCarlo
that he remembered her from
"before" - meaning when she
was US Deputy Ambassador to
the UN under Susan Rice and
then Samantha Power. Photo here,
video here.
We'll have more on this, and
on the June 22 ouster,
here. Earlier on June 28
Guterres met Kazakhstan's
National Security Committee
Chairman Karim Massimov. Alamy
photo
here, video here.
Accompanying Guterres was his
Russian Under Secretary
General for Counter Terrorism
Vladimir Voronkov, who has
been criticized, rather than
Guterres, by the US' Nikki
Haley for banning civil
society from the day's High
Level Conference. On June
18 the
UN held
a so-called
background
briefing by
Voronkov for
only some of
the media
which cover
the UN day to
day. On
June 19 Inner
City Press
asked the
Office of the
Spokesperson,
the briefer
and the UN's
Global
Communicator
why, with no
answer yet in
48 hours.
Instead the
response has
been frivolous
complaints
about Inner
City Press
non- or
anti-spoonfed
coverage. And
on June 22,
Guterres' UN
Security
ousted Inner
City Press
from the UN
without even
its laptop,
during an
event at which
Guterres gave
a bragging
speech. Video
here,
story here, new
petition here. When
Inner City
Press asked at
the June 27
noon briefing,
Guterres'
spokesman Stephane
Dujarric
claimed that NGOs will
be prominent -
on the second
day. Dujarric
said that he
personally excluded
Inner City
Press from the
briefing,
claiming he
has had issues
before with
Inner City
Press and
background
briefing,
saying Inner
City Press
live tweeted
them. False: a
recent Chatham
House rules
sales pitch by
Jane's Defence,
in the UN
library,
featured
Jane's Defense
telling Inner
City Press to
leave
- and then
apologizing in
the hallway.
For actual
ouster with
guns, no apology or
more importantly
reversal
from those
responsible,
including
Dujarric. Also with
Guterres was
Katrin Hett.
It remained
unclear why it
is not
Voronkov
giving the 4
pm stakeout,
not on
background,
about the
conference.
We'll have
more on this.
On June 25 Guterres met
Russia's Deputy Foreign
Minister Sergey Vershinin.
Alamy photos here.
Video here.
Guterres noted that he had
just seen Vershinin in Moscow
(where Guterres went to watch
the Portugal - Morocco World
Cup game), and offered
Vershinin his SG side of the
table. Inner City Press has
noted that Guterres owes his
Secretary Generalship to
Russia, which could have held
out for a candidate from
Eastern Europe whose turn it
was. Inner City Press has
asked Poland and Ukraine if
they will insist on that turn
in three and a half years. On
June 22, Guterres' guards
ousted Inner City Press from
the UN while Guterres gave a
speech. Video
here,
story here.
On June 22, before his guards
ousted Inner City Press,
Guterres met China's Deputy
Minister of Public Security
Wang Xiaohong. Alamy photos here.
Video here.
The only other media were
Chinese, who helpfully
explained to Inner City Press
that the uniformed man seated
next to Guterres is a deputy
in UN Police. A representative
of China's Mission to
the UN gave the Chinese
correspondents, then Inner
City Press, a bilingual
booklet about the China
Standby Peacekeeping Police
Force, complete with the
CSPPF's song and a DVD. The
New York representative of the
UN Office of Drugs and Crime
came in as Guterres was
praising President Xi; after
that, his staffer Tanguy
Stehelin came in from
Guterres' office. Quickly the
press was told to leave, via a
hall and kitchen in which a
large container of the type
farms use for milk has been
sitting for weeks. Some wonder
if it is the UN honey that it
was said would be sold to
benefit a charity but has not
been. Guterres' spokesman
often does not even confirm
receipt of Inner City Press'
questions; this week after he
spoon-fed a Guterres quote to
Al Jazeera, he with they tried
to complain about Inner City
Press' hallway coverage. There
was a censor in Friday's
meeting but it was not the one
that many would guess. On June
8 Guteres met Lindiwe Nonceba
Sisulu, Minister for
International Relations and
Cooperation of the Republic of
South Africa. Alamy photo here.
Earlier after South Africa won
a seat on the UN Security
Council with 183 votes, Inner
City Press asked Sisulu about
Western Sahara, Periscope
video here.
But under Guterres ban, Inner
City Press can only report
that Guterres met his enovy on
Children and Armed Conflict
until 3 pm (it was not on his
schedule). On his way in with
Sisulu, Guterres said, No, no,
I am not G-8, I am just
invited for a session.
Non-live video here.
The reference was to no Russia
at the G7 meeting in Canada.
Then Guterres said Thank you
very much and it was over. On
June 1 Periscope was also
banned from Guterres' meeting
with Léonard She Okitundu, the
Vice-Prime Minister and
Minister for Foreign Affairs
of the Democratic Republic of
the Congo where Guterres' UN
is silent as Joseph Kabila
puts up posters implying he
will seek yet another term.
Other than Guterres' UN
in-house media and Inner City
Press, the only other media
was with the Congolese
delegation. Guterres' pro-Paul
Biya adviser was there, and
Guterres ushered the press out
nearly immediately. DRC photo
here.
No one can speak to him about
censorship. He is
censor. Back on May 23 Inner
City Press as others do shot
video of Guterres'
interactions with the foreign
minister of the Former
Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, Nikola Dimitrov,
and China's Commissioner of
the National Supervisory
Commission, Zou Jiayi,
uploaded the two videos on the
required delay. FYROM video
and photos;
China video
and photo.
Since Guterres banned
Periscope we'll report that
just before the FYROM photo
op, Israel's Ambassador Danny
Danon came out of Guterres'
office, followed by Guterres.
That was not on Guterres'
public schedule, unlike a
similar 4 pm meeting with an
Ambassador. We'll have more on
this. Inner City Press was
first subject to Guterres' ban
on May 11, before Guterres
went on another week long
trip. On May 21, Inner City
Press asked Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric to
justify it and he said, "Every
organization makes its own
rules... Welcome to the UN."
Video here.
Inner City Press asked why ban
independent filming when the
UN is filming - does UNTV edit
out embarrassing statement.
Dujarric said, there is no
editing. Then why the
ban? From the
UN transcript,
which did not
include
Dujarric's
"Welcome to
the UN" -
Inner City
Press: Before
you left,
there'd been
this issue of
trying to… to
prohibit
people from
going… to
covering the…
the photo
ops. And
that… at least
part of it
seemed to be
resolved, but
by the Friday,
when the
Finnish
Foreign
Minister went,
I went up and
was told, “You
cannot
Periscope
there”, even
though…
livestream it,
even though
UNTV is
filming…
Spokesman:
We don't do
live
broadcasts
from the
thirty-eighth
floor, so we
were asking
you not to
Periscope.
Inner
City Press:
I'll ask you
in
context.
There was a
speech given
at NYU [New
York
University]
Abu Dhabi over
the
weekend.
There's a
reason for
this.
I'm going to
ask as a free
speech
thing.
John Kerry
gave a
commencement
speech.
And AP
[Associated
Press] has
said that it
was wrong for…
for NYU Abu
Dhabi to tell
them that they
could not
livestream it
even though
NYU UAE
[United Arab
Emirates] was
filming
it.
What's the
reason…?
Spokesman:
Look, I don't…
I have no link
with Mr.
Kerry, with
Mr.… Abu Dhabi
or NYU.
Every
organization
makes its own
rules, and
I'm… we're
asking you not
to live…
livestream or
Periscope from
upstairs… Mr.
Varma.
Inner
City Press:
Does that mean
there will be
no editing of
the UNTV
videos?
Spokesman:
There is no
editing of the
UNTV." Only of
the
transcript? In
the United
Arab Emirates,
NYU Abu Dhabi
banned
Associated
Press from
filming a
commencement
speech by
former US
Secretary of
State John
Kerry. AP
wrote about
it, linking
it to the
possibility
that Kerry
would praise
the JCPOA Iran
Deal that the
UAE opposes,
even as NYU
Abu Dhabi
argued that it
would provide
AP with video
of the speech
over which NYU
Abu Dhabi
would have
editorial
control. This
was viewed,
properly, as a
form of
censorship. It
is exactly
what the UN is
doing.
Back on May 11, Guterres met
Finland's Foreign Minister
Timo Soini, and Inner City
Press went up intending to
photograph (Alamy photos here)
and stream Periscope video as
it had with Iceland's
President in the morning. But
once in Guterres' conference
room, two UN Security officers
told Inner City Press it could
not Periscope. "But I did this
morning," Inner City Press
replied. "That because there
were remarks," one of the
officers said. No more that in
this Finnish one: Guterres'
small talk, of the type his
predecessor Ban Ki-moon
routinely allowed to be
recorded and even used to
praise his visitor. Was this
because Inner City Press
Periscoped Guterres telling
Egypt's Ambassador to convey
his "warm regards" to Sisi?
Wasn't that newsworthy? The
other UN Security officer
declined to explain - UNTV was
shooting video, but would
apparently be counted on to
censor anything embarrassing.
"This is on the order of the
speechwriter," one of the UN
Security officers said. But
who is the speechwriter? It is
certainly not spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, who tried
earlier in the week to
entirely ban Inner City Press
from photo ops, saying they
were only for photo agencies
(clarified to be, those who do
not write). So is it the
writing that is the problem?
Periscope or not, those
present hear what is said. On
May 21, ten days after
Guterres banned Periscope then
went on the road, he will
accept credentials from
several new Ambassadors to the
UN. Will he again try to
prohibit independent
livestream coverage? Do the
countries agree? On May 21 he
will accept credentials from,
and engage in back and forth
with, H.E. Mrs. Maria de Jesus
dos Reis Ferreira, Permanent
Representative, Republic of
Angola
H.E. Mr. Vitavas Srivihok, PR,
Kingdom of Thailand
H.E. Mr. Satyendra Prasad, PR,
Republic of Fiji
H.E. Mr. Lazarus Ombai Amayo,
PR, Republic of Kenya
H.E. Mrs. Milica Pejanovic
Ðurišic, PR, Montenegro
H.E. Mr. Milenko E. Skoknic
Tapia, PR, Republic of Chile.
Watch this site. Earlier
on May 11 Guterres met
Iceland's President Gudni Th.
Johannesson and First Lady
Eliza Reid and Inner City
Press openly Periscoped; other
than in-house UNTV and UN
Photo, Inner City Press was
the only media there. Alamy
photo, Periscope.
This
came two days after Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
had Inner City Press blocked
from covering Guterres'
meeting with Al Sharpton while
allow another media to cover.
Dujarric said he was trying to
bring "order" by excluding any
photographer who also writes
articles like this one. That
is clearly censorship, but the
decision was not revoked;
Dujarric called Inner City
Press "self-centered" for
questioning it. Video here.
We'll have more on this - and
on Finland, where Gudni
Th.
Johannesson
will visit on
May 15, when
Guterres will
also again be
in Europe. In
other news,
Eliza Reid
recent
presented the
Icelandic
crime writing
award to Eva
Björg
Ægisdóttir.
Guterres' UN
is ripe for
crime writing,
what with the
still unacted
on UN bribery
by Patrick
Ho's China
Energy Fund
Committee,
still in
special
consultative
status with UN
ECOSOC. Watch
this site. Guterres
disclosed the existence of a
meeting with Martin Luther
King III and Kweku Mandela at
3:30 pm on May 9 - but Inner
City Press was not allowed as
before to go up to the UN's
38th floor and photograph it.
It was told that since it also
files written reports, it is
not a photo agency. This is
the new censorship system of
Guterres and his spokesman
Stephane Dujarric. So Inner
City Press waited as it its
right in the lobby, until
Martin Luther King II came
down - with Al Sharpton. Photo
here.
Inner City Press asked the two
what they discussed with
Guterres and was told it is
still premature to announce
it. Periscope video from here.
Tellingly, there was no UNTV
camera there, and a lone
non-UN paid photographer.
Whether he writes, as Inner
City Press is accused of, is
not known, including to the
UN. Another attendee told
Inner City Press Guterres was
rude and dismissive to some of
the attendees, including it
seems Kweku Mandela, not
shaking his hand - we can't
dispute, as we weren't there
by the Guterres / Dujarric
"rules." On May 10 Inner City
Press asked Dujarric about it.
He said he didn't know
Sharpton had been there, and
stonewalled on the censorship
"rule" he had put forward.
Video here.
From the UN's May 10 transcript:
Inner City Press:
Yesterday, there was a photo
op at 3:30. I tried to
go. I wasn't allowed to
go. Another photographer
did go up, but I did learn
that, while it was listed that
Martin Luther King III would
be there, I didn't learn,
except by standing in the
lobby at the end of the
meeting, that Al Sharpton was
also at the meeting.
And, when he came down, he
said that something is in the
works with the UN, but it's
too early to confirm it.
So, I want… one, I also have
to say I don't understand the
logic of John… my colleague
John, the photographer, going
up and me being
disallowed. But, two, if
you're going to pick and
choose who can go to photo
ops, can you provide an
updated media alert if, in
fact, someone like Al Sharpton
did attend or someone of the
prominence of Al Sharpton did
attend the meeting…
Spokesman: I have to
tell…
Inner
City
Press: …and
do you have a readout…
Spokesman: I will be
fully transparent and let you
know that I had no idea Al
Sharpton was going to attend.
Inner City Press: So, why
can't you just let people go
to the photo ops to find for
themselves…
Spokesman: "We've had…
we've had this colourful
debate yesterday."
Inner City Press will
always debate and oppose
censorship. Earlier on May 9
Guterres swore in Rosemary
DiCarlo as his head of
Political Affairs on May 9 and
only "photo agencies" were
permitted to cover it. Inner
City Press, which arrived more
than 30 minutes early, was
excluded. Inner City Press
previously published a story
on DiCarlo's history as the
Deputy to Susan Rice and
Samantha Power - the swearing
in was newsworthy. It asked
Guterres' Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric why it was being
excluded, and what "photo
agencies" area. Dujarric
replied, "i’m trying to bring
a bit more order and sent to
how we do photo ops. 'Photo
agencies' are entities
whose imain purpose is
photo coverage." Inner City
Press noted this must also
exclude Reuters, AP and AFP:
their main purpose as entities
is not photo coverage. But
Inner City Press is informed
that already a list of
Guterres approved coverers is
being prepared. The UN under
Guterres has hit a new low.
We'll have more on this. Back
on April 26, before Guterres'
ramped up censorship, he met
Cote d'Ivoire Foreign Minister
Marcel Amon-Tanoh, and as the
two walked down the hall
toward Guterres' conference
room, Inner City Press was
ordered not to take the normal
hallway photo. Then Guterres
after a perfuctory handshake
beckoned Amon-Tanoh into his
office, a so called tete a
tete. The purpose, as with so
much Guterres does, wasn't
clear.
On April 25 Guterres me
Central African Republic's
President Faustin Archange
Touadera on April 25, not long
after 17 corpses were placed
in front of the UN base there,
and amid sexual abuse claims
against UN peacekeepers.
Guterres started the 1:45 pm
meeting early; he had already
done his fast handshake with
Touadera when, at 1:43 pm, two
CAR journalists came in. They
missed the handshake. One of
them neared Touadera with his
camera and was brought back by
UN Security. Then as fast as
it began it was over. "Fast
Tony," someone said on the way
down in the elevator.
Fast to dismiss
the Press, slow to reinstate
or even respond.
On April 24 Guterres met Juri
Ratas, Prime Minister of high
tech Estonia, even as his UN
evicted and still restricts
Inner City Press for using
tech to report on the UN,
specifically Periscope live
streaming an event in the UN
Press Briefing Room in pursuit
of the UN bribery story. On
April 24 Guterres' photo ops
got even shorter, as noted by
those at the Estonia one, and
the Montenegro foreign
minister Srdan Darmanovic
before it. (Alamy photos here).
Guterres goes on one trip
after another, while the
problems of management, staff
relations, censorship and
ineffective mediation get
worse and worse. More
coverage, more streaming, more
transparency could do nothing
but help. So we'll continue.
Five days earlier Guterres met
Ethiopia's Deputy Prime
Minister Demeke Mekonen, who
has been in that job before
the recent change of Prime
Minister. Meet the new boss,
same as the old boss? But
Guterres' was already looking
ahead - right until the 5 pm
Ethiopia meeting, Guterres was
with his Disarmament chief Izumi
Nakamitsu, and Political
(some say, Cameroon) adviser
Khassim Diagne, among others.
Nakamitsu is going to the
upcoming Security Council
retreat in Sweden. Inner City
Press' story on that is here.
On April 13 Guterres met Pedro
Roque, as President of
Parliamentary Assembly of the
Mediterranean. Inner City
Press, minutes after Guterres
dismissively waved off its
question about Gaza (Vine here)
by the UN Security Council
stakeout where UN Security was
trying to improperly hinder
the Press' filming, went to
cover it. Alamy photos here.
One in Roque's delegation gave
Guterres a thick book,
Muslims. Guterres left the
conference room saying, I want
to make sure to take it to my
home. But which home? The
publicly funded $50 million
mansion on Sutton Place? Or
his real home in Lisbon? As to
the title, it's ironic while
Guterres is proposing to move
any UN system jobs to Budapest
of Victor Orban, to support or
cover up UNCHRC's relocation
to Budapest when Guterres ran
it (see Inner City Press
exclusive here.)
Guterres, just back from five
days in China is leaving on
April 13 to Saudi Arabia, only
coming back on April 18. The
Press remains restricted,
hindered and dismissed even
where it is allowed to ask
questions. So here's a
question: wasn't this book a
gift to the UN, and not to
Guterres personally? Can he
just take such gifts home? And
where, we ask again, is the
golden statue Guterres took
from Cameroon's 36 year
president Paul Biya in October
2017? We'll have more on this.
On April 4 Guterres met
Guyana's Vice President Carl
Greenidge and after a quick
handshake and visitor's book
signing ushered him along with
acting chief of UN Political
Affairs Miroslav Jenca into
his office. Greenidge had days
before filed papers with the
International Court of Justice
on Venezuela's claim to
two-thirds of Guyana's land.
Some wondered if Guterres
would make a similar, come
into my office offer to
Venezuela. Guterres is rarely
in New York: after a four day
unannounced trip to Lisbon, he
will be taking off again to
China, April 6 to 11. Earlier
on April 4 he or his Office
made the swearing in ceremony
of four officials Closed
Press, and didn't even
have UNTV make a video. Who
knows what was said or pledged
to. Moments before Greenidge's
arrival, Guterres exited his
office with his chief of staff
and his Deputy Amina J.
Mohammed, who interlocutors
say downplayed the Note to
Correspondents about her trip
to Nigeria that was issued
after Inner City Press
repeatedly asked. Fifteen
months of Inner City Press
being more restricted than
no-show state media like
Egypt's Akhbar al Yom,
assigned the work space Inner
City Press was evicted from
for pursuing the Ng Lap Seng
UN bribery case, which April 4
saw another guilty plea, here.
This is today's UN. Back on
March 28 Guterres met
Indonesia's Foreign Minister
Mrs. Retno Lestari Priansari
Marsudi on March 28 and did
his usual fast and perfunctory
handshake - until she made him
do it again, so that a member
of her delegation could get a
photo of it with his smart
phone. Periscope video here.
One might think Guterres, who
so often speaks of learning
from women after he took the
Secretary General-ship which
many said was ready for a
woman. But 15 minutes later
with the Defense Minister of
Cote d'Ivoire Hamed Bakayoko,
Guterres did the same fast and
perfunctory hand shake. Inner
City Press had managed, down
in front of the Security
Council, to ask Bakayoko about
the French "Force Licorne" in
his country, and the French
"Force Sangaris" accused of
child sexual abuse in Central
African Republic. Bakayoko
gamely answered that the
Ivorian army trains its
troops; earlier, French
Secretary of State attached
tothe Minister for Europe and
Foreign Affairs, Jean-Baptiste
Lemoyne refused to answer
Inner City Press' quite
audible question about
Sangaris' abuses, choosing to
answer about North Korea.
Earlier still on March 28
Guterres met German Foreign
Minister Heiko Mass at 9:20
am. Some ten minutes before, a
gaggle of media traveling with
the Foreign Minister came into
the UN Department of Public
Information office. Despite
repeated calls, the requested
sniffer dog never arrived. A
fast decision led to a fast
ascent to the 38th floor to
witness an equally fast and
perfunctory handshake by
Guterres, who called signing
the UN Visitors' Book "the
price you pay." Mass replied,
"It's a small price." Inner
City Press' photos on Alamy here;
Periscope video here.
Beaming on Guterres' side of
the table was his side kick
and adviser Katrin Hett;
outgoing DPA chief Jeffrey
Feltman was not there. Nor was
Guterres' "Global
Communicator" Alison Smale,
once NYT bureau chief in
Berlin, now in charge of Press
censorship at the UN, where
she has not responded in
months to petitions for
content neutral access rules.
Will there be a read out?
Guterres office already gave
at the office, so to speak, a
job - see Inner City Press
story here.
Guterres on March 23 met Karen
Pierce, the new Permanent
Representative to the UN of
the United Kingdom. After both
mentioned Boris Johnson,
although Guterres without
name, Pierce said, "So you
still have the Picasso,"
pointing at the wall of the
conference room. Guterres
corrected her, "It's a
Matisse" and added, "Now we
have some Portuguese things."
Indeed. Vine here;
in full Periscope video here.
In his brief remarks, Guterres
mentioned human rights. The UK
continues arming the Saudi led
Coalition that is bombing
Yemen, and Pierce's Foreign
Office denied
in full Inner City Press'
recent Freedom of Information
Act request about Yemen as
well as Cameroon.
Before Guterres met with
Pierce, he held short meetings
with the new representatives
of the African Union (photos here)
and then Madagascar, the
latter so fast that the
Malagasy delegation was left
on the sidewalk in front of
the UN Secretariat building
waiting for their car that
didn't know to arrive so
early. Earlier on March 23
Guterres met Bangladesh's
State Minister for Foreign
Affairs Md. Shahriar Alam,
amid the crisis of Rohingya
fleeing and chased out of
Myanmar. Photos here.
Guterres has yet to even name
the envoy called for by the UN
General Assembly in September,
and fully funded and mandated
in December. With Guterres
were his advisers Khassim
Diagne, as on Cameroon, and
Katrin Hett, who traveled to
the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea a/k/a North
Korea with outgoing Political
Affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman,
who leaves March 30. Guterres
has yet to name a successor to
Feltman. Meanwhile Bangladesh
has proposed moving Rohingya
to a far away island;
unaddressed was the role
of Bangladesh's just prior
Ambassador Monem in the Ng Lap
Seng UN bribery scandal. Then
again, the current UN bribery
case against Cheikh Gadio and
Patrick Ho of CEFC China
Energy Fund Committee is
unaddressed, with the entity still
in "special consultative
status" with UN ECOSOC. We'll
have more on this. Guterres on
March 21 met Serbia's
President Aleksandar Vucic
with snow falling outside so
fast one couldn't see Queens
across the East River, or any
but the nearest buildings
looking toward Times Square.
Perhaps because of the weather
and not having closed the UN,
as Mayor de Blasio closed the
City's schools, Guterres came
into the conference room
before Vucic arrived and said,
or seemed to say, hello. But
he and his Administration no
longer even acknowledge
letters and petitions sent to
his office; he has kept the
Press restricted to minders
for fifteen months. He put a
blue folder down on his side
of the table (his back pad had
already been carried by a
staffer), and soon the brief
hand shake took place, Alamy
photo
here. In Geneva, where
Guterres' deputy Amina J.
Mohammed is trying to stave
off further staff strikes,
it's said their mutual reform
(or power grab of the resident
coorrespondent system) is not
looking good. The phrase
"simulating reform" rather
than "stimulating reform" is
circulating like the snow
outside. Perhaps that's why,
before the Vucic meeting,
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric, who evicted Inner
City Press from the UN
Briefing Room, came out with
other staffers including
pro-Paul Biya Khassim Diagne.
The complaints are growing,
the censorship continues, and
there are no responses.
Guterres on March 13 met
Ecuador's Foreign Minister
María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés
- who is also one of two
candidates to be the next
President of the General
Assembly. Her opponent is Mary
Elizabeth Flores Flake,
Permanent Representative of
Honduras, a country which she
points out has never held the
position of PGA, who met on
March 9 with current PGA
Miroslav Lajcak. After that
meeting, Inner City Press
asked the PGA spokesman, as
transcribed by him: "Asked
whether the President had met
with the two candidates
running to succeed him in the
next session of the General
Assembly, the Spokesperson
confirmed that he had. The
President had met with the
Permanent Representative of
Honduras today and with the
Foreign Minister of Ecuador in
Geneva last week. When
Guterres met Ecuador's Vice
President María Alejandra
Vicuña on February 22 it was
supposed to be at 11:50 am.
But another Inner City Press
arrived half an hour before,
by the time it was allowed in
at 11:44 am the meeting was
already underway. There was no
handshake, and the Press
was quickly ushered out. With
Guterres was a single UN
staffer: Katrin Hett. On the
elevator down from the 38th
floor, UN Department of
Political Affairs deputy
Miroslav Jenca was just
arriving, and UN Photo missed
the shot again. This is a
pattern. The evening before on
February 21 when Guterres met
Cote d'Ivoire foreign minister
Marcel Amon-Tanoh on February
21, Guterres changed the time
twice. First from 5 pm to 6:40
pm - for this, notice was
provided - and then without
notice moving it up to 6:34 pm
such that both the Ivorian
photographer and even UN Photo
missed it. It seems Guterres
is only interested in
accommodating those who can
help him - he has been happy,
for example, to have the
investigative Press restricted
for his entire tenure, with no
explanation of what the rules
are. No show state media in,
investigative press, through
the tourist entrance, minders
required. This is "Big Tony's"
United Nations, do as I say,
not as I do. Big shots are
getting over with sexual
harassment, while directives
go to underlings. The Global
Communicator Alison Smale,
censor in chief, is involved.
At the February 21, restricted
Inner City Press was the only
media which asked any
questions, on Justin Forsyth
multiple abuser, now at
UNICEF, about mis-statements
about immunity in India,
another no-answer on Tanzania.
The only media asking, and the
only media restricted by
Guterres and Smale. We'll have
more on this. Amon-Tanoh,
by the way,
spoke well in
the Security
Council,
before having
the time(s)
changed. Present
on the UN side were Katrin
Hett and Khassim Diagne, who's
said Paul Biya is doing a good
job in Cameroon - when Biya's
been in Geneva for four and a
half years, cumulatively.
We'll have more on this. Back
on February 2 when Guterres
before his multiple junkets
met Qatar's Foreign Minister
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al
Thani, he had with him his
outgoing head of Political
Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman.
(Inner City Press exclusively
reported on January 25, in
connection with Feltman's US
replacement in the post, Dina
Powell, here.
Now some say Powell turned the
post down, as so many have,
under Big Tony.) The Qatari
minister joked that his
Ambassador told him Feltman
was back from an interesting
place - presumably a reference
to North Korea, where Feltman
wants to score Guterres a high
level meeting, perhaps with
Kim Jong Un, in connection
with having accepted as a UN
Junior Professional Officer in
his Department the son of a
DPRK Workers Party official.
Even before Mohammed
bin
Abdulrahman Al
Thani had
finished
signing the UN
visitors'
book, Guterres
was indicating
that the Press
should leave,
saying
Shukran,
presumably to
the two
traveling
Qatar
photographer
and
videographer.
Earlier in the
day Guterres refused
Inner City
Press'
question if he
told the
International
Criminal Court
in advance of
his meeting
last weekend
with Darfur
genocide
indictee Omar
al Bashir.
Qatar has
played a role
in Darfur but
the topics
with Guterres
and Feltman
would
predictably
involve the
Gulf and the
blockade.
While Guterres
issues fewer
and fewer
read-outs,
will Qatar?
On February 1 when Guterres
met Guatemala's Foreign
Minister Sandra Erica Jovel
Polanco, there was a
pre-meeting in Guterres'
office including, Inner City
Press witnessed, head UN
lawyer Miguel de Serpa Soares.
While Guterres gives fewer and
fewer read-out, and even left
his meeting with Darfur
genocide ICC indictee Omar al
Bashir last weekend
undisclosed until Inner City
Press asked about it, one
assumes on the agenda was the
stand-off with President Jimmy
Morales about the CICIG, see
August story here. But while
awaiting the Guatemala
read-out there is another
question: when did Guterres
tell Miguel
de Serpa
Soares' OLA
about meeting
with indictee
Bashir, and
when did Miguel
de Serpa
Soares tell
the Office of
the ICC
prosecutor?
Inner City
Press has
asked the UN,
without
substantive
answer - just
as specific
detailed
questions to
Guterres, his
chief of
staff, deputy
and "Global
Communicator"
Alison Smale
have gone
entirely
unanswered.
(Inner City
Press checked
with Smale's
DPI just
before the
Guatemala
photo op).
We'll have
more on this.
The day before on January 31
when Guterres met his native
Portugal's Minister of Labour,
Solidarity and Social Security
José António Vieira da Silva,
he quickly ushered him into
his office, where he had been
laughing with his staffers
including Miguel Graca. José
António Vieira
da Silva
is linked to a Portuguese
inquiry into irregularities in
the payment and reimbursement
for travel; Guterres himself
often travels to Lisbon, not
disclosed by his spokesmen
unless Inner City Press asks,
and costs for example of
accompanying security
undisclosed. But while Correio
da Manhã reports on the
inquiry by the National
Anti-Corruption Unit into if
Rareissimas money was used for
the travel of Sónia
Fertuzinhos to Sweden, that
publication is not targeted by
the Portuguese government,
much less required to have
minders. In Guterres' UN,
while Inner City Press
investigates the scandals of bribery
by Patrick Ho and CEFC China
Energy, rosewood signatures
by Guterres' Deputy Amina J.
Mohammed and diversion
of Kiswahili funds by
Guterre's "Global
Communicator" alleged by staff
she is firing, Inner City
Press is confined ot minders
and cannot use its long time
UN work space, purportedly
assigned to an Egyptian state
media which has yet to ask a
single question and rarely
comes in. It is not known if
Guterres wanted to be a censor
when he was Prime Minister of
Portugul. But atop the UN, he
seemingly happily presides
over censorship and the
targeting and restriction of
investigative Press. A
petition,
here, was sent last week
to Guterres, Mohammed and
Smale, none of whom have as
requested confirmed receipt,
much less responded. Alamy
photos here;
UN Photo was not present. We
note that Guterres over the
weekend met Darfur genocide
indictee Omar al Bashir and
did not disclose it until
Inner City Press asked,
has still refused to say if
the ICC Prosecutor was told in
advance, as required. Guterres
accepted a golden statue from
Cameroon's 35 year president
in October, and has yet to
comment on Biya's role in the
"refoulement" of 47 people
from Nigeria. We'll have more
on this. On January 30 when
Guterres formally accepted the
credentials of China's new
Permanent Representative Ma
Zhaoxu, he had
his Deputy
Amina J.
Mohammed with
him, and his
spokesman on
the way. In
the run-up,
Mohammed told
UN Political
Affairs
official
Miroslav Jenca
she'd seen
news of his
trip to
Lebanon and
gravely cited
economics.
She praised Ma
Zhhaoxu,
saying she'd
met him in
Geneva on
health. Then
Guterres joked
in the hall
about charging
$1000 dollars,
before
consenting to
the
credentials
ceremony,
Periscope
video here.
Alamy photos here.
The Press was
ushered out -
earlier,
Mohammed had
refused an
Inner City
Press question
about Cameroon
- and at the
elevator,
there was UN
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric, who
explicitly
refused to get
an answer from
Guterres about
legal
compliance.
We'll have
more on this.
Back on
January 22
when Guterres
met
Mali's Foreign Minister Tiéman
Hubert Coulibaly on January
22, it was supposed to happen
t 7 pm. But Guterres was still
talking in the ECOSOC chamber,
a meeting in advance of which
Inner City Press had tried to
ask him and his Deputy SG
Amina J. Mohammed a question
at 3 pm. Vine video here. They
didn't answer, and when
Guterres arrived past 7 pm on
the 38th floor, at first he
forgot to do the standard
handshake (grip and grin) with
Coulibaly,
who has
replaced
Abdoulaye Diop
this year.
Alamy photo here;
Periscope
video here.
Then he told
Coulibaly that
his meeting in
ECOSOC was
supposed to
last two hours
but lasted
four, leaving
his program
knocked-over
(bouleverse).
Coulibaly did
a longer than
usual these
days entry in
the UN
visitors book,
then Inner
City Press,
the only
independent
media there,
was shepherded
out. Down on
the second
floor, Amina
J. Mohammed
and her
entourage were
heading up.
But still no
answer. Inner
City Press has
lodged a
formal request
with the
Department of
Public
Information -
or "Global
Communications"
as Alison
Smale called
it in the UN
Lobby at 6:20
pm - for an
end to
DPI/GC's
censorship and
restrictions
on the Press.
We'll have
more on this.
Back on January 19 when
Guterres met Jordan's Foreign
Minister Ayman H. Safadi, the
meeting began eight minutes
before it was scheduled. Inner
City Press has arrived early
and was screened by UN
Security, which asked, Is that
camera on? While not filming,
it was on - which alone
allowed Inner City Press to
photograph the perfunctory
grip and grin handshake, photo
here.
Afterward, since Guterres had
done the handshake without
even his own UN Photo staffer
there, Inner City Press was
asked where the Jordan mission
can find the photos. Well,
here. It was confirmed that on
January 18, as Inner City
Press first reported, Guterres
held a dinner and meeting,
even negotiation, with
Russia's Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov without putting
it on his UN public schedule,
even belatedly. Inner City
Press asked UN Spokesman
Stephane Dujarric why and he
called it a "private dinner."
Well, with public funds, in
the same UN dining room where
Guterres complained to Gillian
Tett of the Financial Times
about the the fish and wine he
was served. This is today's
UN. On January 18 when
Guterres met new Security
Council member Kuwait's
Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah
Khaled Al Hamad Al Sabah,
photo here,
he had with him his chief of
staff and long time Middle
East hand, for the US and UN,
Jeffrey Feltman. Unlike at the
just prior photo op with South
Korea, for which Inner City
Press was the only media not a
part of the UN Department of
Public Information, for Kuwait
there were five cameramen, one
of whom recounted just flying
to New York from Kuwait via
Paris, and returning tomorrow
via London. Talk about climate
change. In Guterres' side
dining room plates for dinner
were set up, with name tags
including the Russian
Ambassador Nebenzia - the
dinner presumably with and for
Foreign Minister Lavrov. But
it was not even listed on
Guterres' schedule. We'll have
more on this. Earlier, when
Guterres met South Korea's
First Vice Foreign Minister Lim
Sung-nam on
January 18, photo
here,
Periscope
video here,
accompanying
him was
Feltman, who
visited
Pyongyang last
year and, as
Inner City
Press
exclusively
reported
yesterday, is
said by UN
staff to be
trying to set
up a similar
trip for
Guterres. Also
in on the meet
was the UN's
head of
disarmament,
Japan's Izumi
Nakamitsu.
Nuclear
weapons, you
might say,
were on the
table. But the
photo op was
fast and the
Press was
shepherded
out. Half
an hour earlier when Guterres
met Foreign Minister Erlan
Abdyldayev of the Kyrgyz
Republic a/k/a Kyrgyzstan,
photo here,
he was accompanied by one of
his rivals to have become SG,
Natalia
Gherman.
Guterres put
her in charge
of the UN's
office for
Central Asia
and she's in
town, along
with the
region's
ministers, for
Kazakhstan's
back to back
Security
Council
meetings. (The
January 19
meeting about
Afghanistan,
it now seems,
will be
without the
Afghan foreign
minister).
Just outside
Guterres'
conference
room in a
large white
paper bag was
a gift from
Kazakhstan, in
a blue velvet
box. Will it
disappear
without
explanation
like the
golden statue
Guterres took
in October
from
Cameroon's
Paul
Biya?
Back on January 15 when
Guterres - without Natalia
Gherman - met Uzbek foreign
minister Abdulaziz Kamilov, he
was instead accompanied by the
UN Department of Political
Affairs' Miroslav Jenca, who
used to head the UN's office
in Central Asia. The affable
Jenca, when boarding the
elevator on the 35th floor
where the "hot desking" (or
waste) at DPA was
visible (along with DPA's
sometimes Kenya official
Roselyn Akombe), joked You
have more freedom than I do
and that he hoped his phone
would behave at this photo op.
Inner City Press quickly said
that no harm had been meant in
its previous reporting of a
news flash from Jenca's phone
during a photo op (though that
report might be behind Alison
Smale's Department of Public
Information issuing a
Kafka-esque threat to Inner
City Press' accreditation, here, and keeping it
out of its office, with minders).
Press (UN) freedom, as we'll
cover in connection with
another visit later this week
from the region. After the
very short photo op, on the
way out Guterres' Fabrizio
Hochschild walked with Tony
Banbury, who did a review of
the UN in Iraq, completed in
mid-November. And now? We'll
have more on all this,
including the seeming lack of
"hot desking" or imposition of
flexible workspace on
Guterres' 38th floor. Is it
another case of Do as I say,
not as I do? Earlier on
January 15 when Guterres met
Sigrid Kaag, he joked before
the Press was ushered out that
he could not get used to her
new role, as Dutch minister,
still seeing her with the UN
(from Lebanon to Syria
chemical weapons.) In those UN
roles, Kaag blocked
Inner City Press on
Twitter. Notably she stopped
the blocking as soon as she
left the UN, showing that the
UN either encourages or has
fewer disincentives to
censorship than the private
sector. The Netherlands is now
on the Security Council, but
its Permanent Representative
was not seen at Kaag's meeting
with Guterres. (He fairness,
he is just back from the
Security Council's weekend
trip to Afghanistan.) A minute
before his meeting with Kaag,
Guterres came in from his
private dining room. He had a
listed 2 pm meeting with
Rodrigo Maia, President,
Brazilian Chamber of Deputies,
and after Kaag a 4 pm meeting
with Spyridon Flogaitis,
Director, European Public Law
Organization, both of them
Closed-Press. The latter was
set to be followed by
Uzbekistan's foreign minister
Abdulaziz Kamilov at 4:30 and
then Lebanon's post Judge
Nawaf Salam ambassador Amal
Mudallali at 6 pm. Back on
January 12 when Guterres met
with Norway's Foreign Minister
Ine Eriksen Søreide, it came
the morning after US President
Donald Trump's reported
comments contrasting Norway to
"sh*thole" countries. So Inner
City Press came to cover their
meeting or at least the photo
op. On the way, UN Security
officers repeatedly told Inner
City Press there would be a
problem with its practice of
live-streaming Periscope
video, or more specifically,
audio. On the 37th floor,
Inner City Press pointed out
that UNTV runs audio. But
they're official, was the
reply, I'm only telling you
what I've been told to say.
(Higher-ups from the
Department of Public
Information of Alison Smale
have issued Kafka-esque
threats, here.)
Still Inner City Press was not
stopped from taking its
microphone up to the 38th
floor. The photo op began
almost immediately, Periscope
here, and Guterres after
shepherding Soreide from grin
and grin to sign-in book, sat
at his conference table and
said, "Thank you very much."
It was over. It was said that
Soreide would made remarks,
perhaps about Trump's comments
but it did not happen, at
least in Guterres' conference
room. Coming up as Inner City
Press was hurried out were
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, and
Guterres' adviser, previously
the French mission's legal
adviser, Tanguy Stehelin. As
of the time of the photo op,
the UN's only response had
been by lame-duck Human Rights
Commission Prince Zeid, who
has relatedly been quiet on
the UN's abuses in Haiti, and
Nigeria's abduction of leaders
of Southern Cameroons /
Ambazonia. But that's another
story. Back on December 18
when Guterres met Slovakia's
Prime Minister Robert Fico, he
joked that Fico must have
stopped in to see the
President of the General
Assembly, fellow Slovak
Miroslav Lajcak. Less funny,
but as yet unacted on by
Guterres, is the November 20
indictment of Senegal's former
foreign minister Cheikh Gadio,
along with Patrick Ho of China
Energy Fund Committee, in a
case alleging bribery of
Lajcak's predecessor as UN PGA
Sam
Kutesa, as well as
Chad's Idriss Deby. Guterres
has not even initiated an
audit in response to this UN
bribery indictment. As to
Fico, given his recent
statements on Libya, one can
only imagine what a read out
of his meeting with Guterres
would say. Guterres has
stopped issuing read-outs,
another cut back in
transparency. On the way up to
the photo op, Inner City Press
witness several gift
distributors, from bottles of
liquor to envelopes, as well
as recently built partition
walls on the 30th floor being
torn down, in a classic
example of UN waste. (See
Inner City Press exclusive
story, here.)
The UN under Guterres has
become even more corrupt, and
less transparent. Not only is
the investigative Press restricted,
more so than no show state
media like Egypt's Akhbar al
Yom (given Inner City Press'
long time office but not even
present for the day's vote on
Egypt's Jerusalem resolution)
- on the 37th floor, UN
Security made a point of
re-checking Inner City Press'
badge, then of closing the
door to the conference room on
38 so that whoever was coming
out of Guterres' office could
not be seen. Who was it? Watch
this site. Back on November 9
when Guterres met Turkey's
PMBinali Yildirim, the Turkish
delegation brought their own
security officers to the photo
op. Periscope video here.
Guterres had finished a long
afternoon, calling Kenya's
Ambassador "sincerely unfair"
down in Conference Room 2, and
taking photos with UN Police
down in the basement. In
between he'd come up to meet
Sri Lanka's Chandrika
Bandaranaike Kumaratunga,
Chairperson of the Office for
National Unity and
Reconciliation a day after
Inner City Press asked about
torture by that country's
army. Before that, Jeffrey
Feltman who has played a role
in the rift between Guterres
and Kenya was in Guterres'
office, then by the elevators.
Will there be a memoir? After
the Turkish photo op, mixed
results in the International
Court of Justice voting.
Lebanon's Nawaf Salam won a
seat, but India's Bhandari and
UK Greenwood will fight
another round on Monday. Only
at the UN. Back on November 7
when Guterres met Argentina's
President Mauricio Macri on
November 7, Macri had come
from the site of the recent
terrorist attack on the West
Side Highway bike path.
Guterres has just returned
from three days in Lisbon,
justified by a 15-minute
speech. In Guterres' team to
meet Macri was fellow
Argentine Virginia Gamba,
previously on Syria chemical
weapons. Down in the Security
Council, her successor Edmond
Mulet was being asked
questions he didn't answer
(Inner City Press / Alamy
photos of Nikki Haley and
Syria's Ja'afari at the
meeting, here.)
Somewhere on the 38th floor
Guterres' Deputy Amina
Mohammed was holding two
meeting, while her office (and
Guterres' spokespeople) never
answered a simple Press
question for a copy of a
speech she gave at a $25,000 a
sponsor fundraiser. Inner City
Press, already subject to a Kafka-esque
threat to accreditation by
Guterres' head of Global
Communications Alison Smale
for using Periscope during
photo op(s) on the 38th floor,
was surveilled as it prepared
to Periscope. Thus it missed
what others captured:
Guterres' personal back pad
being put in his chair, him
walking by with notes for the
Macri meeting. This is today's
UN. On November 3
Guterres accepted the
credentials of El Salvador's
new Ambassador Ruben Armando
Escalante Hasbun on November
1, a successor to Carlos
Garcia who was exposed as
having helped money laundering
in the Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe
UN bribery trial in July 2017.
Under Guterres, these
practices continue - in fact,
Guterres has become even less
transparent. For example, on
November 3 Inner City Press
asked Guterres' spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, who had
just cut short Inner City
Press' questions about
Guterres' inaction on the
killings by the Cameroon
government, these questions:
"is the Secretary General
having a one-on-one lunch on
38th floor today? is it with a
journalist / editor? is it on
or off the record? why isn't
this lunch on the SG's public
schedule? is it with Gillian
Tett?" Dujarric's and the UN's
answer on this: "I have
nothing to say to the SG’s
schedule that’s not public."
So Guterres decides which
meeting are not public. Inner
City Press has asked: "On the
lunch, the question is WHY it
is not public. Can it be
considered "internal"?" Watch
this site. On October 31
Guterres met Human Rights
Council president Joaquin
Alexander Maza Martelli,
saying "Bienvenido" repeatedly
before ushering the Press to
leave: essentially, Adios.
That's what the Trump
administration is considering
saying to the UN Human Rights
Council, now after the
election of the Democratic
Republic of the Congo to the
Council. The UN Secretariat
has its own human rights
problems. Not only impunity
for sexual abuse by
peacekeepers and bringing
cholera to Haiti, not only
praising and accepting gift
from human rights abusers like
Cameroon's Paul Biya, but also
for example disparate
treatment and retaliatory
restrictions on the
investigative Press. Guterres
has not reversed this. In
fact, on October 20 his
Department of Public
Information under Alison Smale
issued a further threat to
Inner City Press'
accreditation, citing an
undefined violation at a
stakeout just like that on
October 31. This threat comes
just as Inner City Press
pursues Team Gutereres
inaction on the killings in
Cameroon. Guterres met French
foreign minister Jean-Yves Le
Drian on October 30, three
days after he took an award
from Cameroon's
French-supported president
Paul Biya. Inner City Press
came early for the photo op
but was delayed, then
hindered. . But Inner City
Press belatedly went, and
although DPI's Kafka-esque
theats made it suspend the
Periscope, it can report that
with Guterres were his
pro-Biya adviser Khassim
Diagne, and former French
mission legal adviser (an
office in the orbit of
Beatrice Le Frapeur du Hellen,
Inner City Press scoop here).
Under DPI's censorship orders,
we'll wait to report more,
including on the push to get
the US to pay for the G5 Sahel
force - except what was in
plain sight, Guterres'
personal back rest being
installed in his chair.
Guterres met Spain's Secretary
of State Ildefonso Castro
López on October 16, hours
after Spain won a seat on the
UN Human Rights Council with
no mention of its crackdown in
Catalonia. Guterres has also
been scheduled to meet the
foreign minister of Togo
Robert Dussey just before, but
that meeting or at least photo
op got canceled, as did a
stakeout by Guterres that UNTV
had been setting up for in the
morning. As Inner City Press
has exclusively reported,
Guterres or his Global
Communications chief aim to
make this upcoming trip to
Central African Republic a
litmus test of how to present
the UN in a positive light -
despite the sexual abuse by
peacekeepers. We'll have
covering, rather than covering
up, that. On October 12
Guterres belatedly swore in
three senior official on
October 12: Vladimir Voronkov,
USG for Counter-Terrorism,
Izumi Nakamitsu, High
Representative for
Disarmament, and Mark Lowcock,
Emergency Relief Coordinator.
Photos of each here.
Inner City Press arrived early
for the photo op, but found
itself in a long line with
tourists at the metal
detectors on 45th Street.
Because it covered UN bribery
of John Ashe and Ng Lap Seng,
it was evicted and now is
slowed in entering, confined
to minders once in. But up on
the 38th floor the head of UN
Security greeted the incoming
trio, particularly the UN
Relief Chief. He was candid on
Yemen;
Ms. Nakamitsu's
office only
sends out
information
selectively.
Jeffrey
Feltman was
not there,
apparently on
his way to
Myanmar. There
is still no non-interim
Special Adviser on Africa.
We'll have more on this. On
October 9 Inner City Press
went to cover Guterres'
meeting with Bangladesh's
Finance Minister Abul Maal
Abdul Muhit. Present for the
meeting - the UN side,
notably, was all men, photo here
- was UN Elections. After
being quickly ushered out, in
the elevator down was Darrin
Farrant of the UN Department
of Public Information, who
more than a month ago when
asked provide the email
address of his new boss,
Alison Smale. But petitions to
Smale about unjustifiable
restrictions on Press have
gone unanswered; some from
Cameroon have noted not only
Smale “inordinate” focus on
her former beat, Germany, on
Catalonia, but also her DPI's
lawless restrictions on the
Press. She was not present on
October 12, instead DPI was
represented by Maher "It's
all about you" Nasser,
who refused
to reverse his previous boss'
censorship when he was in
charge. On October 9 to
stakeout the General Assembly
meeting Inner City Press was
required to get a DPI escort,
unlike other no-show state
media like Akhbar al Yom which
DPI is trying to give Inner
City Press' office, which sit
empty. At the noon briefing,
Inner City Press asked for a
read out of the Bangladesh
meeting (four hours later,
none has been provided), and
again for a read out of the
Philippines meeting ten days
before on September 29. That
day at noon Guterres'
spokesman, when Inner City
Press asked whether there
would be any action on UN
staff in Myanmar describing
retaliation by UN Resident
Coordinator Renata
Lok-Dessalien, said only that
Guterres stands behind
Lok-Dessalien. So much for
whistleblower protection. On
Cameroon, Guterres' belated
concern is not about killed
civilians, but "territorial
integrity." Then for a 2:45 pm
photo op of Guterres and
Philippines foreign minister
Alan Peter S. Cayetano, Inner
City Press arrived hte
prescribed half hour early. It
was screened and then told to
wait, even after 2:45 pm. When
it was allowed into the
conference room, the handshake
had already taken place.
Dujarric, seen on 37, had
earlier refused to answer
Inner City Press' questions
about UN Security surveillance
camera(s) over the UN media
bullpen, or safeguards on the
use of the footage. This is
Guterres' UN. After Guterres
grip and grin sessions on the
UN's 27th floor during UN
General Assembly high level
week, his meetings and photo
ops on September 27 with the
foreign ministers of Eritrea
and Iran were back on the 38th
floor, with USg Jeff Feltman
at both meetings. Both
countries are subject to
sanctions; Iran's Javad Zarif
was on his way to speak at the
Asia Society. He entered jauntily.
But the UN is
getting more and more murky;
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric has refused to say
how NGO(s) purchasing an event
in the UN General Assembly
Hall on August 23 were vetted,
even after the Ng bribery
verdict. On August 18 Guterres
said that the UN's principles
are those of humanity; he made
much of Miroslv Jenca being
from Slovakia. Meanwhile his
spokesman wouldn't confirm
that Jenca's colleague
Taye-Brook Zerihoun is
leaving, to be replaced by
Kenya's Monica Juma. We'll
have more on this. There were:
Gabon PR Michel Xavier Biang,
Lithuania PR Audra Plepytë,
Slovakia PR Michal Mlynár,
Slovenia PR Darja Bavdaž
Kuret, NZ PR Craig John Hawke,
Ireland PR Geraldine Byrne
Nason, PR, Ireland and
Francophonie PO Narjess
Saidane. On August 16 Guterres
schmoozed correspondents about
Croatia and his vacation;
after a stakeout in which he refused to comment on the Ng Lap
Seng verdict, photos here,
he had a 4:30 pm photo op with
meeting with Serbian Foreign
Minister Ivica Dacic. Photos
on Alamy here;
Inner City Press Periscope here; it was the only
media there other than a lone
Serbian cameraman. Guterres
called Dacic young and the
latter replied that he is 51.
Then the press was ushered
out. Before Dacic arrived,
Guterres squired out a duo who
was not on his schedule. As
noted, a diplomat complained
Guterres is "just bringing in
people he knew in Geneva,
nothing new, no improvements."
On Press freedom, Inner City
Press must concur: it remains
restricted for covering now
convicted Ng Lap Seng's
bribes; the Egyptian state
media the UN is trying to give
its office wasn't even present
for Egypt's
August 2 press conference, has
never asked a question. And on
transparency: the sources said
seven day, but when Inner City
Press asked Guterres' holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric on
July 31, Dujarric said for two
week, Guterres will be "in
Europe." Periscope video here.
He is on leave, on vacation.
On August 1, Dujarric
repeatedly said the Secretary
General thinks this, feels
that - and Inner City Press
asked, how do you know? At
briefings in Washington
reporters routinely ask, did
you speak with your principle
about X, Y or Z. But the UN
feels it doesn't have to
answer. From the UN transcript.
On July 31, Inner City Press
asked if there is any press
pool - no - and if Dujarric
will at least in the future
announce week-long absences by
Guterres in advance. Dujarric
did not say yes (he did,
however, repeat that claim
that the UN was the victim in
its corruption case, saying
that Yiping Zhou is gone. But
what about Navid Hanif, who went
to Macau? What about
Meena Sur, who helped
Ng? Both of them, and
others involved, are still in
the UN). This lack of
transparency stands in
contrast to the executive
branch in Washington and even
New York routinely disclosing
travel including vacation
travel. But the UN has no
press protections either -
Guterres has been asked.
Meanwhile his spokespeople says
the UN should get paid for the
UNreformed corruption shown in
the Ng trial and verdict.
We'll have more on this. When
UN Secretary General Antonio
Guterres on July 27 had a
brief meeting with Qatar's
Foreign Minister Sheikh
Mohammed bin Abdulrahman
Al-Thani, Qatar state media
and other UN based
photographers went up. Alamy
photos here.
There were complaints how
short the handshake was; Inner
City Press noted that on the
UN side of the table were only
four people, all men,
including Jeffrey Feltman.
Periscope video here.
Guterres was scheduled to be
at another meeting in 25
minutes time. So will the UN
help solve the stand-off in
the Gulf? It seems unlikely.
The UN never answered Inner
City Press' questions of if
Feltman had visited Saudi
Arabia and if not, why
not. Back on July 19
Guterres.had a meeting and
photo op with Spain's Foreign
Minister Alfonso María Dastis
Quecedo. Inner City Press went
to cover it, Alamy photos here,
Periscope video here
including of whether Dastis
should write "una poema"
in the UN visitors' book.
Inner City Press barely
arriving on time due to the
crowd of tourists at the UN's
visitors entrance. It has been
this way
since Spain's now-gone Under
Secretary General Cristina
Gallach had Inner City Press
evicted from and still
restricted at the UN after
Inner City Press asked
her about attending indicted
Macau-based businessman Ng Lap
Seng's South South Awards, and
allowing Ng fundees improper
events in the UN. Although
Guterres did not continue
Gallach's contract - she
lobbied to stay, but failed -
her negative impacts are still
in evidence. The Spanish
Mission to the UN, now off the
Security Council, likewise did
nothing to reign Gallach in.
But surely they are lobbying
Guterres to get another Under
Secretary General position,
even as their Fernando Arias
Gonzalez runs against six
others to head the
Organization for the
Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons. We'll have more on
this. The day before on July
18 Guterres had a meeting and
photo op with the Dominican
Republic's Foreign Minister
Miguel Vargas Maldonado (Alamy
photos here,
Periscope video here);
it came one day after in the
UN bribery case against Ng Lap
Seng a video of then then-President
Leonel
Fernandez
Reyna visiting
South South
News near the
UN was
discussed.
That video is
here.
South South
News was a
bribery
conduit, its
funds used for
gambling by
Dominican
Deputy
Permanent
Representative
Francis
Lorenzo in Las
Vegas and
Atlantic City
while the UN's
Department of
Public
Information
let SSN's
content into
UNTV archives
and let Ng
fundees have
impermissible
events in the
UN. On July
18, Guterres'
Deputy
Spokesman
Farhan Haq
refused to
answer Inner
City Press'
yes or no
questions
about South
South News and
the UN. After
the July 18
photo op,
Inner City
Press had
nowhere to
edit - for
seeking to
cover an event
in the UN
Press Briefing
Room in
pursuing the
UN / SSN
corruption
story, Inner
City Press was
evicted and still
restricted.
And in the DR
there are
protests about
corruption. So
what did the
minister and
Guterres
discuss?
Haiti? These
days there are
no read-outs
at the UN.
On July 13 Guterres had a
meeting and photo op
(Periscope here)
with Estonia's President
Kersti Kaljulaid, listed in
the country's delegation was
the coordinator of its run for
a Security Council seat,
Margus Kolga, previously the
country's UN ambassador. Of
the run, he has said "there
are very many small nations.
We are a small nation which
came out from under
occupation. We may serve as
example to them, that this is
possible and that a small
nation has another perspective
on the world which needs to be
represented at the council.
Most nations have spent far
above the million we intend
to." At least that is
transparent. By contrast,
Guterres' UN Spokesman
Stephane Dujarric earlier on
July 13 refused
to answer Inner City
Press' questions about the Ng
Lap Seng / John Ashe (RIP) UN
bribery case, and even
declined to answer Inner City
Press' question about member
states asking (it)
whether Guterres will produce
any document on reform prior
to his July 22 retreat. So
much for We the Peoples. But
hello in the Security Council,
it would seem, Estonia.
Dujarric has repeatedly
refused to provide a list of
who works on Guterres' 38th
floor; by eye Inner City Press
noticed former French Mission
legal adviser Tanguy Stehelin.
Seconded? Dujarric has not
answered. We'll have more on
this. On July 12 when Guterres
swore in six UN officials
(some of them simply being
re-shuffled), Inner City Press
went to cover it. While
Guterres swore in Olga
Algayerova as Executive
Secretary of the UN Economic
Commission for Europe, the
mobile phone seemingly of
Miroslav Jenca went off with a
loud BBC news bulletin about
Donald Trump Jr and Russia.
Periscope video here.
Achim Steiner was installed as
head of the UN Development
Program, at the very time that
UNDP is losing control of the
Resident Coordinator system to
Gutteres' and Amina J.
Mohammed's Secretariat. More
seriously, when the Ng Lap
Seng / John Ashe prosecution
continues in Federal court in
lower Manhattan, there are
been few reforms at the UN.
There is still a lack of
transparency, and business
people buying their way in a
Ng did through the UN
Department of Public
Information under Cristina
Gallach. As Inner City Press
covered it, Gallach had Inner
City Press evicted and still
restricted; the acting head of
DPI, Maher Nasser, has done
nothing to reverse it. There
is still no new Special
Adviser on Africa - Inner City
Press is told that an Angolan
turned it down - and the new
head of OCHA, Mark Lowcock,
doesn't start until September.
The UN must reform. Also sworn
in on July 12 were UN veteran
Jan Beagle,
Under-Secretary-General for
Management; able former Iraqi
Ambassador Mohamed Ali
Alhakim, Executive Secretary
of the UN Economic and Social
Commission for Western Asia; Namvamanee
Ratna Patten,
Special
Representative
of the
Secretary-General
on Sexual
Violence in
Conflict; JIM
veteran Virginia Gamba, as
Special Representative of the
Secretary-General for Children
and Armed Conflict (as Yemen
was the topic in the Security
Council.) On July 10 Guterres
has a photo op with Colombia's
Foreign Minister Maria Angela
Holguin Cuellar. It was
supposed to be in his office
in UN Headquarters at 4:30 pm.
But on little notice he moved
it to his - make that, the UN
and the public's - mansion on
Sutton Place and 57th Street,
at 4 pm. Inner City Press
jumped on the city bus up
First Avenue, broadcasting a
Periscope video about the
change, when suddenly it was urged
to stop broadcasting by
a board member of the UN
Correspondents Association,
which Guterres' deputy spoke
before last week and whose
former president Giampaolo
Pioli's Hampton's gratiuty-fest
the UN acting head of Public
Information Maher
Nasser attended, the UN
Censorship Alliance. This is
today's UN. Still, up on
Sutton Place UN Security
brought up a sniffing dog in a
UN 4x4, and two quick photos
were allowed before Guterres
escorted Holguin onto "his"
elevator. Back at the
UN, the door to the UN
Security Council stakeout was
locked, and the turnstile
where targeting Inner City
Press' ID pass no longer works
was guarded by new UN Security
who didn't even recognize the
UN minder. Still, we got this
Periscope, despite UN
censorship which continues.
Much later at 8:30 pm,
Guterres' holdover spokesman
issued this.
Will there be
reform? On July 5
Guterres had as a series of
five credential photo ops on
July 5, Inner City Press
Periscoped all of them, with a
particular eye on Zambia and
Mauritania. Zambia's returning
Permanent Representative
Lazarus Kapambwe gave the
greeting of his president; one
wondered if in the ten minute
closed door meeting that
followed the continued lock-up
of opposition figure HH was
raised. (Inner City Press has
repeatedly asked Guterres'
holdover spokesman about it,
with only vague generalities
resulting). Mauritania,
Guterres called "un pillier"
(just as he ten minutes later
called Moldova a pillar) - but
did Western Sahara, on which
there has been no UN envoy for
some time, come up? Moldova's
past Permanent Representative
moved in the South South News
world of Ng Lap Seng, now on
trial for UN bribery, although
that may have been in his
"personal capacity." And last
was South Centre, which is
testifying this week to the
World Intellectual Property
Organization, whose director
Francis Gurry's retaliation
and patent work for North
Korea Guterres has apparently
not raised with him. Guterres
was slated to present reform
plans at 11 am, but in the
Ecosoc Chamber which evicted
and restricted Inner City
Press is required to seek a
minder to cover, unlike other
less interested media like
Egypt's state Akhbar al Yom.
This is today's - and now
Guterres' - UN. Inner
City Press' Haiti
questions remain unanswered,
among with Cameroon, the Rif
and more. Guterres will hold a
press conference on June 20 -
Inner City Press asked his
spokesman to confirm all
topics are on the table. He
said yes. We'll see. Guterres
swore in three new officials
on June 7, Inner City Press
went to the photo op (photos here)
and small ceremony, which
included reclusive
head of UN Peacekeeping
Jean-Pierre Lacroix, the UN's
head of Information
Technology, Atul Khare and
Miroslav Jenca, previously
head of the UN's office in
Turkmenistan. It's to there
that Guterres tonight takes
off on his most recent trip,
amid crises in the Gulf and
elsewhere, UN failures in
Cameroon and Yemen, and
continuing Press censorship
and lack of reform. Guterres
swore in Ursula Mueller as
Assistant Secretary-General
for Humanitarian Affairs and
Deputy Emergency Relief
Coordinator in the Office for
the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (she's
already been on the job for
100 days, she said);
Fekitamoeloa Katoa Utoikamanu
on Tonga,
Under-Secretary-General and
High Representative for the
Least Developed Countries,
Landlocked Developing
Countries and Small Island
Developing States; and
Alexander Zuev as Assistant
Secretary-General for Rule of
Law and Security Institutions.
With him, Guterres hearkened
back to his interview, and
said thank you in Russian.
Periscope video here.
As to the still unfilled
Department of Public
Information post vacated by corrupt
censor Cristina Gallach,
Inner City Press is informed
of interviewees currently
based in Paris and Geneva. It
is not or should not be a
system run without rules by
the top person, but rather one
in which the media have due
process and appeals rights,
and retaliatory action are
reversed. Flier
here. Guterres will soon
by the flier: we'll be
covering it. The evening
before on June 6 when Guterres
did a photo
op (Periscope here) and
meeting with Gabon's Ali
Bongo, who along with his
father Omar have consecutively
ruled Gabon since 1967, it
began a full 15 minutes late.
Not because Bongo was picking
up another dubious
award on the sidelines
of the sometimes dubious Ocean
Conference (see
here), but because
Guterres had another, unlisted
visitor. It was, Inner City
Press saw, Saudi Arabia's
ambassador to the UN,
presumably about the standoff
with Qatar. Guterres' holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
has repeatedly said Guterres
is not involved. We'll have
more on this. On Bongo, he
stayed upstairs for 45 minutes
and then left with the media
he'd brought in, in a caravan
of vehicles with a police
escort. Periscope viewers told
Inner City Press Gabonese were
protesting Bongo, who they
call a killer, in front of the
Peninsula Hotel. Watch this
site. On June 5, Guterres met with
Fiji's Josaia Voreqe
Baininarama, there was a rare
attendee: Deputy Secretary
General Amina Mohammed.
Perhaps it was because Fiji is
the co-President, with Sweden,
of the Ocean Conference.
Earlier on June 5, Deputy
Mohammed had been listed as
the briefer - and presumably
answerer - at a press
conference about a more than
1000 page UN book. But
Mohammed left; Inner City
Press stayed and asked a
scientist who seemed to say
he'd been at a conference in
1946 about fisheries
subsidies. Likewise, Baininarama left
the 1 pm stakeout in front of
the UN General Assembly before
he could be asked any
questions. This is also how
Guterres did it, speaking in
the third person about Cyprus,
on Sunday evening. It seems to
be catching in his UN. Back on
May 30 when Guterres met
with Romania's Foreign
Minister Teodor Melescanu, it
was part of Melescanu's
campaign for his country to
win a two year term on the UN
Security Council, to follow
its six-month rotating
presidency of the European
Council in first half of 2019
(for which it is seeking a
bigger building in Brussels).
Melescanu has
most recently, in Istanbul, defended
his country's delaying of
Turkish basketball player Enes
Kanter after he criticized Erdogan.
Melescanu
will
be in New York through June 3.
Guterres, after yet another
trip (this time for a G7
speech on Africa and
technology with no mention of
the Internet cut-off in
Cameroon), was back in New
York, NYU
earlier in the day, then with
an unscheduled or undisclosed
meeting with a Security
Council ambassador that ran
past 7 pm. In the meeting with
Melescanu were Tanguy Stehelin
and Fabrizio Hochschild, among
others. The UN's restrictions
on the Press, unlike on never
present Egyptian state media
Akhbar al Yom, continued. But
on the 38th floor there was
laughter. Last week Guterres
met Azerbaijan's Foreign
Minister and was given an oil
painting; before that Guterres
held a meeting with his senior
management group since after a
two week trip he is in New
York for only three days,
leaving tomorrow. At the
appointed time for Azerbaijan,
streaming out of Guterres'
conference room were USg Jeff
Feltman, Jean Pierre Lacroix
who declined
to answer Inner City
Press' question about France's
20+ year rule of UN
Peacekeeping, Oscar
Fernandez-Taranco, Fabrizio
Hochschild and others. Earlier
on May 24 Inner City Press
asked Guterres' holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric to
"please state if a David J
Vennett is now a/the principal
advisor to the SG, if so why
he is not in iSeek and how he
was recruited and hired and,
again, please provide a list
of who works in / or the
Executive Office of the
Secretary General and whether
they are paid by the UN, by a
UN affiliate like UNOPS, or by
a country and is so which."
There was no answer. Dujarric
announced, "Tomorrow, the
Secretary-General will be
heading out of New York for
Italy to attend the G-7
meeting. On Saturday, he will
participate in the outreach
session of the summit, which
is taking place in
Taormina. The focus of
the discussion will be
"Innovation and Sustainable
Development in Africa."
He will leave Taormina
Saturday afternoon." Does it
take from Thursday to Saturday
to get to Italy? Is there a
stop over on the way back?
What was in Guterres' budget
speech on May 24, a copy of
which Inner City Press requested?
Why was corrupt
censor Cristina Gallach
speaking in the General
Assembly Hall on May 24, and
why has her censorship
continued, without hearing or
appeal? Back on May 22 when
Guterres met
Slovenia's President Borut
Pahor, it was Guterres first
such meeting at UN
Headquarters in two weeks. In
his first 141 days, Guterres
is often on the road, this
time including London and
China and Geneva, maybe
Lisbon, while the promised
reforms at the UN are still
not easy to see. Pahor is
running for re-election and
was to host a reception later
on May 22 for Slovenia's 25th
anniversary in the UN, at the
Intercontinental Barclays. The
country's ambassadors at the
UN and in Washington are set
to change, the latter amid
probably unfair criticism that
First Lady Melania Trump's
Slovenian roots have led at
last to Slovenia
distinguishing itself from
Slovakia (which is set to take
up the Presidency of the UN
General Assembly in
September). Guterres, too,
needs to distinguish himself
from his predecessor. On
Yemen, holdover envoy Ismail
Ould Cheikh Ahmed continues to
oversee bombing and now
cholera, spun by holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
who has also defended the UN's
World Intellectual Property
Organization's patent work for
sodium cyanide in North
Korea. On Press Freedom,
there are still no UN rules
and evictions
and restrictions remain
in
place. Back on May 5
when Guterres met with the
Dominican Republic's foreign
minister Miguel Vargas
Maldonado there was an
indicted elephant (not) in the
room: former Deputy Permanent
Representative of the
Dominican Republic to the UN
Francis Lorenzo, who has pleaded
guilty to bribery in the
UN through South
South News which he ran.
That case is moving toward
trial, but the UN has done
nothing in its wake - except
evict and still restrict Inner
City Press which covers that
and other corruption,
including in the January 2016
"incident"
the Department of Public
Information used and uses as a
pretext to confine Inner City
Press to minders. On May 5 the
Dominicans covering the photo
op were an energetic bunch,
with GoPro cameras taking
photos out the 38th floor
windows that Inner City Press
was ordered not to take. We
asked: what issues would
Guterres raise? Would they
include next door Haiti, where
UN introduced cholera still
causes suffering? After the
meeting, the Dominican side
issued a read-out, the the UN
should do more concretely on
Haiti. So on May 9 Inner City
Press asked, UN transcript here, Inner
City Press: the
Secretary-General met with the
Foreign Minister of the
Dominican Republic on
Friday. And, since then
they’ve formally put out a
readout, and they’ve said that
they told… said that the UN
system should do more
concretely for Haiti, not just
talk but give money.
And… and so I guess I’m
wondering, can you give some
UN side readout or what…
Spokesman: I don’t
have… I don’t have a
readout, but I’ll see what I
can get you.
But six
hours later when Guterr's
holdover spokesman Dujarric
left, no read-out had been
provided, none at all. We'll
stay on it. On May 3 when
Guterres did a photo op and
meeting with the "new"
Permanent Representative of
The Gambia on May 3,
Guterres welcomed him "as a
democratic country, we are
proud to have you in our
ranks." Video here.
There was only one problem:
it was the same Ambassador
who had represented
strongman Jammeh, Mamadou
Tangara. Inner City Press
had repeatedly asked
Guterres' also holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
about Mamadou Tangara during
the time Jammeh tried to
hang on. Now Mamadou Tangara
is being feted as a
representative of democracy.
Did Guterres not know this?
Or was this quiet diplomacy?
In other photo ops on May 3,
World Press Freedom Day,
Guterres' Deputy SG Amina J
Mohammed came to attend the
one with new Nigeria rep
Tijjani Muhammad Band,
Periscope here,
but not Uganda's
knowledgeable Adonia Ayebare
nor Seychelles' Ronald Jean
Jumeau. Back down on the
UN's second floor, Inner
City Press remains confined
to minders, even on World
Press Freedom day. We'll
have more on this. Back on
April 20, Guterres met
Lilianne Ploumen, Minister
for Foreign Trade and
Development Cooperation,
Kingdom of the Netherlands,
on Guterres' side of the
table were four men and one
woman, Katrin Hett, who
asked one of the men who'd
sat next to Guterres to get
up and move. The previous
evening as Inner City Press
rushed to leave a Department
of Public Information event
in the General Assembly
lobby before the 7 pm
censorship witching hour
imposed on it by DPI, Inner
City Press was told, in a
friendly way, to give more
positive coverage to Dutch
Sigrid Kaag, so the UN
doesn't remain a
"patriarchy." It's a good
point, but Kaag like failed
Cameroon Resident
Coordinator (promoted by
Guterres) Najat Rochdi
probably shouldn't block
the press they don't like.
On April 20 on the 38th
floor was the Officer in
Charge of DPI, Maher Nasser,
who has made no substantive
response to Inner City
Press' April 1 formal
request to end
the now 14 months of minders
and censorship for having
covered a meeting in the UN
Press Briefing Room in
connection with the Ng Lap
Seng / John Ashe UN
corruption case.
Guterres is 110 days in, and
what has changed? Not the
censorship and targeted
requirement of minders. On
April 18 when Guterres did photo
op and meeting with
Ukraine's deputy Foreign
Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya,
his close adviser Katrin
Hett came to tell the
assembled staffers they
would not be needed, the
meeting would be held with
only four on each side in
Guterres' office overlooking
the East River and Queens.
Things are getting more and
more private: Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Duajrric
for example has twice
refused to answer Inner City
Press if as reported
Guterres tried to reach
Cameroon's president of
decades Paul Biya, about the
cut off of the Internet
there. Others have noticed
the rash of German officials
getting jobs: Achim Steiner
at UNDP and prospectively
Horst Kohler on Western
Sahara. But some office on
38 now have blank signs.
Kyslytsya had just given a
right of reply in the
Security Council, about
Crimea. The mystery and
payback for Guterres getting
all of the Permanent Five
members of the Council on
his side to get elected has
still not be revealed. But
earlier on April 18, Inner
City Press which remains
evicted from its UN office
and confined the UN minders
was told, by the minders,
that it cannot
even work at a table in
the UN lobby. This has been
raised, yes, to
the 38th floor. So
they know. There are no
rules - a topic, in another
context, that Kyslytsya
raised in the Security
Council.
Back on April
10 when Guterres did a photo
op with the Club de
Madrid - World Leadership
Alliance including another
candidate for Secretary
General, Danilo Turk, it was
impossible not to wonder
what might have been. How
might other of the
candidates fared? What
reforms, and reversal of Ban
Ki-moon mistakes from Yemen
and children and armed
conflict to censorship
might they have accomplished
or at least begun? The ex
heads of state barely fit
into the photo, Periscope
video here,
and very little banter was
heard before the press was
ushered out. On the way in,
Guterres came amiably
through the hall, turning
into the office of Miguel
Graca. But where is the
requested list of who works
on the 38th floor, and who
pays them? Is it true, as
Inner City Press has heard,
that Guterres has
interviewed Achim Steiner
for UNDP? At the lower
profile Department of Public
Information, why hasn't the
Officer in Charge given any
substantive response to simple
requests before him,
and would any successor at
least have to commit to free
press due process rules? Why
is the holdover
spokesman allowed to refuse to answer the Press'
questions on Burundi, while
engaging
others about Sex and the
City? We'll have more on
this. After 100 days of
Antonio Guterres as UN
Secretary General, what has
been accomplished? Guterres
focused early on South
Sudan, but as Inner City
Press reports
today on his 100th day,
the Salva Kiir forces are
using tanks near Wau while
UN Peacekeeping, still under
French control, says nothing
publicly. The Cyprus talks
are set to continue, but
we've heard that before.
Yemen is as bloody as ever,
and Guterres extended Ban
Ki-moon's (or Saudi
Arabia's) envoy Ismail Ould
Cheikh Ahmed without even
getting him to make any
public financial
disclosure. Discrepancies
in Guterres own disclosure
filings between 2013 and
2016 have yet
to be explained by
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric. What has
changed? Not the Department
of Public Information's
targeted restrictions on
Inner City Press, able to
cover meeting on the UN's
second floor only with a
minder, and sometimes (as on
the Rwanda genocide on April
7) not
at all. Inner City
Press has filed a request
for reversal with
DPI's Officer in Charge,
nine days ago, with no
substantive response. New
Inner City Press song
here. We remain
constructive, eager to see
reforms occur and succeed.
But what has changed?
When
Guterres held a brief
photo
opportunity and
meeting with Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau, it
was Guterres' first in a
while, after several rounds
of travel. And it was over
quickly: the media was told
to leave before a single
word was said. There were
complaints about that, and
more substantive complaints
about a lack of
transparency. There are no
read-outs of meetings. On
April 5 Inner City Press
reported on inconsistencies
even in Guterres' own public
financial disclosures from
2016 and 2013 (his Yemen
envoy makes NO public
disclosures). On April 6
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric declined
to offer any explanation
of the differences. As
noted, under Ban Ki-moon he
had Inner City Press thrown
out of the UN Press
Briefing Room and UN, where
it is still
restricted even as the
Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe UN
bribery case it was covering
is coming
to trial. Is the UN
reforming? Watch this site.
Back on
March 23 when Guterres met
UK Foreign Secretary Boris
Johnson, unlike in other
recent meetings with the Democratic
Republic of the Congo
and Tajikistan,
there were women on
Guterres' side of the table
(Periscope video
here): Katrin Hett and
the Chief of Staff, who had
just met with Alain Leroy,
former head of Peacekeeping
now with the EU. Also on
Guterres' side of the table
was OCHA's Stephen O'Brien,
who greeted and was greeted
by Boris Johnson. Will the
UK, and separately O'Brien,
hold onto the OCHA post? The
emergence reported
by Inner City Press of
outgoing Dutch Labor Party
foreign minister Burt
Koenders as a candidate for
UNDP, over David Miliband,
may help O'Brien. But with
budget cuts looming, the
increasing lack of
transparency in the UN
Secretariat's business is a
problem. And this: according
to at least one senior
official on the 38th floor
on March 23, Guterres "has
no interlocutor" in
Washington, to which we'll
soon turn. Watch this site.
As to
Boris Johnson, after four
pre-selected questions all
on the London attacks, Inner
City Press audibly asked
about Cameroon's
Anglophone's Internet cut,
what the UK is doing. We'll
have more on this too.
Back on March 15 when
Guterres met
with Bahrain's foreign
minister Shaikh Khalid Bin
Ahmed Al-Khalifa and a
delegation that appeared to
include that country's
former president of the
General Assembly, Guterres
began by apologizing for
keeping them waiting.
Periscope video
here. His previous
appointment had been with a
delegation called "United
Cities and Local
Governments." Guterres'
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric has met to answer
Inner City Press clearly on
why some meeting and calls
are not disclosed, such as a
call with the King of Morocco
and a working lunch with
Michael Bloomberg, nor how
some media were handpicked
to memorialize Guterres'
most recent trip to Kenya
and Somalia. Video
here. If these
happened, as it has, in
Washington there would be an
outcry. And perhaps one is
growing in Turtle Bay.
Earlier
on March 15 in the UN's
basement, Bahrain human
rights defender Maryam
Alkhawaja spoke. She was not
on the 38th floor; Guterres'
interlocutors at Human Right
Watch, after they met with
him, refused
to give any read-out of what
issues they raised. It seems
clear these did not include,
from the UN spokesman's
non-answers, that the
cut-off of the Internet by
the government in Cameroon's
Anglophone areas, now 57
days and counting, nor the
UN's censorship
and restriction
of the Press. We'll have
more on this.
On February 1,
Stehelin was one of Guterres'
team at the conference
table. Does he still
work at the French mission?
He's still listed there.
We'll have more on this:
transparency will help the
UN.
On January 25 with French
Minister for Development and
Francophonie Jean-Marie Le
Guen, this latter said,
"It's almost a historic
day." Periscope
video here, Tweeted
photo here.
Some
wondered if Le Guen might be
referred to the news the new
Administration in Washington
is considering a 40% cut in
its contributions to the UN,
with full cuts to parts of
the UN system accused of
violating human rights.
Thus far
Guterres has yet to hold a
press conference in UN
Headquarters, so it has not
been possible to ask him
about the cuts, or the
seemingly slow pace of
transition and reform so
far.
Dubious Under
Secretaries General like
Frenchman Herve
Ladsous at
Peacekeeping and Spain's Cristina
Gallach for "Public
Information" remain in
place; deputy SG Amina
Mohammed will not begin
until at earliest March 2.
Still
the talk on the 38th floor
was of a new energy, of
meetings well into the
evening, with Guterres and
his chief of staff and
others.
Inner
City Press intends to report
in as much detail as it can
-- it is still constrained
by Gallach's eviction
and pass-reduction order
from eleven months ago --
but on January 25 the photo
op was send, by a "sign,"
before Guterres said
anything beyond "Comment
allez-vous."
Back on January
13 when Guterres met with
President Rafael Correa of
Ecuador, the new chair of
the Group of 77 and China,
Correa gave him a painting.
Photo
here; Tweeted
video here. Then,
without words, the Press was
ushered off the 38th floor.
This differed
from Guterres' first four
days in office, when he
invited the press back in
and urged his counterparties
to also speak to “your
media.”
While
Inner City Press has
exclusively reported this
week on Guterres-proposed
changes, such as combining
the UN's Rule of Law and
Elections units, UN holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
has refused to confirm or
explain, describing only
"co-location."
But when
Inner City Press on January
13 asked for further
information, such as how
many staff in UN
headquarters work on Mali,
there was no response.
We'll have more
on this - and on Dujarric's
continuig refusal to answer
UN-specified questions about
the January 10 unsealed
indictment of just-left
Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon's brother and
nephew, who was allowed to
work at the UN's landlord
Colliers International.
All of Inner
City Press' questions,
including about the UN's
Office of Internal Oversight
Services, were referred to
Ban's Seoul-based spokesman
at a phone number that is
only a telephone menu tree
all in Korean.
Guterres
held his second
and third photo
opportunities
and meetings as
UN Secretary
General on
January 6, with
Japan's Deputy
Minister for
Foreign Affairs
Shinsuke
Sugiyama (Photos
here, Periscope here) and
Greek Foreign
Minister Nikos
Kotzias (photos
here, Periscope here.)
Slightly late to the first
meeting, Guterres cited the
need to prepare for the Astana
(Syria) and Paris (Palestine)
conferences.
Guterres
to his credit made a point of
saying a bit, in public,
before each meeting. With the
Japanese delegation he joked
about a dinner where at least
“no one vetoed the dessert” --
yet -- and with the Greeks, he
joked that their gifts, a book
and music CDs and a box, were
too heavy.
In this Guterres differed from
Ban Ki-moon, but not earlier
in the day when led around to
take selfies with the
correspondents the UN has not,
like Inner City Press, evicted
from their offices for
covering UN corruption, like
the Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe
bribery case. Video
here, story
here.
The Greek meeting followed one
on January 6 with Turkey's
Foreign Minister Mevlüt
Çavusoglu. Photo
here; video
here.
Beyond the pleasantries - and
there were more of these than
in the final days of Ban
Ki-moon's tenure - it was noteworthy
that along with the UN's
Cyprus envoy Espen Barth Eide,
Ban's Under Secretaries
General Feltman, Ladsous and
O'Brien were all there. The
"P3 men," some call them.
Would they be switched not
only for gender, but nation?
By year's end, Feltman was
still in; both Ladsous and
O'Brien had been switched out,
for men from France and the
UK... At Guterres' UN it's
always do as I say, not as I
do....
***
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