After
Reuters Cuts Off ICP Cameroon Q To UK
Rycroft, UK Omits From Transcript,
Cyprus Trend
By Matthew
Russell Lee, video
UNITED NATIONS,
August 9 – On Cameroon,
Inner City Press in front of
the UN Security Council on
August 9 was asking UK
Permanent Representation
Matthew Rycroft, not for the
first time, about the Paul
Biya governnment's abuse of Anglophones,
the Reuters correspondent who
insisted that "UNCA is not
corrupt," here,
cut in yelling, and Rycroft's
spokesman said, We'll have to
get back to you. Video here.
The question, and the
commitment to revert, were
omitted from the transcript of
the press encounter which the
UK Mission prepared and
distributed. This is a pattern.
With the Cyprus talks having
collapsed at Crans Montana and
the Greek Cypriot side saying
it would release detailed
minutes of the talks, Inner
City Press on July 27 asked UK
Ambassador Matthew Rycroft at
a four question Security
Council stakeout about the
talks and minutes. Rycroft
answered that it is not a time
for a blame game and that he
wouldn't engage in one. Then
when the UK Mission to the UN
sent out a transcript of
Rycroft's press encounter,
every questions and answer was
included - except the one with
Inner City Press about Cyprus.
Here
is the question the UK
omitted, in the UNTV video
(from 2:40) which even the UN
said was on Syria and Cyprus.
The UK is the Security Council
penholder on Cyprus, as it is
on Yemen and Somalia; the
omission or even censorship is
inappropriate. While Inner
City Press has held off
reporting on the UK Mission's
media strategy, out of
respect, it seems this is not
reciprocated. While Inner City
Press can report fine without
background spin, on its eviction
and continuing restriction's
relation to this, we'll have
more. For now we note the
omission is particularly
striking in that the UK is
bringing its representative to
the Cyprus talks, Jonathan
Allen, to the UN as its new
Deputy Permanent
Representative. We'll have
more on this. With ENI and
Total moving forward on
natural gas, on July 11 Inner
City Press asked UN Spokesman
Stephane Dujarric about it.
Typically, the UN had no
comment. On July 27, Inner
City Press asked Dujarric's
deputy Farhan Haq about the
proposal by the Turkish
Cypriot side to "re-open"
three villages, reportedly as
a firs step to re-openning
Varosha. Video here,
from Minute 4. UN Spokesman
Haq twice said that the UN
would welcome any "confidence
building measures." Inner City
Press asked, what if the Greek
Cypriot side is opposed?
Cyprus Mail picked up Haq's
answer to Inner City Press, here.
We'll have more on this. On
July 26, Inner City Press
asked Haq about Cyprus saying
it will release its detailed
minutes of that last five hour
meeting in Crans Montana: what
does Guterres think of that?
Haq called it "hypothetical"
and said the UN intends to
keep its secrets. And, Inner
City Press notes, non-secrets.
On Febuary 26, five days after
UN lead spokesman Stephane
Dujarric on February 24 ran
out of the UN Press Briefing
Room as Inner City Press asked
about UN Peacekeeping (and the
lack
of UN due process for
journalists) and declined
written questions after
that, we had this exclusive
report.
The CFO of
UNFICYP is named Husein
Moussa. Complaints about his
have been lodged against him
since at latest May 2016 in
e-mails and attachments UN
Under Secretary Generals Atul
Khare, Jeffrey Feltman and
Herve Ladsous, among others.
Inner City Press is
exclusively publishing the
contents of a May 6, 2016
email leaked to it, here,
and a series of attachments
about Husein's Moussa's lack
of academic verification, here,
including in Annex 3 a 2014
"follow on the academic
verification for Mr. Moussa...
not yet cleared."
Beyond
violating the Status of Forces
Agreement between the UN and
Cyprus by obtaining Cypriot
citizenship, Moussa is charged
in the May 2016 email with
using UN vehicles after-hours
and a variety of other
irregularities: "Husein
Moussa, the Chief Finance and
Budget Officer, continuously
and freely used the UN owned
vehicle throughout his
assignment to UNFICYP, i.e.,
since 2002." (So much for Ban
Ki-moon's supposed mobility
policy.)
Also that
"Husein Moussa had mentioned
to a friend of his that the
information about his
university degree he had
provided in his PHP was not
true... If the brushing of
this case under the carpets
continues, I will refer the
details to the international
media for another UN scandal
they will publish with great
pleasure."
Now that
this has happened, and the
UN's two holdover spokesmen
have refused to provide basic
answers and even run out of
the briefing room and ignore
written questions, it has
become an issue in the Cyprus
talks, one of the few possibly
fruitful UN diplomatic efforts
in the past decade. Corruption
and scapegoating makes today's
UN even less able to be fit
for purpose.
Then no answers, UN spokesman
Stephane Dujarric running out of
the briefing room amid Inner
City Press questions and refusing
its written questions
since, while continuing the restrictions
on Inner City Press'
journalistic access at the UN
imposed in early 2016.
UNfailing.
***
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