UNSG
Keeps Han Seung-soo, on Board of
UN StanChart, Spox' Answer to
ICP on Website Omitted
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
March 2 – Why was the UN
website off-line for hours on
March 1? Why is Han Seung-soo,
whose is on the board of
directors of UN bank Standard
Chartered, still a UN envoy?
Inner City Press asked the
UN's holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric on March 2. The
questions were unanswered, and
the transcript even cut off
his response about the
website. Compare video
at end to this UN
transcript:
Inner City Press:
There's a picture of the
Secretary-General and the
Deputy Secretary-General with
Mike Bloomberg
yesterday. I'm always
thinking maybe the schedule
was updated and I didn't see
it. But I didn't see it
on the schedule. So I
wanted to know how this is
happening a lot…
Spokesman: It's a lunch…
you know, it's a working lunch
with one of his envoys, so we
don't always put the internal
meetings up.
Inner
City Press:Right,
but I guess that's why I'd
asked you in writing about a
week ago whether not only Mr.
Bloomberg, but Han Seung-soo,
Jeffrey Sachs, are these
people still envoys…
Spokesman: A number of
envoys have been reviewed…
renewed for a year.
You'd asked me… there was some
other names on that list.
Inner
City Press:
Han Seung-soo, Jeffrey Sachs,
and there were some more, but
I don't have it in front of
me. That's why I sent it
to you.
Spokesman: They were…
Vijay Nambiar is no longer an
envoy of the UN, but the other
two have been extended for a
bit of time. I think
it's still… we're still in a
transition place, but Mr.… the
Secretary-General is…
continues to be in discussion
with Michael Bloomberg, with
Jeff Sachs, Gordon
Brown. These are all
people that continue very much
to work closely with the
Secretary-General on the
issues that are in their
portfolio. In
fact, I failed to mention that
Gordon Brown will be here at
noon tomorrow.
Inner
City Press:
Okay. One of the reasons
that I'm asking you this is,
if you remember, Jeffrey Sachs
had said on the steps of the
Sutton Place house that
he was willing to work
on Ban Ki-moon's
campaign. And I said,
was that legal? And you
said…
Spokesman: Well, there
is no… there was no campaign
as far as I recall. The
former Secretary-General never
officially declared.
It's incumbent on all of the
envoys who work on either a
dollar a year or when actually
employed to keep in mind their
responsibilities as UN envoys.
Inner
City Press:
Is there a list just to not
have to ask you in this
context of the envoys…?
Spokesman: I'll try to
get you a list.
Inner City Press: And
also, yesterday, the website
of the UN was down for
several… like, several hours,
at least from 6:00 till 9:00,
10:00.
That's
where where the UN
transcript ends, as put
online on March 2. Compare to
video.
Where was UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres from February
24 to February 26? On February
24 after Guterres' spokesman
Stephane Dujarric walked
out of the UN Press
Briefing Room as Inner City
Press was asking a question,
Inner City Press asked
Dujarric and his deputy in
writing, "where is UNSG
Guterres right now? In New
York? In Lisbon? In flight?"
Even
by February 27, there was no
answer to this basic question,
which is asked routinely of
leaders of the US President
(when he stepped out to dinner
in Manhattan, or golfing) and
previously of Michael
Bloomberg when he would
"disappear" to the Caribbean
on the weekends, the media
complained. Inner City Press
asks it with all due respect
regarding Guterres, trying to
be constructive. Is the UN so
unimportant? Or it is just
another double standard in
coverage? And so on
February 27, Inner City Press
asked Dujarric in person, at
the UN noon briefing. From the
UN
transcript:
Inner City
Press: I… on Friday, I'd asked
you, with all due respect,
where the Secretary… you know,
the Secretary-General… sort of
where he was. And I'd
asked it in the context of,
like, this is what people that
cover the President of the
United States, the Mayor of
the City of New York, so you
didn't answer it. Do you
think it's an illegitimate
question or is it just…?
Spokesman: I didn't say
it was an illegitimate
question.
Inner City Press:
Okay. So where was he?
Spokesman: The
Secretary-General was in
Portugal over the
weekend. He left on
Friday and is… went to Geneva
Sunday night.
Was that
so difficult? Why wasn't it
answered until days later?
Inner City Press
has also asked Dujarric and
Farhan Haq about Bloomberg and
others - still UN officials?
We have asked the top three UN
spokespeople:
"Beyond the
unanswered questions on for
example Myanmar
and OSCE
(the latter reiterated
at the noon briefing on
February 23), this is a Press
question on deadline for you
(three) to disclose:
Please state if and when SG
Guterres moved into the UN
residence on Sutton Place.
Not that it should be
necessary, but the question is
posed in light of questions
about President Trump slipping
the pool for a dinner or round
of gold, and questions about
then NYC Mayor (now UN
official) Michael Bloomberg's
Caribbean weekends.
By the way, please state
whether the following are
still UN officials, or when
they stopped:
Michael Bloomberg; Jeffrey
Sach (this has been asked in
noon briefings without
answer); Vijay Nambiar; Iqbal
Riza; Nicolas Michel; Han
Seung Soo... There will be
other questions, but these are
on deadline."
We are
still after Dujarric called
the end of day "lid" on
February 27 awaiting answers.
One year ago,
covering the UN corruption
scandals which have resulted
in two sets of indictments for
bribery involving the UN,
Inner City Press was ordered
to leave the UN Press Briefing
Room by then Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon's spokesman
Stephane Dujarric.
Other
correspondents were allowed to
stay in the briefing room,
which Dujarric had "lent"
them. But he insisted that
Inner City Press leave. Video
here.
Inner City
Press asked to see any
paperwork that the event was
closed; none was provided.
Inner City Press stated that
if a single UN Security
official asked it to leave, it
would. Finally one guard came
and said Dujarric wanted it to
leave.
Inner City
Press immediately left,
uploaded the already
live-streamed Periscope video,
and continued digging into the
corruption that's resulted in
the indictment for bribery and
money laundering of Ban
Ki-moon's brother Ban Ki Sang
and nephew Dennis Bahn.
But three
weeks afterward, without a
single conversation or
opportunity to be heard, Ban's
Under Secretary General for
Public Information Cristina
Gallach ordered Inner City
Press to leave the UN, after
ten years, on two hours
notice. Order
here.
This
was enforced, as Inner City
Press worked on its laptop at
the UN Security Council
stakeout, by eight UN Security
officers led by Deputy Chief
McNulty, who tore Inner City
Press accreditation badge off
its chest and said, "Now you
are a trespasser." Audio
here.
Inner City
Press was marched down the
escalator and around the UN
traffic circle, without even
its coat which was up in its
longtime office. It was pushed
out of the gate and its
laptop, in a bag, was thrown
on the sidewalk and damaged.
The next
work day when Inner City Press
arranged for a fellow
journalist to sign it in as a
guest so it could cover the
Security Council, UN Security
official Matthew Sullivan said
it was Banned from UN premises
worldwide. Audio
here.
After three days covering the
UN from the park in front in
the sleet, and articles like
this one, Inner City Press
re-entered with a
"non-resident correspondents"
pass - to which it is still,
more than eleven months later,
confined.
The
then-US Mission under Samantha
Power and Isobel Coleman, even
petitioned
by the DC-based Government
Accountability Project, did
nothing. Indirectly, a offer
was made of an upgraded pass
if Inner City Press would
agree to a gag order, to which
it would not and will not
agree.
There has
been no UN opportunity for
appeal or reinstatement. After
having five boxes of Inner
City Press' investigative
files thrown
on the sidewalk in April,
Gallach is giving
its office to an
Egyptian state media Akhbar al
Yom which rarely comes in, a
correspondent Sanaa Youssef
who had yet to ask a single
question.
Her only claim is
that she was once, decades
ago, a president of the United
Nations Correspondents
Association, the group to
which Duajrric "lent" the UN
Press Briefing Room, without
notice or written record, on
January 29, 2016.
Even as the
scope of Ban Ki-moon's
corruption is being exposed
upon his return to South
Korea, here,
his successor Antonio Guterres
has yet to reverse this year
of censorship and no due
process. Watch this site.
***
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