UNITED NATIONS
GATE, March 6
– Inner City Press on July 5
was banned from entering the
UN, the day after it filed a
criminal complaint against
UN Security for physically
removing it from covering
the meeting about the UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' $6.7 billion
peacekeeping budget, as
witnessed and essentially
cheered on by senior UN
official Christian Saunders,
tearing its reporter's
shirt, painfully and
intentionally twisting his
arm and slamming shut and
damaging his laptop. On
August 17, Guterres' Global
Communicator Alison Smale
issued a letter banning
Inner City Press from the UN
- for life. With no due
process. She and Guterres
have put the UN in the US
Press Freedom Tracker, here.
Smale said,
again, that the UN would
answer Press questions to
the Spokesman Stephane
Dujarric and his Office; Dujarric said the same on
camera.
On March 6 two hours before a Dujarric
briefing a day
after Guterres
invited a
trustee of the
Century Fund -
as a
journalist -
to nosh on halibut
off the record, Inner City
Press submitted 591 questions: "There
are more than 300+ questions
UNanswered. While appreciating
and using what was sent on
January 29 after it was
read out in the briefing
room, no answers on Dec 17
or 18 or 19 or 20 or 21 -
another FIVE days in a
row, even as SG's direct
conflicts of interest and
failure to disclose
emerge, and a newest low.
While
appreciating the
lone partial
response to Question
Feb 28-3,
nothing on Dec 24 or
Dec 26 or Dec 27 or
Dec 28, or January
2, 3 or 4 or 8 or 9
or 10 or 11 or 14 or
15 or 16 or 17 or 18
or 21 or 22 or 23 or
24 or 25 or 28 -
that was FIFTEEN
week-days in a row,
apparently under
orders, then a
simple post-facto
answer. Now what? No
answers on January
30 nor 31 nor
February 1 nor 4 nor
5 nor 6 nor 7 nor 11
nor 12 nor 13 nor 14
or 15 nor 18 nor 19
nor 20 nor 21 nor 22
nor 25 nor 26 nor 27
nor March 1
nor 4 nor 5.
No answers at all
during those four
days of the US v Ho
trial showing
corruption in the UN
says it all. This
ban is just
censorship - and
Inner City Press
must be allowed back
into the noon
briefing to ask its
questions in person
and follow up on
them.
March
6-1: Please
immediately provide
the SG's comment and
action on the travel
waste of the head of
UN Women leaked to
Inner City Press by
whistleblowers
there: "UN women
spent $240,567 in
expenses for travel
of our executive
director in
2018. This
does not include the
journey of anyone
who is traveling
with her and
security costs or
other costs paid by
the local
offices.
During the last 2
years UN women spent
more than $467,000
in travel of ED
which is almost
identical to Mr.
Erik Solheim of UNEP
but UN women is a
much smaller
agency. UN
women has spent more
than $1,255,550 on
travel for the
director since Mrs
Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka was
hired in September
2013. Some of
her flights have
cost as much as
$37,057! Also
the UN Women ED
traveled for 170
days in 2018.
That's over 65% of
the time not
including annual
holidays or public
holidays of the
United
Nations! She
also had strangely
four visits to her
home country of
South Africa paid by
UN Women."
March
6-2: On Uganda and
Rwanda, what is the
SG's comment and
action on that
Rwandan Foreign
Minister Richard
Sezibera told
journalists that
Kigali had
information that
rebels of the Rwanda
National Congress
(RNC) "communicate
with Ugandan people
and give them
instructions on
arresting
Rwandans"?
March
6-3: Please
immediately provide
the SG's comment and
response to the
Staff Unions'
complain that DSS
funds are being
diverted to for
profit events of
CulinArt and USG
Smale's DGC: " "the
Department of Safety
and Security is
currently ceding
some of its funding
to serve
profit-making
ventures, both a
contractor,
CulinArt, and
another Secretariat
department, the
Department of Global
Communications, by
providing security
services for their
ventures, that is,
Friday nights
activities at the
Delegates Lounge and
United Nations
Tours, respectively.
The funds to provide
those services from
the UNDSS’s annual
budget are
substantial and are
not reimbursed. Why
should UNDSS
continue to provide
those services out
of its budget free
of charge when cuts
are being made
elsewhere?"
March
6-4: On Cyprus and
Turkey, please
confirm SG receipt
of, and response to,
this letter: "
Despite repeatedly
getting no help,
Cyprus has again
protested to the
United Nations about
Turkey, this time
ongoing hydrocarbon
explorations in the
Mediterranean
island’s continental
shelf and Exclusive
Economic Zone (EEZ,)
parts of which
Turkey won’t
recognize. In
a letter to UN
Secretary General
Antonio Guterres,
Cyprus’ permanent UN
representative
Kornilios Korniliou
said that Turkey is
conducting seismic
surveys in the
blocks 1, 8, 9 and
12, adding that
Nicosia has already
granted license to
energy companies
Total, from France,
and ENI, from Italy,
to explore for and
exploit oil and gas
reserves in blocks 8
and 9."
March
6-5: Please
immediately provide
the SG's comment and
action on the
decline at UNIS, and
that the UN is
subsidizing affluent
New Yorkers: " fees
at the school have
risen by 92% in 12
years. The average
rise has been 5.6% a
year, compared to an
average rise in UN
salaries of around
1.5% a year. The
school claims that
half of its students
are children of UN
staff or related
diplomatic staff
(mainly children of
staff at UN
missions), but UN
parents suspect the
number is closer to
30%. And the number
gets lower each year
as more and more UN
parents are forced
to leave the school.
The problem is
especially acute for
UN parents on lower
grades. Because,
although the
education grant
subsidizes
the cost, it still
leaves parents with
a crippling bill as
they struggle to pay
the 25+% required of
them. Recent changes
in the education
grant are making
that even more
difficult...a parent
with a child in high
school at UNIS will
pay up to $42,975 a
year for tuition for
the 2019/20 school
year. The education
grant now tops out
at $40,600, so not
all of that is now
subsidized.
The result is that
the UN now only pays
around 70% of that,
where it used to pay
75%. That leaves
these parents having
to pay more than
$1000 a month for
the school, which is
beyond the means of
many... rich New
Yorkers have spied a
way to give their
kids an expensive
education on someone
else's dime - the
UN's."
March
6-6: AGAIN -
immediately state
who, with public
funds, the SG
invited to eat
halibut with him on
March 4, and why it
was not on his
public schedule.
Please state whether
the UN considers
"The Century Fund"
to be a media and if
so, why - and,
AGAIN, immediately
explain how it is
legitimate to ban
from enter into the
UN the media that
has been asking
about these and
other questions,
with no hearing or
appeal.
March
5-1: On Cameroon,
what is the SG's
comment and action
if any on the
continued detention
of Michèle Ndoki has
been been held by
the Special
Operations Unit in
Yaounde since she
was arrested by
security forces
under unclear
circumstances?
Again, as not
answered, on
Cameroon and
Nigeria, what are
the comments and
actions of the SG
and separately of
the DSG on the
Nigeria court
decision that the
refoulement of Mr.
Ayuk Tabe and 46
others was illegal
and they should be
returned to Nigeria
from Cameroon? What
is the SG's comment
and action on the
reported burning
down of Bamunkumbit
in NW Cameroon by
government
soldiers?
March
5-2: On Saudi
Arabia, what is the
SG's comment and
action if any on
that Saudi Arabia is
moving to prosecute
a group of women’s
rights activists who
have been detained
for several months,
its state news
agency has
announced?
March
5-3: On CAR in light
of the UN
Secretariat's
bragging about the
Khartoum deal, and
your Office's
refusal to answer
questions about what
the outgoing SRSG
told Inner City
Press about UN
sexual abuse and
exploitation in CAR,
what is the SG's
comment and action
on that the peace
agreement in CAR,
signed in early
February, has been
in turmoil since the
establishment of a
new government on
Sunday: five out of
the fourteen armed
groups that signed
it have expressed
their disagreement
with the new
government
team?
March
5-4: On SEA, UN
harrassment and
impunity, what is
the SG's comment and
action on that on
Prashanti Tiwari, on
whose case Inner
City Press has
previously
repeatedly asked
your office about
without answer,
Bihar Police's CID
has ordered the
investigating
officer to file a
charge sheet against
him. In the
FIR filed in
February last year,
Prashanti had also
accused the UNFPA
country head for
India and Ena Singh
of assault. What did
the SG every do
about this
abuse?
March
5-5: On China, what
is the SG's comment
and action if any on
reports that
Chinese hackers have
targeted more than
two dozen
universities in the
U.S. and around the
globe as part of an
elaborate scheme to
steal research about
maritime technology
being developed for
military use?
March
5-6: On Japan and
due process, what is
the SG's comment and
action if any on
Carlos Ghosn now
having been detained
for more than 100
days without
charges?
March
4-3: On India and
Pakistan, what is
the SG's comment and
action on a UN
system Goodwill
Ambassador, Priyanka
Chopra, tweeting
"Jai Hind" after
India's airstrikes
on Pakistan, and on
the petition that
she be removed from
any UN
position?
March
4-5: On Sudan and
Qatar, what is the
SG's comment and
action on
whistleblowers
telling Inner City
Press that UNAMID
staff improperly
share information
with Qatar's
intelligence
service?
March
4-6: On Sudan, what
is the SG's comment
and action on that
ICC-indicted Omar
al-Bashir on Friday
delegated his powers
and authority as
head of the ruling
National Congress
Party to its deputy
head, Ahmed Mohamed
Haroun - who is also
indicted by the ICC?
Again, how many
times has Mr.
Guterres met Bashir,
and why? Has he met
Ahmed Haroun?
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