UNITED NATIONS
GATE, May 31
– 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 May 31
more than two
hours before the
UN noon
briefing at which deputy
Farhan Haq
without
answering even
Inner City
Press UN sex abuse
questions
corrected
himself to say
that UN envoy
Mladenov has
NOT been
invited to the
Bahrain
meeting,
Inner City
Press submitted
888
questions,
including why
it continues
to be
lawlessly banned
from entering
to ask
questions in
person:
"There
are more than
500+
questions
UNanswered.
And Monday
Sept 17,
Tuesday Sept
18, Wed Sept
19 and
Thurs and Fri
Sept 21, that
whole week, no
questions
answered. Nor
Sept 25, nor
28th - nor
October 2 nor
3. While
appreciating
and using what
was belatedly
sent on
May 20
about sexual
exploitation
allegations
and on March
28 in partial
request to
Inner City
Press'
questions
about the UN
bribery
sentence of
Patrick Ho of
CEFC and
CEFC's 2018
attempt to buy
the oil
company of
Gulbenkian
Foundation
which paid the
SG, 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. 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 nor 15
nor 18 nor 19
nor 20 nor 21
nor 22 nor 25
nor 26 nor 27
nor March 1 -
27 (!) And now April 1, 3-30 (one
answer
in the
entire month -
corrupt), and
now May
1-13, 15-17,
21-30, many
questions.
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.
May
31-1: On UN
sexual abuse
and
exploitation,
please
immediately
provide all
if-asked
information
for new SEA
allegation
against South
African
peacekeeper in
DRC uploaded
just after the
noon briefing
on May 30,
since Inner
City Press is
banned from
entering to
ask at noon
briefing. Also
as requested
provide any
and all hand
up on 1st
quarter UN SEA
statistics, as
Inner City
Press
requested
yesterday.
Your failure
to respond is
in context a
cover up: note
that the
journalist
Sidy Djimby
Ndao contacted
Inner City
Press about
the Senegal
allegation,
based not on
your hidden
and not
answered on
"disclosures"
by
InnerCityPress.com.
Now the lead
Spokesman
refuses to
answer and
explain why
the SG does
not disclose
the
nationality of
international
staff accused
of sexual
misconduct,
and of the
April 17
regarding
Burundi and
South Africa
peacekeepers
and still the
Cameroon
troops' rape
allegations
you have not
provide any
further
information on
May
31-2: On
China, what is
the SG's
belated
comment and
action if any
on that
Chinese
authorities
have detained
dozens of
people as part
of a ramped-up
annual
crackdown
ahead of the
anniversary of
the Tiananmen
Square
massacre.
Tuesday will
mark 30 years
since the
bloody event,
which saw
Chinese
authorities
brutally shut
down long
running
student
protests,
killing
thousands of
people in and
around the
central square
in
Beijing?
May
31-3: On China
also and now
religious
freedom, what
is the SG's
comment and
action on
reports that
in the
Xinjiang
Uyghur
Autonomous
Region in
western China,
Muslim
minority
detainees in
political
“re-education”
centres have
been forced to
eat pork, a
practice which
is expressly
forbidden to
adherents of
Islam. One
former inmate
at a detention
centre, Omir
Bekali, said
that those in
the centres
were forced to
eat pork
May
31-4: On UN
system
(failure in)
protection of
whistleblowers,
beyond the
Emma Reilly /
press release
questions
Inner City
Press asked
you without
answer, what
is the SG's
comment and
action if any
on that the
staff
federations
have written
to the WIPO
General
Assembly
urging it/the
UN "1) Take
the required
action to
ensure that
the UNOPS EO
determination
that an
investigation
relative to
allegations of
retaliation
against Mr.
Lei be
conducted by
external
investigators
without
further delay.
May
31-5: On
Yemen, please
immediately
and disclose,
in the context
of the SG's
treatment of
Saudi Arabia
on Children
and Armed
Conflict, any
transfer of
vehicles,
particularly
but not only
armored, by
the UN system
to the parties
/ combatants
in
Yemen.
May
31-6: On the
use of public
funds, ONCE
AGAIN, given
that you've
only said SG
will "travel
on to Aachen
in Germany,
from 29 to 30
May to receive
the
International
Charlemagne
Prize, an
honour which
has been
awarded
anually since
1950 for
efforts made
in the service
of European
unification.
The
Secretary-General
will be back
in the office
on Monday, 3
June" - where
will the SG be
from May 30 to
June 3,
separately, at
what cost to
the public
including
security
costs? Who
flew to
Germany to
witness the
award
ceremony, why
and at what
cost?
May
31-7: On press
freedom and
Europe, as
said in
Germany where
the SG just
went without
financial
transparency
to pick up an
award, what is
the SG's
comment and
action on that
for example In
Poland,
journalist
Bartosz
Wielinski said
that the
government
took control
of the
country’s
state media
“which now
broadcast pure
propaganda”. “
And the
private media
is under
severe
political and
economical
pressure by
this
government. We
struggle with
that, we have
to restore
full freedom
of the media
soon,” he
stressed.
Beata
Balogova, a
Slovak
journalist,
said that
journalists
are working
“under more
difficult
circumstances
than ever
before”. “We
are being
verbally
attacked by
politicians
and such
attacks tend
to lead to
more serious
attacks.
Because these
verbal attacks
set a certain
standard that
means it is OK
to attack
journalists”.
In February
last year,
Slovak
investigative
journalist Jan
Kuciak and his
fiancée
Martina
Kusnirova were
murdered. It
provoked a
wave of anger
in the country
and throughout
Europe,
resulting in
Prime Minister
Robert Fico’s
resignation.
However, the
state of press
freedom in the
country is
still in
limbo?
In the UN,
what has the
accountability
been for Lt
Ronald E.
Dobbins and
those those
refused on
camera to give
their names?
What is each
of yours -
particularly
the SG's -
response to
the letter
written and
sent by
Burundi
activist
Manisha
Lievin? To the
April 15
letter to the
SG, DSG and
USG Smale for
which receipt
has not even
been
acknowledged,
other than a
single lawless
line from
MALU: "Your
media
accreditation
request, with
reference no:
M66561081, has
been
declined"?
This is a
formal request
for the UN's
explanation of
grounds for
this denied,
and since
SGcentral, the
SG's chief of
staff and
Deputy SG and
USG Smale
haven't even
confirmed
receipt of the
April 15
letter much
less
responded, for
reconsideration.
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.
May
30-2: On
Cameroon, what
is Mr.
Guterres'
response to
this call from
Refugees
International:
"UN Secretary
General
Antonio
Guterres must
plan a visit
to Cameroon to
engage with
President Paul
Biya on these
crucial
issues." If
Mr. Guterres
goes, will it
be to accept
another golden
statue? Again,
where IS the
golden statute
Mr. Guterres
accepted in
October
2017?
May
30-3: On South
Sudan, AGAIN,
please explain
the photographs
of Guterres'
DSRSG
Moustapha
Soumaré with
UNSC
sanctioned
Malek Reuben
Riak on
Peacekeepers'
Day. How did
this happen?
Who invited
him? For what
purpose? What
accountability
for this will
there be?
May
24-2: On
China, what is
the SG's
comment and
action if any
- including in
light of his
still
undisclosed
connection to
CEFC China
Energy through
its bid for
Gulbenkian
Foundation's
oil company,
on that
Developed and
sold by the
China
Electronics
Technology
Corporation, a
state-run
defense
manufacturer,
the system in
Kashgar is on
the cutting
edge of what
has become a
flourishing
new market for
technology
that the
government can
use to monitor
and subdue
millions of
Uighurs and
members of
other Muslim
ethnic groups
in
Xinjiang?
May
15-3: On the
Public
Financial
Disclosures
for 2017
belatedly
published over
the weekend of
April 27-28,
please state
why Mohammed
Ibn Chambas,
like the
Executive
Secretary of
the UN
Biodiversity
Convention,
Cristiana
Paşca-Palmer,
UNICEF's
Henriette
Fore, with
documented
links to
ExxonMobil and
others, USG
Mark Lowcock
(undisclosed
while the
Secretariat's
speaker at the
UNSC Arria on
Cameroon),
UNCTAD's
Mukhisa
Kituyi, UN
Women's
Phumzile
Mlambo-Ngcuka,
UNOG chief
Michael
Moller, UNDP
chief Achim
Steiner,
Heidi Mendoza,
Adama Dieng,
UN Security
chief Peter
Drennan,
Rosemary
DiCarlo and
Nicholas
Haysum, is not
even on the
list. OIOS
chief
Inga-Britt
Ahlenius
reported - why
not Mendoza?
Where IS
Mendoza? Isn't
it a bad
practice for
the UN's head
(anti)
genocide
definition
official to
conceal from
the public
even cursory
financial
disclosure?
Did DiCarlo
decline to
make any
public
disclosure
despite being
the UN's top
political
officer? What
is the even
plausible
applicability
of this line
from SG
Guterres' web
page: "Please
note that
given the
multi-cultural
environment of
the UN and the
often security
sensitive
locations
where UN staff
are either
working or
come from,
full public
disclosure may
not always be
a viable or
sensible
option for
certain staff
members"? Why
has Guterres
changed the
previous
system in a
which a
"choosing not
to disclose"
statement was
upload and
listed, to one
which helps
conceal who
reports and
who does
not?
Again, state
why
considering
the UN bribery
conviction of
Patrick Ho of
CEFC, and
CEFC's attempt
to purchase
the oil
company of
Gulbenkian
Foundation
which paid Mr.
Guterres in
2016 was
omitted from
his online
public
financial
disclosure
covering 2016,
and why
Guterres has
not even
started an
audit of CEFC
in the
UN.
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