As UN Bans
Inner City Press It E-Asks Spox Dujarric
of Coronavirus Taiwan Aylward China Mali
Honduras Cameroon UN Rapes No FOIA Fleming
Bans Press 2000+ UNanswered
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- CJR -
PFT
UN GATE / SDNY
COURT, March 30 – Inner
City Press on 5 July 2018 was
banned from entering the UN,
two day after it was
physically removed from
conducting interviews outside
meeting about the UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres' $6.7
billion budget.
Then
Guterres' Department of Global
Communication, run by Melissa
Fleming, issued a letter
banning Inner City Press from
the UN - for life. With no due
process, no right of
appeal. Guterres has put
the UN in the US Press Freedom
Tracker, here. Guterres'
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric
falsely promised on camera
that he would be answering
banned Inner City Press'
questions - but see below.
On March 30 before another
penthouse apartment UN noon
briefing by Stephane "French
Whine" Dujarric, this
one even more amateurish
than before, video here
and here,
no questions on Taiwan
for example after the
March 27 briefing with China
which stalled out as Guterres
spoke and lied, here
and here,
Inner City Press submitted yet
more questions, by email and
WhatsApp (blocked by
Dujarric's screener Florencia
Soto Nino on +1
917 226 7816)
including asking the basis on
which it continues to be
lawlessly banned from entering
to ask questions in person.
Inner City Press asked:
March 30-1: On
the Coronavirus Covid-19,
please belatedly provide SG
comment and action if any on
WHO's Bruce Aylward blatantly
avoiding question about Taiwan
and virus response, which
Inner City Press asked USG
Fleming about online on March
28. Please immediately state
why SG Guterres did not
ensure, or apparently even
inquire, if UN staff and the
families had needed masks
before in a publicity stunt
giving them away to Penny A
and the City's UN
office? Outraged staff
have asked banned Inner City
Press. And on the March 25
fundraiser, why is there no
disclosure of USG Melissa
Fleming among the most recent
public financial disclosures?
Why none for Mark Lowcock?
None for Henriette Fore? How
can the UN raise money on this
opaque basis? Please explain
the break down of the March 27
GA/ECOSOC/UNSC meeting
livestream, and how questions
were selected. "AGAIN:
please immediately state the
conditions and mitigation for
the lay off of all Delegates
Dining Room staff which Inner
City Press reported yesterday
after being contacted by staff
complaining there is no
mitigation of economic harm.
On Mali, what are the comments
and actions if any of SG
Guterres on that Mali held its
long-delayed parliamentary
election on Sunday despite an
insurgency in its central and
northern regions, concerns
about coronavirus and the
recent kidnapping of the main
opposition leader? On Burundi,
what are the comments and
action if any of SG Guterres
and USG Fleming on that
Burundian member of Parliament
Anglebert Ngendabanka
threatens to physically
eliminate (“crush the head”
according to his words)
journalists from the press?
What of that the World Health
Organisation (WHO) has not
shared with member states
information Taiwan has
provided on the coronavirus
including details on its cases
and prevention methods,
Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said
on Monday (March 30),
ratcheting up its
complaints?
March 30-1a: What
are SG Guterres' comments and
actions if any on the
indictment of Maduro on drug
charges, and again what were
Gutterres' discussions with
Honduras president JOH, whose
brother has been convicted in
the SDNY of drug trafficking
(sentencing now set April 15
or May 15) and has himself
been alleged to be a
conspirator? What about the
money your office bragged
about from Honduras, given the
proof JOH took money from El
Chapo?
March 30-2: On
Cameroon, what are the
comments or actions if any of
SG Guterres on the holding of
an "election" in NW and SW
during this Coronavirus
crisis? Why did Guterres "take
note" of Guinea vote, but not
Cameroon? What is his comment
and action if any on that the
personal engagement of
President Paul Biya in the
fight against COVID-19 has
been questioned by most
Cameroonians who say he has
been very absent compared to
his colleagues accross the
Continent. President Paul Biya
apart from a recent tweet
during which he called on
citizens to be calm and
respect government’s measures,
has neither addressed the
issue nor disbursed financial
assistance promised by
government to effectively
fight COVID-19. Yet
again, immediately
disclose whose question was
cited by Stephane Dujarric in
the in-person noon briefing as
having been asked triggering
condemnation of one-death
bombing attributed, rightly or
wrongly, to non Paul Biya
forces? How is your approach
not propaganda, censorship and
a cover up of the Biya's
government's mass killings?
What is SG Guterres' comment
and action if any on the
conditions in Cameroon's
prisons, like here
March 30-2a: On
China, what are the comments
and actions if any of SG
Guterres on that three Chinese
human rights lawyers, Mr. Ding
Jiaxi, Mr. Zhang Zhongshun and
Mr. Dai Zhenya, have been held
by authorities in a form of
detention called Residential
Surveillance in a Designated
Location (RSDL) since they
were arrested for attending an
informal weekend gathering in
the city of Xiamen. At the
gathering, they discussed the
situation of civil society and
politics in China with other
lawyers and activists
March 30-3: On
Guinea, what are the comments
and actions of SG Guterres,
beyond "taking note," on that
opposition activists in Guinea
say at least 10 people have
been killed in street clashes
during Sunday's controversial
referendum on a new
constitution. Critics
said the vote was a ploy by
President Alpha Condé to stay
in power beyond his
mandate. The deaths
occurred in the capital,
Conakry, where police fired
tear gas to disperse
demonstrators.
Opposition supporters attacked
the police, burned polling
centres and destroyed voting
equipment. Mr Condé, 82,
insists the new constitution
will bring about positive
reforms, especially for
women. Many people say
they are worried about the
vote taking place during the
coronavirus outbreak.
March 30-3a: On
the DRC and total lack of
trust in the UN, what are the
comment and actions of SG
Guterres on reports that
"civilians in the eastern
Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC) are resisting the
deployment of United Nations
peacekeepers despite imminent
attacks by rebel groups in the
region. The resistance
is the aftermath of a fallout
between residents in the town
of Beni and the UN Mission for
Stabilisation in the Congo
(MONUSCO). This after
residents accused the
peacekeepers of failure to
protect them from repeated
attacks"
March 30-3b: On
Qatar, what are the comments
and actions if any of SG
Guterres on that nine migrant
labourers working on the
stadiums for the 2022 World
Cup in Qatar died in 2019, the
“supreme committee” organising
the event has announced,
bringing the number of deaths
on World Cup projects to 34,
since construction began six
years ago. 31 of the
deaths, including the nine who
died last year, are classified
as “non-work related”, a term
the supreme committee uses to
describe deaths that largely
occur off the worksite, most
of which are attributed to
sudden and unexplained cardiac
or respiratory
failure.
March 30-4: On UN
bribery, again, what are the
comments or actions if any of
SG Guterres on the March 11
appellate argument by
convicted UN briber Patrick Ho
of CEFC China Energy in the 2d
Circuit Court of Appeals? Why
has SG Guterres not amended
his disclosure covering 2016
which omit payments from
Gulbenkian Foundation which
tried to sell its oil company
to CEFC? Separately, again,
why is there no disclosure of
USG Melissa Fleming among the
most recent public financial
disclosures? Why none for Mark
Lowcock? None for Henriette
Fore? How can the UN raise
money on this opaque
basis?
March 30-5: On
corruption and Angola, on
which you refused to answer
yesterday, what are the
comments and actions if any of
SG Guterres on the Luanda
Leaks exposure of Isabel dos
Santos of Angola, and as Inner
City Press has repeatedly
asked, what are his comments
and action on the repeated
retweeting of Isabel dos
Santos' denials by his close
staffer Aguinaldo Baptista?
After, for example, exposure
of the corrupt urban
development project near
Luanda for which some 3,000
families were driven from
their homes to make way for
the development? And now after
The Portuguese bank EuroBic
has announced it will end its
business relationship with
Africa's richest woman, Isabel
dos Santos.
March 30-6:
Immediately describe the role
of Angola and the dos Santos
family in the campaign of
Antonio Guterres to become
UNSG.
March 30-7: On UN
sexual exploitation and abuse
- alleged - as Inner City
Press requested before noon
briefing on March 9,
immediately provide all
if-asked / further information
immediately provide the
if-asked information about the
new sex abuse cases data
dumped at 11 am on March 9,
involving sexual abuse by
peacekeeper from Cameroon in
CAR, Pakistan in Darfur,
Tanzania in DRC, and
still UN rape in DRC by
Guatemala "peacekeeper," and
abuse by Senegal in Haiti, and
Gabon and Mauritania in CAR,
etc and as Inner City Press
asked in writing in 2019
without response, the if-asked
information for the report of
UN rape in Darfur data dumped
to Conduct and Discipline
website on the morning of
January 17 and the "if asked"
information about the two new
cases of sexual exploitation
in CAR by Cameroonian UN
"Police" that were put online
after 5 pm on December 30 (a
day when you refused to answer
7 questions including on
previous UN rapes), and the
(Dec 19) rape case by a UN
Volunteer in DRC in June 2019
- what nationality? What's
been done for the victim(s)?
and the Dec 9 sex abuse cases
in CAR by Gabon, DRC and
Morocco UN "peacekeepers, and
the Dec g about the
Office of the Special Envoy
for the Sahel, and the two
more November 26, 3 pm cases
of sexual exploitation in CAR
by Cameroon troops in
September 2019 (!)
March 30-8: On SG
Guterres' Town Hall in Geneva,
on which you refused Inner
City Press' Dec 20 question,
what is your summary of what
SG Guterres said given that
Inner City Press has now
publishing more of it? Please
explain SG Guterres' statement
that interns should not (ever)
be paid, and how this is not
create unfair advantage for
the most affluent?
March 30-9: As
previously and repeated asked,
where has UNSG Antonio
Guterres been for the past
week(s), and how much public
money has he spent? Is he
going directly to and from
Pakistan? Previously from
Addis? Or any stop overs? At
what cost? Now, immediately
disclose any and all costs to
the UN including UN Security
on the New York trip by
Catarina Vaz Pinto Guterres on
February 27 - March 1 (or
longer).
March 30-10: On
press freedom and COVID-19 and
freedom of information, what
are the comments and actions
if any of SG Guterres and
separately USG Melissa Fleming
on that Mexico’s National
Institute of Transparency
suspended deadlines for
responding to requests until
April 17, while in El Salvador
all administrative and
judicial functions deemed
non-essential have been
suspended under the state of
emergency declared by
president Nayib Bukele. There
are no confirmed cases of
COVID-19 in the
country. In
Canada, journalists are also
finding their requests for
information from some federal
agencies put on hold, rather
than responded to within the
normal 30 period. Both Italy
and Romania have enacted
similar measures. Why does the
UN Secretariat have no FOIA,
and answer no Press questions?
More
here.
***
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