While
Barring Press
From UN
OHCHR
Event Bachelet
Rarely Seen In
Geneva Office
Guterres Scam
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR PFT NY
Post
UNITED NATIONS,
December 9 – How corrupt has
the UN of Secretary General
Antonio Guterres, now
including his Office of the
High Commissioner of Human
Rights under Michelle Bachelet
become? Just as Guterres
diverts public funds to fly at
least 16 times to his home in
Lisbon, and roughs up and bans
the Press which asks, Bachelet
as the Press predicted never
really moved to Geneva,
misleading the public and
according to whistleblowers
gaming the UN's payments
system, see below. Amid this,
both Bachelet, her Deputy
Andrew Gilmour and Guterres
bar the Press from covering
their hypocritical human
rights events. Before Guterres
nominated Bachelet for the
job, Inner City Press was
multiply informed and reported
that Bachelet said she would
not really move to Geneva,
staying in Chile for personal
reasons. But Guterres, perhaps
to make his own absentee
administration look more
acceptable, said fine, and
allowed her to hide it as he
as does his own travel.
Whistleblowers tell Inner City
Press they rarely see her in
her Office, that when
infrequently she appears she
stays in the President Wilson
Hotel, next door to OHCHR.
This is a full-time
Geneva-based job (paid very
well indeed - USG's are paid
up to CHF35,000 in Geneva) -
plus additional scams that UN
OIOS should investigate. But
Guterres has approved this
scam, unlike that of Erik
Solheim for which Guterres
hypocritically fired Solheim,
while he won't fire harassment
king Michel Sidibe at UNAIDS.
Guterres should be impeached.
Consider: With Guterres, Bachelet
and her Deputy Andrew Gilmour
set to speak in the UN on
human rights day on December
10, Inner City Press responded
to an invitation and was told,
"Thank you for registering to
attend the Human Rights Day
event at the United Nations on
Monday 10 December. On Monday,
please come to the UN
Visitors’ Gate on First Avenue
opposite 45th street starting
at 2pm, at which time entry
passes will be distributed."
Then, past six
p.m. on Friday, December 7
this from Bachelet's and
Gilmour's Office of the High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights: "Dear
Matthew, We
have received
notification
from UN
Security that
your name was
flagged as
"BARRED" on
the list we
submitted for
passes for
Monday's event
(3pm, ECOSOC
Chamber). We
will therefore
not have a
pass for you
and are unable
to facilitate
entry.
Thank you for
your interest
and best
regards,
OHCHR New York
Office."
Inner City Press
immediately wrote back,
to the sender
and
Bachelet and
her assistant
Katayoun
Vessali, not for the first
time, to
Andrew Gilmour
and to the
moderator of
the event Sherine
Tadros of
Amnesty International,
tweeting
it at AI's
still relatively new
director,
"Particularly
since you are the UN Office of the
High Commissioner for *Human
Rights,* did you not ask why a
journalist who asks the Secretary
General and his spokesmen about
the killings in Cameroon,
Burundi, UN
corruption, UN peacekeepers'
sexual abuse of civilians,
and Sri
Lanka, is “BARRED” from
attending your human rights event
- without any hearing or appeal? I
will appreciate your Office's
answer to this." 48
hours later, no response at all:
corruption.
Bachelet
gave a speech on
October 15 in the UN's Third
Committee, she emphasized a
prioritization of social and
economic rights and said one
of the officials of her office
is "on mission in
Silicon Valley" in the
US. There are questions
about this - but Inner City
Press which has covered human
rights and the UN for more
than a decade was for the
first time banned from access
a High Commissioner's speech.
This has been raised repeated
to Bachelet since she took
office but she has so far done
nothing, not even responded.
Meanwhile on October 12
Cameroon, from whose Paul Biya
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres took a golden statue
and favors in the Fifth
(Budget) Committee and remains
silent on the slaughter of
Anglophones, was elected to a
seat on the UN Human Rights
Council. This system is
failing - but if Bachelet
cannot even answer on Guterres
maintaining a secret banned
list including not only Inner
City Press but also "political
activists," then the UN has
hit a new low.
Inner City Press was never
given a hearing by Smale
before her August 17 letter
with withdrew Inner City Press
media accreditation. Nothing
in it said anything about a
ban from entering the UN as a
person, a tourist, or in
another other way. But this is
what happened, without any
recourse. Pure Kafka-esque
censorship, by a former New
York Times Berlin bureau chief
to hinder coverage of the
corruption of the former
Portuguese prime minster
Antonio Guterres, see
September 23 New York Post
here. What next? Watch
this site.
***
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