In
NYC, Trump
Meeting African Leaders Sans
Biya of Cameroon
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Photos
UNITED NATIONS,
September 20 – With US
President Donald Trump set to
hold a working lunch with
African leaders on September
20, here was the attendance
list, per the pool: "His
Excellency Alassane Ouattara,
President of the Republic of
Côte d'Ivoire
His Excellency Marcel
Amon-Tanoh, Minister of
Foreign Affairs of the
Republic of Cote d’Ivoire
His Excellency Hailemariam
Desalegn, Prime Minister of
the Federal Democratic
Republic of Ethiopia
His Excellency Dr. Workeneh
Gebeyehu, Minister of Foreign
Affairs of the Federal
Democratic Republic of
Ethiopia
His Excellency Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo Addo, President
of the Republic of Ghana
The Honorable Shirley Ayorkor
Botchwey, Minister of Foreign
Affairs and Regional
Integration of the Republic of
Ghana
His Excellency Alpha Conde,
President of the Republic of
Guinea
The Honorable Mamadi Toure,
Minister of Foreign Affairs
and Guieans Abroad of the
Republic of Guinea
His Excellency Dr. Hage G.
Geingob, President of the
Republic of Namibia
The Honorable Netumbo
Nandi-Ndaitwah, Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister of
International Relations and
Cooperation of the Republic of
Namibia
His Excellency Muhammadu
Buhari, President of the
Federal Republic of
Nigeria
His Excellency Geoffrey
Onyeama, Minister of Foreign
Affairs of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria
His Excellency Macky Sall,
President of the Republic of
Senegal
His Excellency Sidiki Kaba,
Minister of Foreign Affairs of
the Republic of Senegal
His Excellency Mr. Jacob
Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, President
of the Republic of South
Africa
The Honorable Maite
Nkoana-Mashabane, Minister of
International Relations and
Cooperation of the Republic of
South Africa
His Excellency Yowri Kaguta
Museveni, President of the
Republic of Uganda
The Honorable Sam Kutesa,
Minister of Foreign Affairs of
the Republic of Uganda." Some
were asking about - and some
heartened by - absences such
as by Paul Biya of Cameroon,
who turned off the Internet on
millions of Anglophones this
year. We'll have more on this.
When US Vice President Mike
Pence spoke in the UN Security
Council on September 20, he
spoke again about North Korea,
without using the moniker
Rocket Man. He said, "We will
always put America first. But
America First does not mean
America Alone. As the
president said, America will
forever be a great friend of
the world.He sent me here to
reiterate
President Trump and I believe
the UN must act to make
peacekeeping more accountable
and more credible.
Peacekeeping missions must
support a political solution,
realistic and achievable
mandates, have an exit
strategy, and adjust to
progress and failure. When a
mission succeeds, we should
not prolong it. When a mission
fails, we should restructure
it. After all, keeping the
peace is at the heart of the
UN mission. The very first
words of the UN’s charger are
to maintain international
peace. And just yesterday
Trump challenged the world
body to do better.... The
regime in North Korea is
relentlessly pursuing
ballistic missiles and nuclear
weapons. The US is grateful to
see the SC adopt tough new
sanctions on North Korea. But
the US will continue to bring
the full range of American
power to bear on Pyongyang. We
will continue to marshal
pressure to demand that North
Korea end its ballistic and
nuclear programs. The US has
great strength and patience
nut all options are on the
power and if we are forced to
defend ourselves and our
allies, we will do so." We'll
see. When UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres held his
pre-General Assembly week
press conference on September
13, the majority of questions
were about Myanmar. Inner City
Press asked about reform, in
light of the Ng Lap Seng UN
bribery guilty verdicts
and new reports
of peacekeepers' sexual abuse.
Guterres responded on the
latter. From the UN's
transcript: Inner City Press:
Matthew Lee, Inner City Press,
on behalf of the Free UN
Coalition for Access, hoping
for readouts of your
diplomatic merry-go-round
upstairs during the GA
week. I want... you
speak the lot about reforms.
It's something I tried to ask
at the stakeout but thanks for
giving me the question. This
case of John Ashe, who I know
has deceased~-- may he rest in
peace, but there was a court
decision this summer in which
basically it painted a picture
of the UN as being quite
susceptible to bribery. There
was a Chin... a Macau-based
businessman, Ng Lap Seng, was
found guilty. So, I won't go
through it all except to say,
I wanted to know what your
view of whether the UN...
beyond just some reforms to
the PGA's (President of the
General Assembly) office,
whether it has instituted
enough reforms. Your...
your... the former PGA
yesterday sitting here said
that there are crows picking
around the side of the UN.
There are a lot of business
interests... basically, they
try to buy their way into the
UN by hooking up with a small
state. So, I wanted to
know whether your reforms will
address that. And there's also
a Code Blue report out today
about sexual abuse where they
say that, of cases they've
uncovered, many of them are
not disclosed in the conduct
and discipline website. What's
your plan during this GA week
to try to address the sexual
abuse issue of peacekeeping?
Secretary-General: Well,
in addition to the sexual
abuse, as you know, we have
taken already a number of
measures. A global victims
advocate was appointed, and
four victims advocates were
appointed in the four
situations that are more
dramatic in several African
contexts. We are
preparing a compact to be
signed with Member States in
order to make sure that there
is effective commitment in
relation to this. I'm creating
a circle of leadership with
Heads of Government and State
to assume engagement of states
in making sure that everything
is investigated properly. And
so, we are really committed to
make the best we can in this
area, knowing the difficulties
and the problems and sometimes
even the... especially, my
main concern is with the
victims that sometimes have an
enormous problem in coming
with their cases because of
the risks that they might face
in different conditions with
the community or even with the
country or even if the UN
Mission is not properly
organised. So, we are deeply
committed to that. But
the best protection in
relation to abuses is the
whistleblower policy
protection. We have introduced
a first group of measures to
enhance the whistleblower
protection when I assumed
functions immediately in
January. So, it's probably my
first measure. And after
that, we have introduced a
number of other reforms, which
I believe are bringing our
whistleblower protection
policy to the state of the
art. And if that's not the
case, if there are other
things to be suggested, we are
ready to introduce them,
because that is the best
guarantee that people can
detect and denounce things
that happen and that they will
be protected if they do so.
This is, for me, an absolute
must and the best possible
guarantee an organisation can
have in relation to the risks
of abuse of power or abuses of
any other kind or of
corruption or whatever.
So this is a big concern for
me, and I think we are acting
as we can but with total
determination to address the
problem." We'll have more on
this.
***
Your
support means a lot. As little as $5 a month
helps keep us going and grants you access to
exclusive bonus material on our Patreon
page. Click
here to become a patron.
Feedback:
Editorial [at] innercitypress.com
Past
(and future?) UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA
For now: Box 20047,
Dag Hammarskjold Station NY NY 10017
Reporter's mobile (and weekends):
718-716-3540
Other, earlier Inner City Press are
listed here,
and some are available in the ProQuest
service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
Copyright 2006-2017 Inner City
Press, Inc. To request reprint or other
permission, e-contact Editorial [at]
innercitypress.com for
|
,
