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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT NY Post

UN GATE, Jan 18 – The UN Security Council in the second half of March 2020 under China's presidency did not hold a single publicly-viewable briefing or issuance of Press Elements, on Mali or any other site of a UN Peacekeeping mission.

  Then as demonstrators calling for President Keita to resign were teargassed and at least two killed, there was not a word from the Security Council or even for usually robo-tweeting UNSG Antonio Guterres, Big Tony G. Maybe Guterres' silence is because he is cheering on the arrest of journalists, including  Liberté TV journalist Hawa Kamissoko, after he and Stephane Dujarric has Inner City Press roughed up and banned since, video here. Guterres' UN is corrupt.

 On Aug 18, IBK was arrested along with his prime minister. Inner City Press in the morning put in a written question to Guterres and his Spokesman Dujarric, as well as Melissa Fleming: "On Mali what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres on that there are reports of gunfire inside an army base near the Malian capital Bamako. Angry soldiers have been shooting in the air and roads have been blocked.  The Norwegian embassy says it has received information that troops are on their way to the capital and the French embassy has advised people to stay at home.  Earlier there were reports that armed men had abducted the finance minister from his home.  It comes as President Ibrahim Boubakar Keita is under growing pressure to step down in the face of large opposition protests."

  There was no answer at all - just Dujarric putting out statements about Cote d'Ivoire (on which is is also now refusing to answer, even as Bedie writes to him). But now long after a coup and its laundering, and with Guterres lusting after an UNmerited second term, on January 15 Inner City Press published this: "The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) and Head of MINUSMA, Mr. Mahamat Saleh ANNADIF, has learned with dismay of the Improvised Explosive Device attack (IED/mine) perpetrated against a MINUSMA’s tanker truck, which was part of a logistics convoy, today at about 3pm in the vicinity of Tessalit, in the Kidal region.     Following the explosion, two Peacekeepers were seriously injured. One of them unfortunately succumbed to his injuries during his medical evacuation. The second is currently receiving appropriate care.     While securing the site, another explosive device was detected and neutralized in the vicinity of the explosion spot.     The SRSG strongly condemns such acts, which are intended to paralyze MINUSMA’s operations on the ground and indiscriminately affect UN personnel."

  Then on January 16 from a $10 million penthouse apartment (or the Hamptons), this: "The Secretary-General strongly condemns the attack against a convoy of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) that took place on 15 January 2021 near Tessalit in Kidal region, which resulted in the death of an Egyptian peacekeeper and serious injuries to another....  Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General  New York, 16 January 2021." Guterres is a fraud and a censor. #No2dTerm

 Now on January 18 from the UN Security Council complicit in Guterres' censorship, this: "The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the attack perpetrated on 15 January 2021 against MINUSMA near Tessalit in Kidal region, which resulted in one peacekeeper from Egypt killed and another one seriously injured.      The members of the Security Council expressed their deepest condolences and sympathy to the family of the victim, as well as to Egypt and to MINUSMA. They wished a speedy and full recovery to the peacekeeper who was injured. They paid tribute to the peacekeepers who risk their lives.      The members of the Security Council called on the transitional Government of Mali to swiftly investigate this attack and bring the perpetrators to justice." Fine - but what about accountibility for the sexual abuse of which UN Peacekeepers are accused? Isn't it the Security Council's responsibility to address this, as Guterres covers it up by withholding information and banning the Press that asks?

  This as Inner City Press, which reports on Mali and South Sudan for example is excluded by the UN Secretariat from getting promised answers - for example to this question it posed: "what is the UN's response to the massacre" - UN failure.

More here.

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