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UN GATE / SDNY COURT, April 24 – The United Nations in South Sudan acknowledged internally that a staff member has tested positive for Coronavirus COVID-19, while claiming it is taking all precautions, see below. SG Antonio Guterres has refused to answer questions from Inner City Press about this, and about his own UN Security guards still using their gym. Video here.

  Not only Guterres with the guards he used to rough up Inner City Press in June and July 2018 and ban it from the UN since, but also his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric who has refused all questions from Inner City Press about Covid-19, Cameroon and Guterres' financial links with UN briber CEFC China Energy, are actively trying to withhold information about the UN's under-performance on Coronavirus.

  But now UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Bachelet, who has done nothing about Guterres' targeting and ban on Inner City Press, preaches on April 24 that countries should do what she has let her own UN do: “Some States have used the outbreak of the new coronavirus as a pretext to restrict information and stifle criticism,” Bachelet said. “A free media is always essential, but we have never depended on it more than we do during this pandemic, when so many people are isolated and fearing for their health and livelihoods. Credible, accurate reporting is a lifeline for all of us.”  

  So why does Guterres ban Inner City Press and Dujarric not answer any of its written questions?

 “This is no time to blame the messenger. Rather than threatening journalists or stifling criticism, States should encourage healthy debate concerning the pandemic and its consequences. People have a right to participate in decision-making that affects their lives, and an independent media is a vital medium for this,” Bachelet said.     “Being open and transparent, and involving those affected in decision-making builds public trust and helps ensure that people participate in measures designed to protect their own health and that of the wider population and increases accountability.”

So why does Guterres ban Inner City Press and Dujarric not answer any of its written questions?

   “Journalists are playing an indispensable role in our response to this pandemic, but unlike the grave threats posed to other essential workers, the threats media workers face are entirely avoidable. Protecting journalists from harassment, threats, detention or censorship helps keep us all safe,” Bachelet said. 

So why does Guterres ban Inner City Press and Dujarric not answer any of its written questions? Bachelet is a hypocrite - she and her office never even answered repeated questions about this ban, and allowed Guterres to ban Inner City Press from her events in UNHQ when it was open. We'll have more on this.

  And this: on April 19 after the UN bragged about unspecified discipline on an unidentified staffer who broke quarantine or self isolation and flew back to his or her unidentified country, Inner City Press has exclusive obtained and now publishes the South Sudan government document showing that government demanded information about the UN violation from the World Health Organization, here.

  The document, of South Sudan's High Level Task Force, also shows them taking money ostensibly for COVID-19 from tobacco company Carnak, MTN, Atlantic Energy and Patronas which, along with China National Petroleum Company, stands accused of funding militias through Dar Petroleum Operating Company. Inner City Press will be asking Juba and WHO about this.

    But what about the South Sudan UN bus without social distancing, which was Guterres rep David Shearer's fault? What about Guterres' own guards? This is another case of Do As I Say, Not As I Do (April 18 Matthew Russell Lee song here).

 Here is the disingenuous notice which does not mention the bus, the spread and the UNHQ gym: "a staff member who failed to complete self-isolation and left South Sudan without authorization.     The staff member was in isolation after it was believed he may have come into contact with a person diagnosed with COVID-19. He received one test that confirmed him as negative and then left Juba on a flight without the knowledge of the United Nations. The flight was commercial, not a United Nations flight.     Since arriving in his home country, he has been tested again and is confirmed to be negative for COVID-19.     In the interests of openness and transparency, the United Nations informed the Ministry of Health and expressed its regret about what had happened.     The United Nations is continuing to strictly follow the health protocols relating to COVID-19 and is working cooperatively through the World Health Organization with the Ministry of Health.     Any United Nations staff who fail to adhere to the requirements for testing and self-isolation will face disciplinary action."

  So when will Guterres' guards be punished? When will Guterres (and Tedros) be fired?

On April 9 Inner City Press exclusively published a notice among Guterres' UN Security, which he used to oust and ban Inner City Press, violating all New York City (and state) laws by keeping their gym open, with up to three officers using it at once. Photo here.

  What will Mayor De Blasio's pro-UN office, which took masks not offered to UN staff quarantined at home (as lax practices at UN WIPO preceded the death of a staffer there) say? Inner City Press is asking Guterres and his spokespeople Stephane Dujarric and Melissa Fleming. The UN, including UN Security, is corrupt.

But the transcript of a meeting with staff by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' representative in Juba, David Shearer, leaked to Inner City Press by outraged staff, shows for example that the UNMISS mission has been running busses for local staff without social distancing.

 They analogize it to when the UN brought cholera to Haiti and then lied about it for years, and has still to pay any compensation under Antonio Guterres "who instead spends the public's money on his own trips to Lisbon." Guterres and his spokespeople Stephane Dujarric and Melissa Fleming have refused all Press questions on this, choosing to ban critical Inner City Press and take staged questions from Xinhua.

Here's a first part of the transcript from Shearer's meeting with staff, after the misleading press release by Shearer's underling about COVID-19:

"The United Nations in South Sudan has confirmed a case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) among its staff... The UN has previously imposed a travel freeze on all staff travelling into the country, ensured staff who arrived prior to the ban are self-quarantined for 14 days, introduced work-from-home measures to reduce numbers of people in offices, and enforced social distancing rules and frequent hand washing by all personnel."

This is false. From the UN Mission in South Sudan transcript leaked to Inner City Press: 

Leda Limann: SRSG, these are national staff specific. The majority of UNMISS staff have family members in Uganda. Can you please engage with Ugandan authorities?

SRSG Shearer: This is a bit tricky because for national staff, obviously, their country is here, and we expect them to work here and that is why we employ national staff because they are here. I think, what we can certainly look at what happens in the future, I am in contact with the Resident Coordinator in Uganda to see what options there are to visit family members. But it is not possible for the moment to evacuate people from South Sudan to Uganda because they are South Sudanese, that is why they are here. But we will look at the possibility of being able to access their families. At the moment, we have got no ability to be allowed into Uganda. Nobody has the possibility of entering Uganda and, likewise, coming back into South Sudan. So, we are a bit caught but let’s see what happens in the future.

    Leda Limann: National staff use the shuttle bus twice daily and the social distancing is not maintained in the bus. Is the mission taking any measures on this?

     Nope... More of the transcript is on Patreon here.

  The United Nations held a four speakers, one M.C. event to raise funds for itself off of Coronavirus on March 25.  But three of  the participants had refused to make public even the UN's bare-bones financial disclosures: Mark Lowcock, Henrietta Fore of UNICEF and Melissa Fleming.  The head man, Antonio Guterres, has lied on his form, omitting his financial links to convicted UN briber CEFC China Energy. So their credibility is questionable. 

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