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By Matthew Russell Lee

UN GATE, Dec 16 – How corrupt is today's United Nations?

Well, on December 15 UNSG Antonio Guterres named as his representative to China, to whose CEFC China Energy he has tried to hide his links, the son in law of his predecessor Ban Ki-moon, Sid Chatterjee.

 On the morning of December 16, Inner City Press in writing asked Guterres and his spokespeople Stephane Dujarric and Melissa Fleming: "On appointing Ban Ki-moon's son in law as SG Guterres' rep to China, what nepotism (and Sri Lanka war crimes allegations) review was done?"

No answer. But this, from another UN censor: "Dr. Natalia Kanem /she/her/ella/ @Atayeshe Congratulations  @sidchat1   as you take up your new appointment!  With KUDOS for all you brought to the empowered  @UN  RC role in #Kenya." Yeah, empowerment.

  Chatterjee, after a time as a "peacekeeper" in Sri Lanka said to have committed abuses against Tamils, got one promotion after another in the UN system under his father in law. Now imagine what Sid will do to - and not do for - the Uighurs.

Now Guterres, who has been allowing his son Pedro to do undisclosed business in Africa while he is UNSG, for example meeting Paul Kagame just after Guterres did, makes Censorin' Sid his rep to China. We'll have more on this - now unlike even Ban Ki-moon, spokesman Stephane Dujarric answers no Inner City Press and Melissa Fleming keeps it banned 896 days.

  Ban Ki-moon, days after he left being UN Secretary General, saw the indictment for bribery of his brother Ban Ki Sang and nephew Dennis Bahn, who worked at the UN's landlord Colliers International, in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

As to Dennis Bahn, this was and is a case of nepotism, including given his employment at Colliers International of which Inner City Press repeatedly asked Ban's spokespeople, here in 2015. But the nepotism issue became much earlier, when Ban's son in law Siddharth Chatterjee was repeatedly promoted in the UN system under Ban, more recently by Ban himself to the top UN job in Kenya in August 2016.

   In September 2016 Inner City Press asked to interview Chatterjee and he refused. On Sunday February 19 -- precisely one year after Ban, his Office of the Spokesperson and his head of Communications Cristina Gallach had Inner City Press physically thrown out of the UN with no hearing or appeal for seeking to cover corruption in Ban's UN in the Press Briefing Room -- Chatterjee had an underling three times telephone Inner City Press.

   As we reported in 2009, Chatterjee got an article removed from the Indian Star website - there's more to be reporting on how - and Chatterjee when asked to "confirm or deny that you acted to get an article about yourself removed from a publication, on information and belief the Indian Star" states he "did tell [the reporter] that what was published in the Star  was untrue and libellous." That he was promoted? Under his father in law whose other relatives have now been indicted for using their connections to him for financial gain?
 
  Censorship runs through this family.

    Asked if Inner City Press would commit sight unseen to publish something from Chatterjee, Inner City Press posed four sample questions, asking that they be answered and again requesting an on camera interview to be broadcast live and in full.

    On the late evening on Sunday February 19 -- the middle of the night in Kenya -- Chatterjee sent a narrative, copying it to Stephane Dujarric and Farhan Haq, who were spokesman and deputy spokesman for Ban Ki-moon and current hold (over) the same position for Antonio Guterres. Chatterjee demands that his narrative be published in full, something that CNN, for example, would never do - they in fact bar from their broadcasts officials they deemed to be untrustworthy. But we nevertheless publish it, below.

   Inner City Press responded, nearly immediately, with reiterated questions for Chatterjee to answer:

Inner City Press is request from you, again, answers to questions including:

what was your involvement in the IPKF's military operations in Jaffna including but not limited to its hospital;

confirm or deny that you acted to get an article about yourself removed from a publication, on information and belief the Indian Star;
confirm or deny that you offered or purported to offer a media member a job in the UN Secretariat, and if that was in the Office of the Spokesperson;

please state the last three times you have spoken with Ban Ki Sang (indicted and subject to an extradition order), Dennis Bahn (indicted) or Ban Ki Ho. Also, given your cc's, please summarize your most recent five conversations with Ban Ki-moon.

[Chatterjee states, on the record, "I don't know anything about the question you ask and have had no such conversations.  Mr Ban ki Moon is my father in law and I speak to him regularly." But no other family members? And, Chatterjee claims, no mention in these "regular" discussions of the irregular promotion to the top UN job in Kenya? We'll have more on this.]

please state whether you were the first selection to be UN RC in Kenya, and any and all agreements you reached with the Kenyan government to accept you.

  These are the questions, as I told [your intermediary] when you had him call me today, and when I requested to interview you, including in September 2016.

Please explain your cc to Stephane Dujarric and confirm or deny you have told UNON staff members they would be fired if they spoke to Inner City Press.

There are more questions, but this is the response to your [intermediary's] three calls this morning on Sunday and you 11 pm NY time email. Awaiting your response.

 Inner City Press has been Banned from the UN since July 3, 2018 - by Guterres.

 
Regarding alleged war crimes in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, on which Chatterjee in response to Inner City Press' question "what was your involvement in the IPKF's military operations in Jaffna including but not limited to its hospital" says "I am not a spokesperson for the IPKF and not qualified to answer that question," we note there was the Jaffna hospital massacre ten days later on October 21, 1987. 

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