In Other Media-eg New Statesman, AJE, FP, Georgia, NYT,  Azerbaijan, CSM Click here to contact us     .

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR PFT NY Post

UN GATE, Oct 16 – 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. 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 after a coup and its laundering, now on October 16 this canned statement: "The Secretary-General strongly condemns the two attacks that were perpetrated against the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) on 15 October. In Kidal region, an explosive device hit a Mission vehicle killing one Egyptian peacekeeper and seriously injuring another. In Timbuktu, an indirect fire attack against the Mission's integrated camp resulted in at least one Burkinabe peacekeeper wounded.     These incidents come three days after 12 civilians and at least 11 soldiers of the Malian Defence and Security Forces had been killed in attacks in central Mali." RIP. Watch this site.

  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 of over 35 on Feb 14, 2020 an hour after a UN convoy had passed through?" -- a censorship it passes on to UNSC Presidents including Estonia and now France and Germany.

  Now on June 20 from UNSG Antonio Guterres, who has taken his censorship so far as to order "his" Peacekeeping missions to not answer Press questions and for Melissa Fleming to tell UN staff to withhold / steal public money by withholding video of UN meetings from the Press, this: "Statement attributable to the Spokesman for the Secretary General on Mali     The Secretary-General is following with concern recent political developments in Mali. He expresses his full support for the ongoing efforts of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and in particular for its declaration of 19 June calling for an inclusive dialogue.     The Secretary-General calls on all political leaders to send clear messages to their supporters to exercise utmost restraint and to refrain from any action likely to fuel tensions. He also stresses the importance of dialogue and encourages all Malian actors to work inclusively and constructively to preserve the rule of law and respect fundamental rights.     The Secretary-General reaffirms that the United Nations, through his Special Representative in Mali, will continue to accompany Malians in their efforts to consolidate peace, democracy." Absolutely bland and vague - and unsigned, unlike the June 14 vacuous statement by  Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General  New York, 14 June 2020." Is Dujarric gone for good? He should be - once you cover up 100 child rapes, withholding information, it's time to go. To jail.  Guterres and Dujarric are criminals. Watch this site.

  On December 2 the IMF which Inner City Press is accredited to cover, which the UN denies it, on Mali said this: "A team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), led by Boriana Yontcheva, visited Bamako during November 19-29, 2019, to hold discussions on the first review of the economic and financial program supported by the IMF under the Extended Credit Facility... The team met with the Prime Minister, Head of Government, Minister of Economy and Finance, Dr. Boubou Cissé, the Deputy Minister in Charge of Budget, Mrs. Aoua Sylla Barry; the National Director of the Central Bank of West African States, Mr. Konzo Traoré, senior officials, and development partners."  We'll have more on this.

More here.

***

Feedback: Editorial [at] innercitypress.com

UN Office: S-303, UN, NY 10017 USA

Reporter's mobile (and weekends): 718-716-3540

Search innercitypress.com  Search WWW (censored?)

Other, earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.

 Copyright 2006-2019 Inner City Press, Inc. To request reprint or other permission, e-contact Editorial [at] innercitypress.com for