UN
Guterres
Preaches Mali
Accountability
After His Own
Guards Eject
Inner City
Press
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Periscope,
YouTube
UNITED NATIONS,
June 26 – The day after UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' guard physically
ousted Inner City Press which
was covering Guterres' Eid
speech and his failures in Cameroon,
corruption
and reform,
Guterres appeared in
Washington for a Portuguese
luncheon and to meet Mike
Pompeo. The UN still has not
put out a read-out, as is
Guterres' untransparent way.
Before 2 pm on Jun 23, the US
State Department put this out:
"The Secretary and the
Secretary-General discussed
the success of the Singapore
Summit, efforts to
denuclearize the Korean
Peninsula, Libya, peace in the
Middle East, and the
Secretary-General’s recent
trip to Mali." On Mali, just
as when Guterres was bragging
about it at an Eid event his
security physically evicted
the Press from, it is unlike
Guterres raised in DC since he
didn't in Mali the UN
child rape there, and
now the finding of mass graves
attributable to the Malian
military the UN supports.
Guterres after canceling his
June 26 press conference and
trying to speak only to
friendly correspondents issues
this: "The Secretary-General
is following with concern the
rising toll of intercommunal
clashes in central Mali,
including the killing of 22
people in the village of
Koumaga, Mopti region, on 23
June. He calls for calm and
restraint, and urges all
parties to seek a peaceful
resolution of differences and
reconciliation through
dialogue. The
Secretary-General expresses
his condolences to the
families of the victims, to
the Government and people of
Mali. The Secretary-General is
concerned about reports of
human rights violations
committed against the
population by government
forces, including in the
village of Nantaka on 13 June.
He underlines the need to hold
perpetrators of all crimes
accountable and to bring them
to justice" - while Guterres
lets his own guards oust the
press then has a spokesman who
said you can only ask UN
Security about it. It seems
Guterres is a corrupt censor.
Five UN Security officers,
most with automatic weapons,
pushed Inner City Press'
reporter out of the UN on June
22 as it was filming and
preparing to write about
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' claims about his
visit to Mali, where he didn't
even inquire into a recent
case child rape by a UN
Peacekeeper. With the event
still ongoing, Inner City
Press was approached by UN
Lieutenant Dobbins and told
that since it was just past 7
pm it had to leave the
building.
That is not
the rule, nor the practice; in
any event, the Guterres Eid al
-Fitr event listed in the UN
Department of Public
Information was still ongoing,
making it unquestionable that
Inner City Press had a right
to be in the UN and cover it.
But
even as Inner City Press
dialed DPI's Media
Accreditation and Liaison
Unit, getting only voice mail,
Dobbins made a call and UN
“Emergency Response Unit”
officers arrived, with barely
concealed automatic weapons.
One of them repeatedly pushed
Inner City Press' reporter in
the back, forcing him through
the General Assembly lobby
toward the exit. Periscope
video here.
Longer YouTube (40 min) here.
UN
Under Secretary General
Catherine Pollard was told the
ouster and did nothing, as was
a Moroccan diplomat. The
heavily armed UN Security
officers refused to give their
names when asked. Lieutenant
Dobbins, with no name plate on
his uniform, refused to spell
his name. He said, I have my
orders. From who - Guterres?
His Deputy SG or chief of
staff, both of whom were at
the event? DSS chief Drennan?
DPI chief Alison Smale?
Inner City Press repeatedly
asked to be able to get its
laptop computer, which was
upstairs - there was no way to
have known it would be ousted
during Guterres' event.
But
Dobbins and the others
refused, as did the UN
Security officers at the gate.
Inner City Press remained
there, with dwindling cell
phone battery, raising the
issue online to Smale, under
whose watch Inner City Press
has remained in the
non-resident correspondent
status it was reduced to for
pursuing the Ng Lp Seng UN
bribery case into the UN press
briefing room where Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
ordered it out, then had it
evicted. A DPI representative,
whom Inner City Press asked to
call Smale, was unable or
unwilling to even let Inner
City Press go in escorted to
get its laptop.
Just
in the past week, when Inner
City Press complained of
Dujarric providing only to Al
Jazeera the response of
Antonio Guterres to the US
leaving the UN Human Rights
Council, Dujarric and the Al
Jazeera trio claimed to MALU
that the coverage was “too
aggressive.” Journalism is not
a crime? Next week, Antonio
Guterres is set to give
remarks, to which Inner City
Press has requested the right
to cover response, to the UN
Correspondents Association,
which not only has not acted
on this censorship, but has
fueled it.
Inside the
UN the Eid event continued,
alongside a liquor fueled
barbeque thrown by UN
Security. This DSS sold
tickets to non resident
correspondents, and allowed in
people who had nothing to do
with the UN, including some
seeming underage. When Inner
City Press audibly raised the
issue to UN Safety and
Security Service chief Mick
Brown, he did nothing.
The
Moroccan diplomat emerged and
chided Inner City Press for
even telling him of the
ouster, claiming that “25% of
what you write is about
Morocco.” Pakistan's Permanent
Representative, who hosted the
Eid event, said she would look
into it. Sweden's spokesperson
asked whom to call in DPI and
when Inner City Press said,
Alison Smale, responded, Who
is Alison Smale? Indeed.
Smale has
refused to respond in any way,
in the eight months she has
been Guterres' “Global
Communications” chief, to a
5000 signature petition to
restore Inner City Press to
its unused office S-303 and to
adopt content neutral media
access rules going forward.
That, and appropriate action
on Lt. Dobbins and the others,
must be among the next steps.
Watch this site.
***
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