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By Matthew Russell Lee, Photos, Periscope

UN GATE, September 8 – With the UN Security Council presidency for September being taken over by Russia's Vassily Nebenzia, his 3 September 2019 press conference featured almost no discussion of anything in Africa, other than Libya. Nebenzia called Libya a more difficult dossier than Syria. Reuters, meanwhile, bragged that it is "older than TASS." Great.

  On September 8 Antonio "Back Door" Guterres issued this statement, with no mention or allusion to MH17 and releasee Volodymyr Tsemakh: "The Secretary-General welcomes the exchange of prisoners and detainees that took place between the Russian Federation and Ukraine on 7 September and commends all those who brought this to fruition, including President Volodymyr Zelensky and President Vladimir Putin. He hopes that this important humanitarian act could serve as a positive step towards strengthening confidence among all, enabling regular and constructive dialogue at all levels with a view to paving the way to an eventual settlement of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine.      The Secretary-General urges all relevant parties to take further measures in this spirit, to ensure continued momentum in the ongoing peace efforts by the Normandy Four, the Trilateral Contact Group, the OSCE and other actors, including by ensuring a durable ceasefire, easing humanitarian conditions along the contact line, and enabling progress in the implementation of the Minsk Agreements.     Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General  New York, 8 September 2019." Dujarric is a censor - and the middleman on September 8? We'll have more on this.

  With Inner City Press still banned from entering the UN by Antonio Guterres and now Melissa Fleming, there is nothing on the agenda or asked about Cameroon or Burundi. Instead,  there is Syria, Afghanistan (September 10) and Yemen (September 16). Guterres will blather in the Security Council on September 25; his also censoring chief of staff Viotti will fill in on September 26.

  From what Nebenzia called the UN's best month and best week, Guterres is banning Inner City Press. It is disgusting. We'll have more on this.

  Jacek Czaputowicz, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, was at the UN on August 2 but no photos with or meeting with Antonio Guterres - who already left town without saying where, even as Press asks: totally corrupt, like at UNRWA.

   In the UN Security Council Yemen, another failure of Guterres, will be discussed on August 20; Somalia on August 21. Cameroon is lumped with UNOCA on August 14. The killings in Cameroon were not mentioned once in Poland's Press-less press confernce, Burundi only by an UNCA member travel agent sucking up to Kazakhstan. Yeah, free press at the UN.

  Syria has at least three meetings: August 14, 19 and 29. Poland will host a Big Lunch for Big Tony on August 23. Apparently he will head on a murky vacation trip before then. Poland as UNSC president should ensure the Press can cover its work. We'll have more on this. 

After whispers from the UN Security Council about a belated UNSC meeting on May 13, early on the morning of May 6 Inner City Press submitted written questions, this one to the UN Mission of Poland which has done nothing at all about Guterres' now 309 days of banning Inner City Press: "Press Q re Cameroon, any UNSC meeting, Polish Mission's position on that and continued banning of Inner City Press from entering UN -       nowyjork.onz.sekretariat [at] msz.gov.pl, bartlomiej.wybacz [at] msz.gov.pl, radoslaw.tyszkiewicz [at] msz.gov.pl - this is a Press request to the PolishMission as a member of the UN Security Council to be informed this morning of your Mission's knowledge of any upcoming UNSC meeting about Cameroon of any kind, including Any Other Business informal consultations, whether May 13 or any other date. Inner City Press wrote to you about this back in July 2018.     Also, what is your country's position on the situation there and what will / would it seek to accomplish at any UNSC meeting (and if there is no meeting, why not). Relatedly, please explain how it is legitimate for the UN to bar entry to Inner City Press after ousting it while it covered the 3 July 2018 Fifth (Budget) Committee then chaired by Cameroon, and asked about this situation and other under-performance by the UN. Inner City Press' most recent application for re-accreditation to enter and cover the UNSC stakeout, submitted on 15 April 2019, was denied without explanation on April 17. ("Greetings Matthew LEE from ICP     INNER CITY PRESS,  Your media accreditation request, with reference no: M66561081, has been declined.") What has your Mission does, or what will it do, about this?" Seven full days later, after UN noon briefings promoting Guterres' and Dujarric's current European junket, and still no answer - as the EU's PR to the UN tweets photos of himself with Biya's Tommo Monthe.... Back in a past September Ethiopia's Tekeda Alemu, Inner City Press asked Ambassador Alemu four questions, the answers to which sketch out the Ethopian government's worldview. Video here. In response to Inner City Press asking why Burundi, where even the UN says there is a risk of genocide, is not on his September Program of Work nor on the agenda of the Council's visit to Addis Ababa, Alemu said that you can't compare Burundi to Central African Republic, that Burundi has “strong state institutions.” But it is that very “strength,” which some say the country shares with Ethiopia, and with until recently military-ruled Myanmar about which Inner City Press also asked, that has led to the human rights violations. In this context, Inner City Press asked Alemu about the Oromo protests - and crackdown - in his country. He diplomatically chided Inner City Press for not having asked in private, saying that social media has played a dangerous role. On the other hand, when Inner City Press asked Alemu at the end about the murders of two UN experts Michael Sharp and Zaida Catalan, he replied that while the DR Congo is due to sovereignty the one to investigate the murders, the gruesome nature of the killings put a “great responsibility” on the DR Congo. We'l have more on this. Alamy photos here. Earlier on September 1 in Alemu's briefing to countries not on the Security Council, Bangladesh specifically asked that the Council remain seized of the situation in Myanmar. When Inner City Press asked Alemu about this, he said he still had to inform himself more about that situation. The Security Council is traveling to Addis from September 5 through 9, when alongside African Union consultations the Council's member will meet for an hour with Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, Alemu said. The Council will receive the “maiden briefings” late in the month of the new Under Secretaries General of OCHA and on Counter-Terrorism. There will be peacekeeping on September 20, during the High Level week of the UN General Assembly, and Yemen on September 26. But tellingly, there will not be Burundi. Watch this site.

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