On South Sudan As UN
Mouths Rape Concern Its
Guterres Bans the Press
Which Asks About Abuse Cover
Up
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR Letter
PFT Q&A
UNITED NATIONS
GATE, December 3 – When youth
leaders from South Sudan and
DR Congo took questions on
October 26, it was across the
street from the UN and Inner
City Press went to ask and
live-stream. Video here.
It asked about the performance
of the UN Mission UNMISS.
Inner City Press asked the UN
in writing, "South Sudan's
Susan Kyunon Sebit
William told Inner City
Press that UNMISS does not
sufficiently protect
civilians, particularly women,
citing Terrain Hotel etc. What
IS the UN doing? What did it
learn?" Apparently nothing -
these has been no answer, more
than a month later. The UN
under Antonio Guterres has
further covered up rapes in
CAR by its own "peacekeepers"
from Cameroon, refusing to
answer questions in a
censorship pattern well known
to each of the officials who
on December issued this fwiw
statement: "UN Special
Representatives on Sexual
Violence in Conflict, Pramila
Patten, for Children and Armed
Conflict, Virginia Gamba, and
the Special Advisor on the
Prevention of Genocide, Adama
Dieng strongly condemn reports
of 150 women and girls
brutally raped during a
ten-day period (19-29
November) while making their
way to collect food for their
families near Bentiu, South
Sudan. The violations took
place in a
Government-controlled area,
reportedly carried out by
young men in civilian clothing
or military uniforms.
We reiterate the messages of
the Secretary-General’s
Special Representative for
South Sudan, David Shearer and
call on the Government of
South Sudan to urgently
denounce these abhorrent acts,
swiftly launch investigations
and ensure that perpetrators
are prosecuted and held
accountable.
Accountability is critical to
obtain lasting peace and
reconciliation among the
communities in South Sudan we
therefore call on the
Government to take all
appropriate measures to end
the chronic impunity
prevailing in the country. We
also call on the Government to
uphold its primary
responsibility for protecting
and ensuring the safety of its
population, irrespective of
their ethnic or political
affiliation. We further
urge the Government to ensure
that all victims receive
essential medical,
psychosocial and legal support
necessary for their recovery.
It is very disturbing that
sexual violence remains
rampant in the country. This
year, in particular, has been
marked by an alarming increase
in the number of rape cases
perpetrated on vulnerable
women and girls, despite the
signing of the Revitalized
Peace Agreement in September
2018." But why have they
allowed Guterres censorship on
the very issue of sexual
abuse? We'll have more on
this. Today's UN bans
pPress. When "the Role of
Conventional Arms in
Preventing Conflicts" was
debated across First Avenue
frm the UN on October 25,
Inner City Press went, to ask
a question. Video here.
It asked UN Peacekeeping
official Thomas Kontogeorgos
what the UN has done about its
negligent loss of weapons and
ammunition - which Inner City
Press asked about IN the UN
before being banned as cover
up by SG Antonio Guterres and
his USG Alison Smale. Kontogeorgos
to his credit
answered, only
somewhat
evasively,
that DPKO
"provided
inputs" to the
Small
Arms Survey,
and now UNPOL
passes
information to
INTERPOL (the
disappearance
of whose head
Guterres has
said nothing
about, despite
written
questions from
Inner City
Press.). At
the end of the
IPI program,
Youssef
Mahmoud spoke
about the
elephant(s) in
the room,
selling arms.
Afterward Dr.
Mihaela
Racovita
of SAS told
Inner City
Press they are
trying to make
further
inroads with
DPKO, for
example with
the mission in
Mali. We hope
to have more
on this - the
lawless ban by
Guterres and
Smale, for
reporting on
UN corruption,
is not
helpful. But
we will not
stop. Back
on September 5, hours after in
the UN Security Council
chamber UK Ambassador Karen
Pierce said
she supported the morning's
meeting about Nicaragua due to
refugee flows, across the
street from the UN Inner City
Press asked her why this logic
didn't apply to the confict in
the former British Southern
Cameroons and the flight of
Anglophones from state
violence into Nigeria.
Periscope video here.
Pierce replied that a country
is less likely to end up on
the Security Council's agenda
if it is taking some positive
steps. But given 36 year
Cameroonian head of state Paul
Biya's torching of villages,
what are his positive steps? A
sceptic might point to the
natural gas deal he signed
with UK-based New Age, which
UK Minister Liam Fox
bragged around as showing UK
companies can still get deals
after Brexit.
Also
on the panel on the "Culture
of Peace," moderated by Kevin
Rudd, was Secretary
General Antonio Guterres' head
of policy planning Fabrizio
Hochschild. When Inner City
Press began a question to
Hochschild, who had spoken
with gruesome examples from
Colombia of the need for
opposing sides to humanize
each other though
“dignification,” Rudd cut it
off.
Stepping off the
crowded elevator at ground
level Inner City Press
endeavored to ask Hochschild
the questions, both Cameroon
and whether Guterres and his opaque
Global Communicator Alison Smale,
purporting to ban Inner City
Press from the UN for life
without once speaking with it,
should engaged in some
dignification. He declined to
answer -- declined to dignify
the question, so to speak --
then said “Ask Steph.”
It was a
reference to Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
who Smale has twice written
would answer Inner City Press'
question but who has refused
to for a full week.
This as
Inner City Press, already
banned from the UN for 64 days
amid its questions on
Guterres' inaction on Cameroon
with the country's ambassador
Tommo Monthe heading the UN
Budget Committee, has an
application pending to cover
the UN General Assembly as it
has for the past 11 years.
Dignification, indeed. We'll
have more on this.
***
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