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UNITED NATIONS,
December 27 – Antonio
Guterres' year as UN Secretary
General began
by telling UN staff how much
he respected them, but ended
with Guterres on vacation
while the UN budget was cut
and staff ousted
from their work-spaces,
demoralized and disrespected.
He had also yet to even start
an audit of the UN bribery
indictments made public on
November 20, nor any
investigation - now requested
by over 98,000 people - of his
Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed's
4000 rosewood signatures earlier
in the year. This while Aung
San Suu Kyi, to whom Guterres
long deferred this year,
refused to even discuss the
Myanmar army's rapes of
Rohingyas, and Egypt's Sisi,
to whose state media Akhbar al
Yom his DPI has purported to
assign investigative Inner
City Press' long time work
space, executed at least 15
people this week. On December
27, Inner City Press asked
about this, and Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
responded, below, IN CAPS:
"12/27 - 1: On Myanmar,
confirm or deny the existence
and separately content of the
reported letter from Pramila
Patten to the Secretary
General last week informing
him that Aung San Suu Kyi
refused to address in her
meeting with the UN envoy the
detailed allegations of rapes
by the Myanmar Army, and what
the Secretary General intends
to do about it (the refusal,
and the rapes). NOT AWARE OF
LETTER. WILL CHECK. [Really?]
12/27 - 2: What is the
Secretary General's response
to the at least fifteen
executions carried out by the
Sisi government in Egypt this
week? The SECRETARY-GENERAL
HAS ALWAYS STOOD AGAINST THE
USE OF THE DEATH PENALTY.
12/27 - 3: What is the
Secretary General's response
to the 98,916 current
signatures on the petition to
him stating that “the Nigerian
Ministry of Environment
responded by simply issuing
the missing documents
retroactively. This allowed
over 1.4 million illegal logs
to be laundered, in violation
of both Nigerian laws and the
Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species
(CITES). The traffickers
allegedly bribed senior
Nigerian officials – including
ministers and members of
parliament – with more than US
$1 million. The scandal is an
impressive illustration of the
power wielded by the timber
mafia. The then Minister of
Environment, Amina J.
Mohammed, appears to have
personally signed the
fraudulent documents as one of
her last actions in office.
She is currently serving as
the Deputy Secretary-General
of the United Nations.
Mohammed has since denied the
allegations. Please call on UN
Secretary-General António
Manuel de Oliveira Guterres to
investigate the allegations
against Amina J. Mohammed. The
international community must
prosecute the criminals behind
timber trafficking.” What
inquiry has the Secretary
General conducted, if any?
WE”VE ANSWERED THAT QUESTION
IN THE PAST AND OUR ANSWER
REMAINS THE SAME." So, no
investigation? Just a flat
statement that he "stands
behind" her, as he said about
Renata Lok-Dessallien in
Myanmar before moving her back
to a still undisclosed job in
UN Headquarters? We'll have
more on this. On the morning
of December 26, two days after
covering the UN budget cuts
until 2 am and still without
any comment from Guterres,
Inner City Press sent five
questions to his top
spokespeople, went in through
the tourists' entrance and did
a Periscope broadcast,
then received these five
response IN CAPS from lead
spokesman Stephane Dujarric:
"12/26 - 1: What is the
Secretary General's comment on
the UN budget adopted, until 2
am December 24 in the 5th
Committee and noon in the
General Assembly? What will be
the impact of the budget cuts?
Why did UN DPI request 18 new
posts? WE EXPECT A STATEMENT A
BIT LATER TODAY." Past 5 pm,
with no statement, Inner City
Press went back to the Office
of the Spokesman, who said "it
is in your mail." It is a not
even a statement by Guterres,
rather this "Note to
Correspondents," now here.
The other
questions and "answers" -
"12/26 - 2: Now that the
funding for a UN Envoy on
Myanmar has been approved,
what steps has the Secretary
General taken, or will he
take, to implement the
resolution(s)? WE’VE TAKEN
NOTE OF THE DECISION BY THE GA
TO FUND A SG SPECIAL ENVOY FOR
MYANMAR. WE WILL ANNOUNCE
DEVELOPMENTS IN DUE TIME.
12/26 - 3: The Ugandan army
says they killed 100 ADF
rebels in the DRC, and/but has
no boots on the ground. What
is MONUSCO estimate of the
death count, and if any
civilians were killed, how
many? PLEASE CHECK WITH
MONUSCO. WE HAVE NOT RECEIVED
ANY UPDATES. 12/26 - 4: On
Cameroon, state the UN's
awareness of and any action on
the armed forces' destruction
in recent days of the entirely
of Kembong and elsewhere in
Mamfe. Separately, given that
the Commonwealth at least just
visited the Anglophone areas,
please state if Francois Fall
or anyone in his UNOCA team
has made such a visit in 2017,
when and who. NO UPDATES.
12/26 - 5: It is reported that
“Egypt has rejected claims by
Sudan that the Halayeb and
Shalateen areas of southern
Egypt fall under Sudanese
sovereignty and are being
occupied by Cairo.Sudan’s
foreign ministry sent a letter
to the United Nations,
declaring Khartoum’s rejection
of the April 2016
Egyptian-Saudi border
demarcation agreement.” Please
confirm receipt of this
letter, and any from Egypt,
and state the UN's current and
prospective involvement in
this potential explosive
issue. HAVE NOT SEEN THE
LETTER." Typical. In 2017
Guterres delayed
for months in responding to
the slaughter of the Rohingya
in Myanmar, out of too much
deference to Aung San Suu Kyi.
Guterres continued in Yemen
with a Saudi-biased envoy
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed as
ports were closed, children
starved and cholera spread.
Pressured to respond to the
Anglophone crisis in Cameroon,
his response was a brief
stop-over in Yaounde where he
accepted a golden statue from
35-year president Paul Biya.
In November
alone, Guterres ignored
evidence that his Deputy Amina
J. Mohammed undermined
environmental protection, at a
minimum, in signing 4000
certificates for endangered rosewood
exported from Nigeria and
Cameroon to China, then
ignored a UN bribery
indictment in the courts of
Lower Manhattan. Guterres' UN
used $1 million from the China
Energy Fund Committee of indicted
Patrick Ho even after the
Press asked his spokesman
about the indictment - and
still no audit.
But little
coverage either: Guterres
eschewed press conference,
holding none at the end of the
year, but allowed himself to
be sold for $1200 a pop at a
fundraiser on Wall Street in
mid-December. Inner City
Press, which covered the
event, is launching a series
on Guterres' performance as UN
Secretary General, even as he
and his head of “Global
Communications” Alison
Smale keep Inner City
Press more restricted than
no-show no-question state
media like Egypt's
Akhbar al Yom, assigned the
work-space it long shared
along with the alternative Free
UN Coalition for Access,
pushing for a UN
Freedom of Information Act.
A spotlight must
be shined on this UN. This is
the beginning.
And this was the
end of the year 2017: the UN's
more than five billion dollar
budget was supposed to be
adopted by the UN's Fifth
Committee on December 22 then,
the Committee chairman told
Inner City Press, noon on
Saturday December 23.
Ultimately the Committee
approval didn't finish until 2
in the morning on Christmas
eve, with the ultimate
approval postponed until 10 am
on Christmas eve. Inner City
Press, the only media covering
it, was required to get a UN
"minder" to access the General
Assembly, unlike other no-show
non-critical UN resident
correspondents. From a booth
about the GA it Periscoped the
approval, and even an
impromptu holiday carol. And
holiday was the word. While in
previous hears a colorful
Christmas tree has been
displayed on the GA Hall after
the last session, this year it
was a generic pine tree with
no ornaments. In all other
ways, it was routine:
opposition to Responsibility
to Protect and the UN
Convention on the Law of the
Sea, to funding the
implementation of UN Security
Council resolutions 2231
(Iran) and 1559. Myanmar
opposed any UN envoy being
funded, but it passed 122 yes,
10 no, 24 abstaining.There was
vague praise of reforms, even
as absent S-G Guterres hasn't
even ordered an audit of the
most recent UN bribery
indictment, much less his own
Deputy's signing of 4000
rosewood certificates. Reform?
And end of UN censorship of
investigative Press? We will
Press on this. On a document
Inner City Press obtained,
Speial Political Missions was
blank. The Comptroller read it
out orally, including $853,800
for the belated UN envoy to
Myanmar. On a vote on R2P,
Liberia spoke up and said
having been asleep, an
abstention was intended. There
was laughter. It was after 1
am. Earlier Tommo Monthe
confirmed Inner City Press'
reporting on constraints on
freedoms the vacationing
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres had wanted, the
overall $166 million budget
cut figure including 15% and
higher in human rights. (He
smiled.) Others told Inner
City Press about North Korean
ships, here.
Particular opprobrium was
reserved for the Department of
Public Information under
Alison Smale. DPI had
requested 18 new posts or
jobs, all of which were
rejected, with the word
"abolished" reserved for
(GS)OL and Public Information
officer (Japan) and UNIC-DC
(G77 and China). Quitting
time? On the other hand, no
thanks to Smale, the push
continued for posts in the
Kiswahili and Portuguese UN
Radio units. 18 posts or not,
Smale or not, the UN and DPI
must implement content neutral
accreditation and access
guidelines. We'll have more on
this. When Inner City Press
came in through the tourists'
entrance Saturday at 2,
nothing was moving except
diplomats sleepwalking down in
the 1B basement. One told
Inner City Press the vote
might not happen until 8 pm on
Saturday; another gave it a
copy of the "negotiators'
broad agreement" including 10%
to 25% cuts in human rights.
Exclusive photo here.
(Inner City Press would scan
the whole document, but its
scanned was evicted from UN
along with all in its office
by UN Department of Public
Information, run by Alison Smale.)
Where was UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres, with the
reforms he ran on and
supposedly cares about also
getting bogged down? He was on
vacation already, for the next
ten days, leaving the
investigative Press restricted
and killings in Cameroon and
elsewhere unaddressed. Among
the parts of the UN facing
budget cuts for waste is not
only the Department of Public
Information, increasingly a
propaganda arm which, as if as
a sidelight, engages in
censorship of the
investigative Press, but also
the UN's Regional Commissions,
Budget Committee officials
told Inner City Press on
December 13. On December 21,
as Inner City Press covered
the process down in the UN
basement past 11 pm, this was
confirmed. The US wants to cut
from Regional Commissions, the
sources said, while others
target "human rights" and
DESA, the Department of
Economic and Social Affairs,
respectively. Inner City Press
asked the spokesman for the
President of the General
Assembly about it on December
22, then at 3 pm headed down
to Conference Room 5. After
other reporting, Inner City
Press asked the chair,
Saturday? He said, Yes, we'll
vote as the Fifth Committee
plenary at noon on Saturday,
then GA in the afternoon.
During this, Secretary General
Antonio Guterres is already on
vacation, through January 3.
The chair told Inner City
Press, we're just working
through associated issues.
These include the Group of 77
and China's response to
vacationing Antonio Guterres
requesting more discretion. See G77 draft Combined
Proposal as of 8 am on
December 22, which for example
"15. decides not to implement
any changes at present
regarding any expansion of
exceptional budgetary
authorities, unforeseen and
extraordinary expenses, and
the Secretary-General’s
limited budgetary discretion."
Full draft here
on Patreon. Late night on
December 21-22 Paraguay bought
in empanadas just before
midnight; UK Deputy Jonathan
Allen, who had spoken on
Peacekeeping much earlier in
the day, told Inner City
Press, "Could be a long one."
It always is - and this year,
there are more cuts publicly
threatened... New DPI chief
Alison Smale's swearing in
ceremony was closed to the
Press; she has still not even
responded to Inner City Press'
three petitions for review of
its eviction and restriction
for reporting on corruption at
the UN. Meanwhile, the UN
Budget Committee head for the
year, the Cameroonian
Ambassador who joined DPI in
its censorship after Inner
City Press asked about abuses
by his president Paul Biya,
told Inner City Press it will
all be done by December 22.
We'll see. The UN delivered a
threat
to Inner City Press to
“review” it accreditation on
October 20 at 5 pm. The UN
official who signed the letter,
when Inner City Press went to
ask about the undefined
violation of live-streaming
Periscope video at a photo op
by UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres, had already
left, minutes after sending
the threat. This comes two
days after Inner City Press asked Guterres about the
UN inaction on threatened
genocide in Cameroon, and the
UN claimed
Guterres hadn't heard the
15-second long question.
It also
comes after Alison Smale the
head of the Department of
Public Information which would
“review” Inner City Press'
accreditation has ignored threeseparatepetitions
from Inner City Press in the
six weeks she has been in the
job, urging her to remove
restrictions on Inner City
Press' reporting which hinder
its coverage of the UN's
performance in such crises as
Yemen,
Kenya,
Myanmar,
and the Central African
Republic where Guterres
travels next week, with
Smale's DPI saying its
coverage of the trip will be a
test of its public relations
ability. But the UN official
who triggered the complaint is
Maher Nasser, who filled in
for Smale before she arrived.
His complaint is that audio of
what he said to Inner City
Press as it staked out the
elevators in the UN lobby
openly recording, as it has
for example
with Cameroon's Ambassador
Tommo Monthe, here,
was similarly published.
A UN “Public Information”
official is complaining about
an article, and abusing his
position to threaten to review
Inner City Press'
accreditation. The UN has
previously been called
out for targeting Inner
City Press, and for having no
rules or due process.
But the UN is entirely
UNaccountable, impunity on
censorship as, bigger picture,
on the cholera it brought to
Haiti. And, it seems, Antonio
Guterres has not reformed or
reversed anything. This threat
is from an official involved
in the last round of
retaliation who told Inner
City Press on Twitter to be
less "negative" about the UN -
amid inaction on the mass
killing in Cameroon - and who
allowed pro-UN hecking of
Inner City Press' questions
about the cholera the UN
brought to Haiti and the Ng
Lap Seng /John Ashe UN bribery
scandal which resulted in six
guilty verdicts. We'll have
more on this.
***
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