UNSC
Elements After Coronavirus
Meeting Has Lax UNMISS and
UNDSS UNanswered
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR PFT NY
Post
UN GATE, April 9
– The UN
Security
Council in the
second half of
March 2020 did
not hold a
single publicly-viewable
briefing or
issuance of
Press Elements,
on South
Sudan
or any
other site of
a UN Peacekeeping
mission.
This as
Inner City
Press, which
reports
on South
Sudan for example
is excluded
by the UN
Secretariat
from getting promised
answers - for
example to
this question
it posed about
a
transcript
leaked to it
by UNMISS
staff about lack of
social distancing
in
transporting
national staff,
and now UNDSS
keeping its gym
open
--
a
censorship it
passes on to
UNSC
Presidents
including on April 1
the Dominican
Republic's Jose
Singer. And on
April 9, here and here.
Belatedly, not
from the UN
but a mission,
the Elements
to the
(banned)
Press: "The
Security
Council
Discussed the
COVID-19
Pandemic
Through
VTC
The Security
Council held a
closed
video-conference
on the “Impact
of Covid 19 on
the issues
that fall
under the
Council’s
mandate” on
April 9, 2020,
which was
chaired by the
President of
the Council,
H.E. Mr. Jose
Singer.
The members of
the Security
Council were
briefed by UN
Secretary-General,
Mr. Antonio
Guterres.
The Members of
the Security
Council were
briefed on the
Secretary
General’s
appeal for a
global
ceasefire and
on the
potential
impact of the
COVID-19
pandemic in
United
Nations’
humanitarian
response as
well as on the
Organization’s
Peacekeeping
and Special
Political
Missions.
The Members of
the Security
Council also
expressed
their support
for all
efforts of the
Secretary-General
concerning the
potential
impact of
COVID-19
pandemic to
conflict-affected
countries and
recalled the
need for unity
and solidarity
with all those
affected."
Nevertheless
for now we
publish
these
squibs from
the
UNSC "closed
VTC" on COVID-19,
our
approach always begins
open, then modifies
based on how
the UN acts:
"Statement by
Ambassador
Jonathan
Allen, UK
Chargé
d’Affaires to
the UN, at a
meeting of the
Security
Council on the
impact of
COVID-19
Thank you very
much, Jose.
Thank you,
Secretary-General,
for briefing
us today. And
let me join
others in
welcoming our
new colleague
from Tunisia.
In different
times we sit
next to each
other in the
chamber and I
look forward
to that
opportunity
soon.
Let me start,
if I may, by
just saying a
few words
about how the
UK is
approaching
some of the
initial phases
of this
crisis. It is
the biggest
health
emergency in
generations,
and the UK's
work with our
allies is
focusing on
four initial
points, which
we encourage
others also to
support. And
they are the
increasing of
the resilience
of vulnerable
health
systems. And
we've
announced so
far $670
million in
aid." We'll
have more as
more comes in.
On
November 7 Inner
City Press
asked the IMF
(which unlike
the UN
Secretariat
answers it):
"On
Equatorial
Guinea, what
is the status
(and dollar
volume) of the
IMF's
consideration
of a program,
and the
weighing if at
all on the
length of time
Obiang has
been in power?
"The loan, the
amount of
which has not
been revealed,
is scheduled
to be
considered by
the IMF
executive
board in
December."
From
the IMF's
November 7 transcript,
with video on page:
"There's
another
question from
Matthew, which
I'll take on
Equatorial
Guinea, asking
what's the
status and the
volume of the
IMF's
consideration
of a program
for Equatorial
Guinea and the
weighing, if
at all, length
of time that
President
Obiang has
been in power."
More
here.
***
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