UN
Guterres and
Dujarric Tell
Associate Spox
Rukikaire To
Not Answer on
Bobi Wine or
CEFC or
Burundi When
Press Asks
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR PFT CEFC
Video
UNITED NATIONS,
December 27 – How badly are
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres and his spokesman
Stephane Dujarric corrupting
the United Nations and its
principles? Consider the case
of Dujarric's Associate
Spokesperson Ms.
Keishamaza Rukikaire. For
days, Inner City Press which
Guterres and Dujarric had roughed
up by UN Security on 3
July 2018 and
banned from the UN for
176 days since has been
e-mailing detailed questions
to Dujarric, Guterres,
Rukikaire and Under Secretary
General for Global
Communication Alison Smale,
who promised
UN Special Rapporteur on
Freedom of Expression David
Kaye they would be
answered.
But none
of the questions have been
answered, for more than a
week. Including not only
questions about Guterres'
links with the Gulbenkian
Foundation trying to sell its
Partex Oil and Gas to China
Energy Fund Committee - and
refusing to audit CEFC - but
also, for example, about Cameroon,
Sri Lanka, disenfranchisement
in DR
Congo, and Uganda's
crackdown on MP Bobi
Wine.
Now
Ms. Rukikaire, to her credit,
has tweeted
about Bobi
Wine and free
speech. But she has
apparently been ordered by
Dujarric, and Guterres behind
him, to refuse to respond to
any questions on the topic
from Inner City Press. We are
not blaming Ms. Rukikaire -
rather, for the Free
UN Coalition for Access
(feed
here), we are making
publicly what a corrupting,
even colonial influence
Guterres and Dujarric have on
the UN.
Ms.
Rukikaire has tweeted about
Burundi - but been ordered not
to answer Inner City Press'
questions on the topics. Same
on DRC, and on Sudan. She has
said,
in her own voice, that Senegal
taking China's money to open
its museum of slavery is discomforting.
This issue came up in the UN
bribery trial of Patrick Ho,
on which Guterres refused
to answer Inner City
Press' questions on his way
into the UN Correspondents
Association fundraiser on
December 5.
In the Ho
trial, which resulted in seven
guilty verdicts, initially
indicted witness Cheikh Gadio
was shown to have expected a
bribe from China when as
Senegal's foreign minister he
shepherded the country's
switch of recognition from
Taiwan to the People's
Republic; he spoke about
China's payment for the museum
as an “entry ticket” a/k/a
bribe. Ms. Rukikaire is righly
discomforted.
But
Guterres is covering up such
bribery in the UN; Dujarric
has twice had Inner City Press
ousted and now banned for
asking about it. They order a
UN staff member who to her
credit cares about such issues
to do nothing about them, to
actively joining the
stonewalling of the Press
which asks. Guterres and
Dujarric corrupt the UN, and
it is UNacceptable. We will
have more on this - and on
this: while UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres was refusing throughout 2018 to
begin any UN audit into China
Energy Fund Committee,
implicated in the UN bribery
prosecution US v Patrick Ho,
Guterres had a secret: his role
on the board of Gulbenkian
Foundation which was trying to
sell
its Partex Oil affiliate to
CEFC. See Inner City Press'
first exclusive report here.
Today
Inner City Press continues its
exclusive series on some of
the CEFC connections in and
through the UN that should
have been identified in the
audit that Guterres corruptly
refused to begin, with his
conflict of interest. (Even
his predecessor Ban Ki-moon
ordered an audit after Ng Lap
Seng was indicted - Guterres
still hasn't after Patrick Ho
was convicted.)
In 2017,
the year in which CEFC's
Patrick Ho was indicted and
arrested for UN bribery, CEFC
in the UN engaged at least
twice with Lenni Montiel,
including for example on 6
July 2017, and also with DESA
official Pingfan Hong. Some
photos here.
Inner City Press before
Guterres had it roughed up and
banned now 176 days for its
inquiries into Guterres'
corruption has politely
questioned both Montiel and
Hong - but Guterres has made
that impossible and his
Spokesmen refused to answer
any written questions, for
more than a week now. There
are more connections.
Guterres
got favors from Peter Thomson
when Thomson was President of
the General Assembly.
Rudimentary open source
research - including on the
UN's own website here - finds
that Thomson, like implicated
Sam Kutesa and John Ashe and
Vuk Jeremic, visited CEFC's Ye
Jianming in Hong Kong. What
was discussed? Inner City
Press previously covered,
critically but civilly,
Thomson. Now corrupt Guterres
has had Inner City Press
roughed up and banned 175
days, with his Spokesman
Stephane Dujarric refusing to
answer any questions despite
the promise of Guterres' USG
Alison Smale.
After receiving favors from
Thomson as PGA, Guterres gave
him a job in his Secretariat,
Representative on Oceans. Here
is Patrick Ho, interviewed by
Guterres' DESA, on Oceans.
There should have been an
audit. There still should be.
Another of Guterres' special
advisers, Jeffrey Sachs, after
denying Inner City Press'
documented report Sachs was on
a UN - CEFC board, abruptly
closed his Twitter account,
story here.
Guterres goes on robo-tweeting
from parts unknown, spending
public money undisclosed.
Guterres should explain and /
or resign. We will have
more in this series.
A
now-removed
Gulbenkian Foundation web page
says Guterres continued as a
board member into 2018. Archived
here.
In
fact it was on 9 February 2018
that Gulbenian tweeted
that Guterres was no longer on
the board - AFTER it was
reported that Gulbenian was
trying to sell, or even had
already sold, Partex to CEFC.
This is called guilty
knowledge.
While
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric is refusing to answer
Inner City Press' written
questions, contrary to
promises by Guterres' Global
Communicator Alison Smale, it
appears Guterres' evasive
defense is claiming that he
left Gulbenkian in November
2016 and therefore somehow had
no conflict of interest in
refusing and blocking the
obviously needed UN audit of
CEFC after the arrest of its
Patrick Ho for UN bribery.
This defense is dubious.
Why did
Gulbenkian take
down its webpage
disclosing that Guterres
remained on board into 2018?
Why - sixteen months after
Guterres ostensibly left - did
they wait until February 2018
to tweet
that he left? Because their
negotiations with CEFC became
public (see 2 February 2018
Bloomberg here,
and 6 February MacauHub here:
"CEFC China Energy buys
Portugal’s Partex Oil &
Gas.")
In any
event, Guterres' "2017"
Financial Disclosure, which
explicitly says it covered the
year 2016 in which even in
this new story he remained on
Gulbenkian's board into
November, more than 80% of the
year - did not disclose his
role in Gulbenkian, only on
the Club of Madrid. Guterres
has had previous financial
disclosure omissions, for
example in Portugal, here.
CEFC was hardly unknown: it
bought a Portuguese insurance
company in November 2017, here.
Guterres' failure to disclose
and, separately and even more
so, his refusal to audit CEFC
in the UN was a direct
conflict of interest, which he
has tried to cover up by
roughing up and banning Inner
City Press which asked him
about it. (See January 2018
press conference here,
July 2018 roughing up by
Guterres' UN Security here,
banning letter via Press
Freedom Tracker here.)
Three times now
Dujarric, his deputy Farhan
Haq and Office of the
Spokesperson colleagues Marcia
Soares Pinto
and Keishamaza
Rukikaire, as
well as
Guterres, his
chief of staff
Maria Luiza
Ribeiro Viotti
and Deputy SG
Amina J.
Mohammed have
refused to
answer this:
"Beyond the 36
questions from
Inner City
Press you
refused to
answer last
week, still
set forth
below for
promised
answer, this
is a
reiterated
request past
deadline that
you (1) state
when SG
Guterres left
his position
on the
Gulbenkian
Foundation,
(2) state why
Gulbenkian was
not listed on
SG Guterres'
public
financial
disclosure
which covered
2016; (3)
explain how it
is not a
conflict of
interest for
SG Guterres to
have refused
to start an
audit of CEFC
in the UN, as
requested by
Inner City
Press in
January 2018,
given CEFC's
bid for the
oil business
of Gulbenkian.
Also, again,
state why
under SG
Guterres there
have been no
updates to the
UN public
financial
disclosures
since those
filed for
2016. Also,
again, explain
your refusal
to answer any
of Inner City
Press'
questions this
week despite
USG Smale's
statements to
GAP, me and UNSR
David Kaye."
No response at
all, even as
spokesman
Dujarric for
example tweets
at actor Seth
Rogin.
Dujarric, as
simply
one example, on 1 March
2018 evaded
Inner City
Press'
in-person
questions
about CEFC and
Guterres, less
than a month
after Gulbenkian said
Guterres was
off the board,
amid oil negotiations
with CEFC. Video
here.
Then
Guterres and
Dujarric had
Inner City
Press roughed
up and banned
from the UN. Guterres'
wife Catarina
Vaz Pinto also
worked for Gulbenkian. This
is today's
corrupt UN.
For
years Guterres received money
as a board member of the
Calouste Galbenkian
Foundation, which despite its
name is the 100% owner of
Partex Oil and Gas. Partex
has operations in Angola, Abu
Dhabi, Brazil, Kazakhstan, the
Netherlands, Oman and
Portugal. It was to a
Portuguese court that
Guterres, while justifying
no listing some of his income,
disclosed in 2016 that he was
paid at least € 2735 per month
for his position with the
Gulbenkian Foundation.
But
while a now deleted Foundation
web page (archived here)
stated that Guterres continued
with Gulbenkian into 2018,
Guterres did not list it on
his most
recent, and so far lone,
UN Public Financial
Disclosure, which covered 2016
("Disclosing financial and
other interests for the 2016
reporting year").
So why did
Guterres disclose his position
with the Club of Madrid, but not
with the Gulbenkian Foundation
/ Partex Oil and Gas? It is
worth noting that Guterres'
wife Catarina Vaz Pinto has
also been connected
to Gulbenkian.
Following the roughing up and
banning from the UN of Inner
City Press which has covered
the CEFC scandal throughout,
Guterres' head of Global
Communications Alison Smale promised
UN Special Rapporteur for
Freedom of Expression David
Kaye, who asked,
that the UN would still answer
Inner City Press' written
questions.
But
as 2018 came to a close
Guterres' spokesmen Stephane
Dujarric and Farhan Haq left
unanswered 36 questions in a
row from Inner City Press,
including this: “Beyond the 35
questions from Inner City
Press you refused to answer
this week, this is a request
on deadline that you (1) state
when SG Guterres left his
position on the Gulbenkian
Foundation,
(2) state why
Gulbenkian was not listed on
SG Guterres' public financial
disclosure which covered 2016;
(3) explain how
it is not a conflict of
interest for SG Guterres to
have refused to start an audit
of CEFC in the UN, as
requested by Inner City Press
in January 2018, given CEFC's
bid for the oil business of
Gulbenkian.
Also, again,
state why under SG Guterres
there have been no updates to
the UN public financial
disclosures since those filed
for 2016. Also, again, explain
your refusal to answer any of
Inner City Press' questions
this week despite USG Smale's
statements to GAP, me and UNSR
David Kaye. On deadline.”
The
question was also sent to the
e-mail addresses of Guterres,
his chief of staff Maria Luiza
Ribeiro Viotti, his Deputy
Amina J. Mohammed, and Smale,
who earlier in the week told
Inner City Press she would
take “under advisement” her 17
August 2018 pretextual
withdrawal of Inner City Press
decade long UN media
accreditation.
It seems clear that
Guterres and his team have
engaged in censorship for
corruption, to conceal a
blatant conflict of interest
by Guterres. It has been
raised by Inner City Press to
the UN Office of Internal
Oversight Services, and
others. Watch this site.
Back on 5
December 2018 Patrick Ho was
found guilty of seven of eight
counts of violating the US
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
and month laundering. (He was
only not guilty on money
laundering in Chad - where the
bribe was not through any US
bank but in cash, $2 million
in a gift box). The evidence
showed that the NGO he ran,
China Energy Fund Committee,
used its ongoing UN
consultative status to pay
bribes to Ugandan foreign
minister - and Ashe's
successor as President of the
UN General Assembly -- Sam
Kutesa.. He was working
with precedessor Vuk
Jeremic while Jeremic
was UN PGA. CEFC even offered
weapons, tanks and drones, to
Chad's long time president
Idriss Deby for oil blocks or
a stake in the Chad Cameroon
pipeline. (Inner City Press
published documents here.)
The night of the
verdict I asked UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres what
he will do to clean up the UN,
where he has left CEFC without
any audit, still in
consultative status with the
UN. On his way from his
Mercedes to a glitzy
fundraiser including George
and Amal Clooney, Guterres refused to
answer. The next day when
asked by another journalist
why Guterres had refused to
answer banned Inner City
Press' question, his spokesman
Stephane Dujarric claimed that
the UN has “cooperated” with
the prosecution. But the
bribery group remains in the
UN, unaudited.
Why has the case
of US versus Ho, and now the
guilty verdicts, garnered
relatively so little interest,
with the corruption of the UN
exposed by it scarcely
mentioned all? SG Guterres is
hoping it goes away. In terms
of corruption, he did not
disclose and refuses to answer
on the African business links
of his son Pedro Guimarães e
Melo De Oliveira Guterres. He
refuses to answer how much he
spends in public funds flying
to his home in Lisbon
at least sixteen times sofar
as SG.
So
CEFC remains an accredited non
governmental organization with
the UN's Economic and Social
Council, while investigative
Inner City Press for which I
have been covering the case
has been dis-accredited by and
ousted from the UN, put on a
list of those permanently
banned without notice, due
process or appeal. On December
7 I was
informed I am banned
from a “UN Human Rights” event
on December 10 to be addressed
by Guterres and his human
rights commissioner Michelle
Bachelet. But this reporting
will not stop - Guterres'
corruption of the UN must be
addressed, through oversight
or as is discussed elsewhere,
impeachment. From the lofty
goals of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights to
Guterres' censorship for
corruption is UNacceptable.
With UN High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights
Michelle
Bachelet
and her Deputy Andrew Gilmour
set to speak in the UN on
human rights day on December
10, Inner City Press responded
to an invitation and was told,
"Thank you for registering to
attend the Human Rights Day
event at the United Nations on
Monday 10 December. On Monday,
please come to the UN
Visitors’ Gate on First Avenue
opposite 45th street starting
at 2pm, at which time entry
passes will be distributed."
Then, past six
p.m. on Friday, December 7 this
from Bachelet's and Gilmour's
Office of the High
Commissioner
for Human
Rights: "Dear
Matthew, We
have received
notification
from UN
Security that
your name was
flagged as
"BARRED" on
the list we
submitted for
passes for
Monday's event
(3pm, ECOSOC
Chamber). We
will therefore
not have a
pass for you
and are unable
to facilitate
entry.
Thank you for
your interest
and best
regards,
OHCHR New York
Office." Photo
of email here.
Inner City Press
immediately wrote back,
to the sender
and
Bachelet and
her assistant, to
Andrew Gilmour
and to the
moderator of
the event, "Particularly
since you are the UN Office of the
High Commissioner for *Human
Rights,* did you not ask why a
journalist who asks the Secretary
General and his spokesmen about
the killings in Cameroon,
Burundi, UN
corruption, UN peacekeepers'
sexual abuse of civilians,
and Sri
Lanka, is “BARRED” from
attending your human rights event
- without any hearing or appeal? I
will appreciate your Office's
answer to this." We'll
have more on this.
Bachelet
gave a speech on
October 15 in the UN's Third
Committee, she emphasized a
prioritization of social and
economic rights and said one
of the officials of her office
is "on mission in
Silicon Valley" in the
US. There are questions
about this - but Inner City
Press which has covered human
rights and the UN for more
than a decade was for the
first time banned from access
a High Commissioner's speech.
This has been raised repeated
to Bachelet since she took
office but she has so far done
nothing, not even responded.
Meanwhile on October 12
Cameroon, from whose Paul Biya
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres took a golden statue
and favors in the Fifth
(Budget) Committee and remains
silent on the slaughter of
Anglophones, was elected to a
seat on the UN Human Rights
Council. This system is
failing - but if Bachelet
cannot even answer on Guterres
maintaining a secret banned
list including not only Inner
City Press but also "political
activists" - and anti-corruption
campaigners -
then the UN of Guterres has
hit its
newest low.
***
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