UN Praises WIPO Which
Uses Criminal Defamation Law
Against Press, No Guterres
Read-Out
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Exclusive series,
New
platform
UNITED NATIONS,
April 29 – With charges of
retaliation swirling around UN
World Intellectual Property
Organization Director General
Francis Gurry, Inner City
Press has repeated asked the
spokesman for UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres,
Stephane Dujarric, what
Guterres thinks of and will do
about it, without substantive
answer. Now Gurry and WIPO
have sued the press for
reporting on corruption, using
Swiss criminal defamation
laws. WIPO's spokesperson, who
unlike Dujarric at least
answers, has said "WIPO
referred its concerns
regarding the WRS item to our
host government for
transmission to domestic
authorities and action in
accordance with applicable
local law." The UN continues
to become more and more
hypocritical about press
freedom, having closed meeting
with such groups as the Committee
to Protect Journalists
and Human
Rights Watch while, for
example, FAO sues
the Italian Insider and the UN
Secretariat evicted and still
after 14 months restricts
Inner City Press for covering
the John Ashe / Ng Lap Seng
bribery scandal. (On August
28, Morocco's Ambassador to
the UN Omar Hilale used the
UNTV stakeout to complain
about Inner City Press asking
225 questions and writing 150
articles, video
here, Patreon
here). Now WIPO, which
Guterres went and praised,
is trying to put a journalist
in jail. The UN is corrupt.
We'll have more on this. What
reforms or commitment to human
rights or transparency, or
even consistency or savings,
has UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres shown in the
113 days he's been atop the
UN, surrounded by officials
and spokespeople from the
previous Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon? Inner City Press
keeps asking Guterres'
spokesman, but get no
description or explanation of
any reform, no action on UN
retaliation, nothing. Inner
City Press now publishes UN
staff unions' letter to
Guterres about retaliation by
WIPO's Director General
Francis Gurry, via
Patreon here, a topic on
which Inner City Press has
repatedly asked Guterres'
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric. But even though it's
from the UN's main unions, on
April 27 Guterres' spokesman
told Inner City Press he was
not aware the letter had been
received. From the UN's
transcript: Inner City
Press: I’d asked about the
meeting with WIPO (World
Intellectual Property
Organization), while he was
there, the issues of
retaliation. There’s now
a letter from all… or three of
the UN staff unions that were
directed to Secretary-General
and… Guterres. It’s
dated the 24th. It’s now
the 27th. Has he
received that letter?
And what does he think of the
issue of the entire…
[inaudible]
Spokesman: I have not…
I’m not aware that he’s
received the letter. I’m
going to take a break from
you.
On April 26
Inner City Press asked, UN
transcript here:
Inner City Press:
The question on CEB is…
there’s many questions, but
one… the only one I’ll ask
today is this. Is there
a discussion… can you confirm
a discussion by the
Secretariat led by António
Guterres to outsource some
mixture of IT, finance and
procurement from New York to
Malaysia and other
countries? And, if so,
what’s the status of the
proposal?
Spokesman: No. I’m
not aware.
Inner
City
Press: And
did… What is the agenda?
Can we get an agenda of the
CEB meeting?
Spokesman: The agenda is
broad. It’s on
strengthening the UN system
and improving coordination,
and I think it’s an important
meeting because it’s the
Secretary-General’s first
opportunity to address all the
member… the heads of the UN
system.
Inner City Press: And
when he met with Mr [Francis]
Gurry at WIPO — I’d asked you
this before — you’d said that
everyone is aware of the
charges of retaliation.
Did this come up at all?
I’ve seen a picture of him
smiling on the podium.
Spokesman: I have no
readout of the meeting.
And
presumably, never. While on
April 22 Guterres' holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
issued a read out of Guterres
and the World Bank, there is
still no read-out of the "stop
by" meeting on April 21 with
US President Donald Trump. On
April 24 Inner City Press
asked Dujarric again for a
read-out, and for a copy of
the letter Guterres sent to
Syria's Bashar al Assad. Video
here, UN Transcript here: Inner
City Press: I want to
follow up on the Washington or
the Secretary-General.
He… I saw that he did an
interview with Bloomberg
television, and he said that…
that, for example, climate
change didn’t come up.
So I just wanted to ask you,
what… it seemed like he didn’t
have any aversion to doing a
kind of a readout in that
interview. So can you
give… what did come up and
what didn’t come up?
Spokesman: I can’t go
any further than what I’ve
said to you and what the
Secretary-General said
publicly.
Inner City Press: And
al… I guess, on one of the
topics, he said that Syria did
come up. So just, as a
matter of transparency, I
wanted to ask, have you… I’m
sure you’ve seen the stories
that say that the
Secretary-General wired a
congratulatory cable to
President [Bashar al-]Assad of
Syria. Is that
true? And, if so, did…
what… is the text thus far
quoted by… by Sana’a accurate
and complete? And will
you release the letter?
Spokesman: There was… it
was not a letter… personalized
letter that was signed.
As a matter of practice that
has been going on for decades
in this Organization, there is
a message that goes out to
every Member State on the
occasion of their National
Day. It is the same
message that goes out… so, in
2017, there’s a message that
will go out… the same message
will go out to every Member
State. There’s no reason
why we can’t release the text
of this generic letter.
It goes out through our
protocol service to the
Permanent Mission. As I
said, it’s not a signed
letter. It’s a generic
message. And I think it
is about peace and, I think,
you know, there… no one would
disagree that, after more than
six years of conflict, I think
the Syrian people deserve
peace.
Inner City Press: So
they’re not tailored in any
way? It’s not the
complete…?
Spokesman: They’re not
tailored. No, it’s a
gen… as I said, I’ll
release… We’ll send out
In fact,
it was never sent to Inner
City Press. Hours later Inner
City Press, not even seeing it
on the Spokesperson's Office
counter, asked and there was a
general letter, with not even
the country name on it, behind
the counter. Tweeted photo here.
This is today's UN. Guterres,
who rarely takes questions at
the UN, sat down with
Bloomberg and said it was only
a "brief encounter" with Trump
and that climate change did
not even come up. (Dujarric
told Inner City Press it was
"15 to 20 minutes." Others
say, "three minutes." Also,
his rationale for no read-outs
is eviscerated by Guterres'
read out to Bloomberg, whose
owner remains a UN official,
like Jeffrey
Sachs, under Guterres.)
On April at 11:25 am
Inner City Press reported the
stop by would happen. At the
day's UN noon briefing after
Dujarric pre-released
adjectives spinning the
meeting to his friendly
scribes, Inner City Press
asked him, from the UN transcript:
Inner City Press: you said it
was in the same meeting but
Sean Spicer said at 11:25 that
the Secretary-General had
already met with McMaster and
would be having a, quote, drop
in in the Oval Office with
President Trump? So…
Spokesman: The way I
interpreted Evelyn’s question
and the way I answered it is:
Was General McMaster in the
meeting with President Trump?
Yes.
Inner City Press: And
was it a drop in? And
how long did the meeting take
if it was described as a drop
in?
Spokesman: The
Secretary-General and General
McMaster took, walked the
Secretary-General to the Oval
Office and they met, I think,
for 15-20 minutes with the
President.
As to the
World Bank, the UN said: "This
framework, signed by UN
Secretary-General António
Guterres and World Bank Group
President Jim Yong Kim, is in
response to global calls for
our institutions to work more
closely together on prevention
and reducing needs, risks, and
vulnerability as the world
faces a spike in violent
conflict.. Under this
framework, the UN and World
Bank will work in
complementary ways to:
reduce the multi-dimensional
risks of crisis and help
prevent violent conflict;
develop joint analyses and
tools for more effective
solutions; coordinate support
to address protracted crises
including forced displacement;
and scale up impact by
leveraging financing."
On April 21 as
Guterres prepared to fly again
to Europe, to Geneva and then
Montreux, he sent a letter to
all UN staff, many of whom
forwarded it, outraged, to
Inner City Press. Guterres
wrote, "I expect all of us to
be frugal in the acquisition
of supplies, materials,
furniture and equipment." One
staff member marveled,
"Guterres, or The Goot as some
now call him, is telling us to
scrimp on office supplies
while he's flying to Montreux
and often Lisbon." Inner City
Press pointed out that that
Guterres has reduced his
travel delegations and might
merge the Department of
Political Affairs out of
existence, and might even -
it's unclear why this hasn't
happened yet - reverse
indefensible decisions by the
Department of Public
Information, from the Smurfs
to ongoing censorship and
restrictions on the critical
Press. On the response, we'll
have more. Guterres put on his
website job vacancy notices to
the Department of Management
(unfilled) and rector of
UN-University and even deputy
of UN HABITAT. But for Youth
Envoy, an ostensibly important
position, no notice was placed
on Guterres' website. Instead,
Maher Nasser the Officer of
Charge of the Department of
Public Information, which
evicted and restricts Inner
City Press which asks these
questions, tweeted a link to a
Survey Monkey site two days
before the deadline. When
Inner City Press asked about
the disparity, and about why
it is still restricted to
minders 14 months after trying
to covering the UN corruption
story in the UN Press Briefing
Room, Nasser replied
"Matthew - This is same
process through which first
youth envoy nominations were
solicited. U have same access
as 3000 other journalists."
The last is false - Inner City
Press has minders while even
other non resident
correspondents walk down the
hallway, and no-question state
media from Egypt and Morocco
have full access - and the
former doesn't explain the
disparity. On April 21 Inner
City Press put the question in
person to Maher Nasser, Periscope
here - without answer.
At the April 21 noon briefing,
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric would only
defend the non-publication on
the UNSG site of the Youth
Envoy position by saying it
was done that way in the past.
Another correspondent mutter,
Slavery. On April 20 Dujarric
refused to confirm that for
the position of Special
Adviser on Children and Armed
Conflict Guterres had chosen
Virginia Gamba, without much
background in human rights or
child protection, over
Canada's Allan Rock and
Myanmar rights expert Yanghee
Lee. Dujarric
did not deny
it, and typically
did not
explain it.
From the UN transcript: Inner
City Press: can you
confirm that those considered
for the [CAAC]
position involved Yanghee Lee
and also Allan Rock? And
how would you respond to the
idea that Ms. Gamba, despite
her work on the JIM [Joint
Investigative Mechanism], is
not really viewed as a child
advocate?
Spokesman Dujarric: I
think Ms. Gamba will stay on
at the JIM for another few
weeks or couple of
weeks. I don't know the
exact date of her start
time. In the meantime,
the Secretary-General is…
we're looking at people to
succeed her. The office…
the Special Representative
isn't alone in that
office. There is a
Deputy Special
Representative. There's
a Chief of Staff.
They're continuing their work,
obviously, in preparation for
the report, which will come
out later this year. And
so she will be… as soon as she
assumes her job, she will take
over the position and assume
that responsibility as the
Secretary-General's principal
adviser on issues of children
and armed conflict. I
think Ms. Gamba is an
extremely experienced and
talented international civil
servant who's had wide
experience and I think will be
a great leader to that office
and a great advocate for
children and for the
protection of children.
Also on
April 20 Dujarric announced
that Guterres wants a review
of the UN's air travel costs;
Dujarric also belatedly
confirmed what Inner City
Press asked the day before,
about Guterres traveling to
Switzlerland later this month
from the UN Chief Executives
Board meetings. Inner City
Press asked for Guterres' view
on retaliation by host WIPO's
Gurry - again, no answer - and
specifically what the costs of
this CEB meeting, culminating
in old haunt Montreux, will
be. Dujarric did not provide
any number, thinking that
mentioning Swiss government
support resolves it. It does
not. For now, Inner City Press
publishes this internal list
of the possible Montreux
topics: the UN common position
on the admission of the State
of Palestine to UN Specialized
Agencies, Programs and Funds
by Sept. 2107, how to thrive
without UN/Western funding
- learn from the
experience of UNIDO and UNESCO
in this regard. Better
media relations, advocacy
& fundraising to promote
the SDGs, Agenda 2030,
synergies with OBOR, BRICS
Bank - and the Asia
Infrastructure Investment
Bank, even Bill Gates. Watch
this site. Also this week,
Guterres has handed the UN
Development Program to a
German official, Achim
Steiner, while also proposing
a German as his Personal Envoy
on Western Sahara, Horst
Kohler. As Inner City Press
reported, and holdover
Spokesman Stephane Dujarric
called "despicable,"
one of Guterres' closest aides
is Katrin Hett, of Germany.
She got the position through
Jeffrey Feltman, appointed to
the UN by the previous US
administration. Sources tell
Inner City Press that Germany
was in the running to head the
UN Department of Management
too, for which Guterres pushed
a vacancy notice. But even for
more, another Germany USG
would be too much. So Inner
City Press is told that
Guterres may offer the
Department of Management to
the United States, once his
other "reform" merges
Feltman's Department of
Political Affairs out of
existence. So, they tell Inner
City Press, the affable Yukio
Takasu has been extended atop
Management for a year. How
long can this lack of reform,
and continued restrictions on
the Press that covers it,
continue? When UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres did a
photo
op at 9:25 am with the
African Union's Moussa Faki
Mahamat, the conference room
was full of name tags. Inner
City Press took the (first)
photo and was told to wait on
the 37th floor until 10 am for
a "photo spray." At that time,
the room was full with AU
officials including Early
Warning and Conflict
Prevention specialist Frederic
Ngaga Gateretse, who to his
credit took note of the UN's
bad treatment of the Press. Video here and embedded below.
And in fact, when Guterres did
a rare Q&A at 1 pm, he did
not answer the Cameroon
Internet cut-off question
Inner City Press three times
audibly asked, after Guterres'
holdover spokesman Stephane
Dujarric picked on
pre-arranged questioners, at
least two not about Africa.
At the 10
am meeting, Deputy Secretary
General Amina Mohammed, made
aware, came to the end
of the table and spoke with
ASGs Taye Brook Zerihoun and
Gettu, who joked that "The
Horn" (or part of it) was
represented. New UN
Peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre
Lacroix came in; Jeffrey
Feltman was in the meeting,
but not apparently Stephen
O'Brien.
UNFPA's Babatunde
Osotimehin came up late on the
elevator. Minutes afterward,
the UN announced that
Guterres' 5 pm meeting with
Egypt's Minister Badr would no
longer be open to the media,
as his UN is giving Inner City
Press' longtime space work
space to Egyptian state media
Akhbar al Yom, whose long
absent correspondent rarely
comes in, never asks
questions. This is today's UN:
and it must improve. So too
must Guterres' and Mohammed's
UN's performance on Cameroon
and other AU topics. Watch
this site.
On April
18 when Guterres did a photo
op and meeting with
Ukraine's deputy Foreign
Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya, his
close adviser Katrin Hett came
to tell the assembled staffers
they would not be needed, the
meeting would be held with
only four on each side in
Guterres' office overlooking
the East River and Queens.
Things are getting more and
more private: Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Duajrric
for example has twice refused
to answer Inner City Press if
as reported Guterres tried to
reach Cameroon's president of
decades Paul Biya, about the
cut off of the Internet there.
Others have noticed the rash
of German officials getting
jobs: Achim Steiner at UNDP
and prospectively Horst Kohler
on Western Sahara. But some
office on 38 now have blank
signs. Kyslytsya had just
given a right of reply in the
Security Council, about
Crimea. The mystery and
payback for Guterres getting
all of the Permanent Five
members of the Council on his
side to get elected has still
not be revealed. But earlier
on April 18, Inner City Press
which remains evicted from its
UN office and confined the UN
minders was told, by the
minders, that it cannot
even work at a table in the
UN lobby. This has been
raised, yes, to
the 38th floor. So they
know. There are no rules - a
topic, in another context,
that Kyslytsya raised
in the Security Council.
Back on April 10
when Guterres did a photo
op with the Club de
Madrid - World Leadership
Alliance including another
candidate for Secretary
General, Danilo Turk, it was
impossible not to wonder what
might have been. How might
other of the candidates fared?
What reforms, and reversal of
Ban Ki-moon mistakes from Yemen
and children and armed
conflict to censorship
might they have accomplished
or at least begun? The ex
heads of state barely fit into
the photo, Periscope video here, and
very little banter was heard
before the press was ushered
out. On the way in, Guterres
came amiably through the hall,
turning into the office of
Miguel Graca. But where is the
requested list of who works on
the 38th floor, and who pays
them? Is it true, as Inner
City Press has heard, that
Guterres has interviewed Achim
Steiner for UNDP? At the lower
profile Department of Public
Information, why hasn't the
Officer in Charge given any
substantive response to simple
requests before him, and
would any successor at least
have to commit to free press
due process rules? Why is the
holdover
spokesman allowed to refuse to answer the Press'
questions on Burundi, while engaging others about Sex and
the City? We'll have more on
this. After 100 days of
Antonio Guterres as UN
Secretary General, what has
been accomplished? Guterres
focused early on South Sudan,
but as Inner City Press reported on
his 100th day, the Salva
Kiir forces are using tanks
near Wau while UN
Peacekeeping, still under
French control, says nothing
publicly. The Cyprus talks are
set to continue, but we've
heard that before. Yemen is as
bloody as ever, and Guterres
extended Ban Ki-moon's (or
Saudi Arabia's) envoy Ismail
Ould Cheikh Ahmed without even
getting him to make any
public financial disclosure.
Discrepancies
in Guterres own disclosure
filings between 2013 and 2016
have yet
to be explained by
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric. What has
changed? Not the Department of
Public Information's targeted
restrictions on Inner City
Press, able to cover meeting
on the UN's second floor only
with a minder, and sometimes
(as on the Rwanda genocide on
April 7) not
at all. Inner City Press
has filed a request
for reversal with DPI's
Officer in Charge, nine days
ago, with no substantive
response. New Inner City Press
song
here. We remain
constructive, eager to see
reforms occur and succeed. But
what has changed?
When
Guterres held a briefphoto
opportunity and meeting
with Canadian Prime Minister
Justin Trudeau, it was
Guterres' first in a while,
after several rounds of
travel. And it was over
quickly: the media was told to
leave before a single word was
said. There were complaints
about that, and more
substantive complaints about a
lack of transparency. There
are no read-outs of meetings.
On April 5 Inner City Press
reported on inconsistencies
even in Guterres' own public
financial disclosures from
2016 and 2013 (his Yemen envoy
makes NO public disclosures).
On April 6 Guterres' holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric declined
to offer any explanation
of the differences. As noted,
under Ban Ki-moon he had Inner
City Press thrown
out of the UN Press
Briefing Room and UN, where it
is still
restricted even as the
Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe UN
bribery case it was covering
is coming
to trial. Is the UN
reforming? Watch this site.
Back on
March 23 when Guterres met
UK Foreign Secretary Boris
Johnson, unlike in other
recent meetings with the Democratic
Republic of the Congo
and Tajikistan,
there were women on Guterres'
side of the table (Periscope video here):
Katrin Hett and the Chief of
Staff, who had just met with
Alain Leroy, former head of
Peacekeeping now with the EU.
Also on Guterres' side of the
table was OCHA's Stephen
O'Brien, who greeted and was
greeted by Boris Johnson. Will
the UK, and separately
O'Brien, hold onto the OCHA
post? The emergence reported
by Inner City Press of
outgoing Dutch Labor Party
foreign minister Burt Koenders
as a candidate for UNDP, over
David Miliband, may help
O'Brien. But with budget cuts
looming, the increasing lack
of transparency in the UN
Secretariat's business is a
problem. And this: according
to at least one senior
official on the 38th floor on
March 23, Guterres "has no
interlocutor" in Washington,
to which we'll soon turn.
Watch this site.
As to
Boris Johnson, after four
pre-selected questions all on
the London attacks, Inner City
Press audibly asked about
Cameroon's Anglophone's
Internet cut, what the UK is
doing. We'll have more on this
too.
Back on March 15 when Guterres
met
with Bahrain's foreign
minister Shaikh Khalid Bin
Ahmed Al-Khalifa and a
delegation that appeared to
include that country's former
president of the General
Assembly, Guterres began by
apologizing for keeping them
waiting. Periscope video
here. His previous
appointment had been with a
delegation called "United
Cities and Local Governments."
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric has met to
answer Inner City Press
clearly on why some meeting
and calls are not disclosed,
such as a call with the King
of Morocco
and a working lunch with
Michael Bloomberg, nor how
some media were handpicked
to memorialize Guterres' most
recent trip to Kenya and
Somalia. Video
here. If these happened,
as it has, in Washington there
would be an outcry. And
perhaps one is growing in
Turtle Bay.
Earlier on
March 15 in the UN's basement,
Bahrain human rights defender
Maryam Alkhawaja spoke. She
was not on the 38th floor;
Guterres' interlocutors at
Human Right Watch, after they
met with him, refused
to give any read-out of what
issues they raised. It seems
clear these did not include,
from the UN spokesman's
non-answers, that the cut-off
of the Internet by the
government in Cameroon's
Anglophone areas, now 57 days
and counting, nor the UN's censorship
and restriction
of the Press. We'll have more
on this.
On March
13, before the snow day in New
York, Guterres met another
Gulf foreign minister, United
Arab Emirates' Sheikh
Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
UAE Ambassador Lana Zaki
Nusseibeh asked of Guterres'
recent cultural moves in New
York City. After a pause,
Guterres cited art shows in
Chelsea and at the Frick. Not
mentioned at least at that
time was former UN official
Bernardino Leon, who
negotiated a job at the UAE
Diplomatic Academy while at
the same time representing the
UN in Libya, much less any
mention of Yemen. Will there
be a read out? There was no
read out of Guterres meeting
with Tanzania's foreign
minster Mahiga, about which
Inner City Press asked
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric on March 13;
he also had no answer on Cameroon,
where the Anglophone areas
have had their Internet cut
off by the government for 56
days, almost contemporaneous
with Guterres' tenure of 72
days. We'll have more on this.
On March
10, Inner City Press was
blocked from covering a 38th
floor photo op others were
allowed to. No reasoning was
given, just as no
rule was cited when
Inner City Press was evicted
from the UN by the Department
of Public Information's Cristina
Gallach, and still remains
restricted to minders more
than a year later. Some
thought the era of a lawless
and censoring UN would be over
by now. When?
Back on
March 3, when Guterres met
with Gabon's FM Pacôme
Moubelet Boubeya on March 3,
it came before when the UN
called a two day trip by
Guterres to Kenya, from Sunday
to Thursday. Last Friday when
Inner City Press e-mailed
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric with the
simple question of where
Guterres was, Dujarric never
answered the e-mail.
When on Monday Inner City
Press asked in person in the
noon briefing, Dujarric said,
Portugal. And this time? Why
be murky?
That is
becoming a theme. Who is
working on the 38th floor? How
are they being paid? Inner
City Press asked and was
promised a chart, including a
list of who is "seconded" from
countries' mission. It has not
been provided. On March 3,
Dujarric who previously played
a role in Inner City Press'
eviction and continuing
restriction for covering the
Ng Lap Seng UN bribery case
refused to answer its last
question, saying "Tomorrow"
(which is Saturday) and "I'm
lazy." Video
here. And so it
goes.
Dujarric
told Inner City Press there
was no read-out of Guterres'
telephone call with Morocco's
King in the name of quiet
diplomacy. But why wasn't
Guterres' working lunch with
Michael Bloomberg put on his
schedule, as a meeting days
later with Gordon Brown was?
Both, Dujarric answered, are
still UN special advisers, as
apparently is Han Seoug-soo
despite being on the boards of
directors of UN bank Standard
Chartered and Doosan
Infracore, which sells
equipment to countries where
Han gives speeches as a UN
official.
Also this
week, Guterres' Deputy
Secretary General Amina
Mohammed arrived and within
two hours of being sworn in
did a four question stakeout.
Inner City Press asked
about the Green Bond of
Nigeria, and if she and
Guterres will work to make the
Security Council more
representative. UN reforms are
sorely needed. Is the pace
fast enough? Watch this site.
(Gabon was
at the UN on World Wildlife
Day. Inner City Press, still
restricted, was one of only
three media to ask questions
of CITES and Interpol, about
the illegal
trade of primates from
Guinea. The UN needs more
coverage, more access, not
less. This too much change.)
Back on February 21 when
Guterres met with Ukraine's
Foreign Minister Pavlo
Klimkin, Guterres joked that
having two UN flags and none
from Ukraine was "UN
chauvinism." Klimkin replied,
"It's the kind of chauvinism
we can tolerate. Otherwise..."
Periscope video here.
Earlier in
the day Guterres in the
Security Council expressed his
condolences at the death of
Russian Ambassador Vitaly
Churkin, saying he had been
flying back from Lisbon (and
Munich before that) when the
commander of the plane passed
a note that Churkin was dead.
Klimkin on the other hand
blocked draft a Presidential
Statement, and confirmed it at
a stakeout in which Inner City
Press asked if he would urge
Guterres to invoke Article 99
of the UN Charter more, to
raise issues.
While
Guterres has rightly scheduled
a press conference for
February 23 on South Sudan,
Somalia, Yemen and Nigeria,
those are on the Security
Council's agenda, the latter
in connection with Boko Haram.
The plight of the Rohingya in
Myanmar and Bangladesh, on the
other hand, is barely
mentioned by Council members.
Is this a test for Guterres?
On
transparency, too, Guterres
has opened the process for
finding new Under Secretaries
General of Management and
Public Information - the
departing one Cristina Gallach
evicted
Inner City Press from its
office which sits unused and restricts
it still, with no
hearing or appeal, for
covering the UN. That has yet
to be reversed, and it is
unclear if the USG position
for Humanitarian Affairs will
be opened to applications, as
UNDP has. Watch this site.
Back on
February 8 when Guterres held
a photo
opportunity and meeting
with Cote d'Ivoire Foreign
Minister Marcel Amon-Tanoh, on
the UN side of the table was
Tanguy Stehelin, until quite recently
the French Mission's legal
adviser.
That's how
it is in the UN, at least as
to Peacekeeping and former
French colonies. As Inner City
Press has exclusively
reported, now
"competing" to replace Herve
Ladsous, the fourth Frenchman
in a row atop UN Peacekeeping,
are Jean-Maurice Ripert, Jean
Pierre Lacroix and likely
winner Sylvie Bermann, now
Ambassador in London, previous
like Ladsous in Beijing. It's
the French Connection.
At this
photo op, after Amon-Tanoh's
long vistors' book signing, no
works were spoken until
Guterres' "merci." His
spokesman Stephane Dujarric, a
holdover from Ban Ki-moon and
Kofi Annan before that, has
stopped giving read-outs of
such meetings. His Office
called the end of day "lid"
with no reference to a
balance, and without answering
Inner City Press' question
from noon about Burundi. Yes,
it's the French Connection.
Still even
working from a small booth,
still evicted and restricted
by UN censor Cristina Gallach
after one year, for seeking to
cover an event in the UN Press
Briefing Room, Inner City
Press is hoping a more
transparent UN.
***
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