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By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 20 – In the run-up to next week's UN Security Council two-step on Western Sahara, numerous diplomats have asked Inner City Press why Secretary General Antonio Guterres is "so pro Moroccan," as one of them put it. The answers proffered include Guterres' time as Prime Minister of Portugal, with references to prior Moroccan King Hassan II and Abdellatif Youssoufi. On April 19 as Guterres held a rare Q&A session, about Africa, his holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric had pre-selected questions, many of them not about Africa at all. The UN Department of Public Information under Guterres has threatened Inner City Press after a frivolous complaint from the Moroccan mission about photos taken according to the rules at the UN Security Council stakeout, while DPI has given multiple "Resident Correspondent" badges to Moroccan state media, some moonlighting for the UN itself, while restricting the UNderdog Press. Meanwhile, Inner City Press has learned, the UN's decoloniziation (C-24) committee is preparing to visit the Tindouf refugee camp. We'll have more on this. While Guterres breezed by the issue of Western Sahara on Friday, April 7 as Morocco tried to get the Press which covers it further restricted, Inner City Press was leaked the email below, from the UN's Kim Bolduc, amid reports of Germany's Horst Kohler as new Personal Envoy. While Guterres' holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric refused to comment on either, here (contrary to his Q&A last week about "Sex in the City, here), now Inner City Press has put on Scribd the full text of Guterres' first MINURSO report such as it is, here. But when Inner City Press asked the UN's holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric about both on April 10, he wouldn't answer either question. Video here. From the UN transcript:

Inner City Press: on Western Sahara, you'd said to wait for the report, but I guess I just want to say, this Kim Bolduc e-mail, which Inner City Press published, was directed to, like, many, many people in UNHCR.  So, 5I'm wondering what then, it talks about a code cable for Jean-Pierre Lacroix to go forward and… and… and, you know, re… bring all 17 people back.  So, I'm sort of wondering, like, is it that you know it, but she shouldn't have written that first?  Is it…?

Spokesman:  She's the master of her e-mails.  She's obviously communicating what she needs to communicate with her… with her staff, and the Secretary-General's position will be made very public and updated once the report comes out in the next day or so.

[Also: Question:  Follow-up.  There were some reports also last week that the Polisario have threatened to shoot the MINURSO peacekeepers if they try to conduct ceasefire patrols in the areas under their control.  What's the Secretary-General think about that and the integrity of the peacekeeping mission itself?

Spokesman:  Well, it's incumbent on all the parties involved to respect the, respect UN personnel in the area, whether uniformed or, or not, in the way they go about their work on a mandate of the Security Council.

Correspondent:  I'm sorry.  Just a quick follow-up.  The Polisario also reported that you have prevented the MINURSO from patrolling the El-Guerguerat area after the Moroccan forces have withdrawn from it…

Spokesman:  I think it is important that all the parties ensure that MINURSO has full freedom of movement.  Masood-ji.

Correspondent:  Thank you, Stéphane-ji. ]

Inner City Press:  Will he, by that time, confirm or deny that he's nominating Mr. Horst Kobler as… or Köhler…?

Spokesman:  As you know, whenever we have a nomination for a high-level person, there's a lot of the rumours prior.  The Security Council will have to be consulted, and once all that is done, we will announce it officially and, no doubt, you will have the information before it is announced officially.

Inner City Press:  Just finally, on both this and on South Sudan, is it possible to get Mr. Jean-Pierre Lacroix to do a stakeout or some type of Q&A…?

Spokesman:  I'm sure Mr Lacroix will be delighted to come meet you as soon as it is possible for him.  Good day.

Inner City Press:  Can I ask a Burundi question?

Spokesman:  No.  We're done.  Thank you.

   This is today's UN. And this is the email:

"Dear colleagues, I am pleased to announce that today MINURSO received a Code Cable from USG DPKO, Mr. Jean-Pierre Lacroix, informing that Morocco agreed to the return of the 17 MINURSO staff who thus far have been unable to come back to the Mission since March 2016 and that the decision was applicable immediately. Mr. Lacroix instructed me to proceed, in cooperation with the Department of Field Support and in full consultation with the Moroccan Coordinator, Mr. Barez, with the reintegration of the above mentioned staff into MINURSO, so as to restore the mission full functionality. I have already instructed the Chief of Mission Support to make arrangements immediately for the prompt return of our colleagues to the Mission, which should take place as soon as possible. Contact with each concerned staff member will be made in coordination with DFS / FPD. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all MINURSO staff, both civilian and military, for the dedication and commitment shown in the last year while the Mission was operating at reduced capacity, many having to assume a much larger workload during such an extended period, and also thank our colleagues for their patience while negotiations on their return were underway.

Kind regards, Kim Bolduc, SRSG and Head of Mission, MINURSO, Laayoune, Western Sahara."

We'll have more on this. As to Horst Kohler, his "gunboat diplomacy" comments regarding Afghanistan in 2010 bear remembering..

Amid Western Sahara protests and repression in El Aaiún, and after the UN acceded to an abusive request by Morocco to expand the restrictions on Inner City Press which the UN's Cristina Gallach imposed 13 months ago, Inner City Press on the morning of March 27 in writing asked the UN's top three spokespeople questions, including "in El Aaiún renewed protests have been met with repression. What is MINURSO doing, and what is the Secretary General's comment?" At the day's noon briefing, held without restricted Inner City Press, UN spokesman Farhan Haq faced only two questions; on one he ironically answered about the right to protest, elsewhere. After the briefing, Haq's office sent Inner City Press this sentence, published in full: "Regarding protests in Western Sahara, the UN recognizes the right of all to peaceful assembly and protest." This came before a quiet March 28 "Any Other Business" session about the MINURSO mission, in advance of which Morocco not only filed a frivolous complaint against Inner City Press' reporting from the UN Security Council stakeout with camera and Periscope, but also invited correspondents it has not complained about to its Ambassador Omar Hilale's residence for praise, including of Italian correspondent / landlord Giampaolo Pioli who has not reported on events in Western Sahara. We'll have more on this.

  The UN's willingness to censor Press coverage of itself and its failures such as in Western Sahara, including at the behest of abusive UN member states like Morocco, shows a need for radical reform not currently being attempted much less achieved. A complaint conveyed to Inner City Press on March 22 by the UN Department of Public Information, which previously evicted and still restricts Inner City Press after it pursued the Ng Lap Seng UN bribery case in the UN Press Briefing Room and regarding DPI's Cristina Gallach is a case in point.

  The background is that when UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' schedule was updated on the afternoon of March 17 to add Brahim Ghali, Secretary-General of the Frente Polisario at 4 pm, Inner City Press remained at the UN Security Council stakeout working. When the Polisario delegation, including UN envoy Christopher Ross, was escorted to the elevators at 3:45 pm, Inner City Press took a photograph and tweeted it, along with urging Guterres' holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric to issue a read-out. But then one of the Morocco diplomats who had been hovering around the Security Council stakeout for hours went and complained to UN Security that Inner City Press had taken a photograph - from the Security Council stakeout where it is authorized, and where at the same time tourists were taking photographs. Inner City Press was encouraged to stop so that a UN Security supervisor would be called. (Here's how UN Security ousted Inner City Press from the same stakeout, at the order of Under Secretary General Cristina Gallach, audio here.) This is the disgusting level of censorship in today's UN, that must be reversed.

  On March 22 the UN Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit, cc-ing superiors in the Department of Public Information, has warned Inner City Pres about "recording... near the Security Council.  You were mentioned by name in this regard, and we take the opportunity of this sensitive occurrence to remind you that the Turkish Lounge is not part of the stake out area and is off limits to media unless invited by the delegation."

  One irony is that Inner City Press never entered or enters this so-called Turkish Lounge, while other insider correspondents do, including without any invitation. DPI has a double standard; Gallach's record in this regard, on this issue, has been noted for example here. This is pure targeting, and comes as Inner City Press continues to question and cover UN lack of transparency and lack of commitment to freedom of expression, for example in Cameroon. It is the UN's ongoing lack of rules, including of due process for journalists, that allows this. Inner City Press has responded, in pertinent part:

"For your information, on Friday March 17, I was in the press area of the UNSC stakeout, after the 3 pm meeting. I took a photograph of the Polisario delegation, with Christopher Ross, going up to the 38th floor. There were diplomats I recognized to be from the Moroccan Mission sitting in the so-called Turkish Lounge. I did not record any conversation or take any photo of them (although in the past, Moroccan Ambassador Omar Hilale has invited me to photograph him and his associate there).

After I took and tweeted photograph of Polisario and UN official Ross going up, a Moroccan diplomat / associate walked the UN Security officer at the turnstile my pass no longer works on; the officer came over and told me, seemingly apologetically, that the diplomat can said I shouldn't take photographs.

 I said I was within my rights to take photographs from the stakeout, but I nevertheless - in light of DPI's / MALU's previous punitive acts with no due process, and ongoing restrictions after more than 1 year - left the UNSC stakout.

I consider this complaint by Morocco to be an attempt to limit coverage of the Western Sahara issue. Given DPI's / MALU's previous actions, if any of this is put in my / Inner City Press' history or file with MALU this must be included to.

This is a formal request to see my / Inner City Press' file. And this is, again, a request to be returned to Inner City Press' long time shared office S-303A, and a statement for the record that ... Inner City Press' office and resident correspondent status must immediately be restored.

Please confirm receipt and provided the requested information / file as well as the list of those waiting for office space, the prioritization the UN has assigned and the reasons therefor." And days later, even on the eve of the UN Security Council session that Morocco's occupation of the areas around the Council, frivolous anti-Press complaint and wining and dining of scribes took place, Gallach's DPI couldn't even get it together to confirm receipt. This corrupt DPI: mend it or end it. We'll have more on all of the above.

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