On
Cameroon, With Tillerson in
Africa Inner City Press Asked
of Anglophones, Boko Haram
Response
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
March 9 – Despite Paul Biya's
continuing crackdown, when
Inner City Press this week
asked two US officials about
Cameroon, their responses were
limited like the UN's
and Japan's
recent
"humanitarian" trips to the
Boko Haram threat and the Lake
Chad basis. From the US State
Department transcript:
"MODERATOR: This is a question
we have from Matthew Russell
Lee with the Inner-City Press,
related to the United Nations.
And you just covered some of
the breakdown in your opening
remarks, but this is an
additional question about the
Lake Chad region. If any of
the new assistance is directed
to Cameroon and in a related
question, the journalist asks
about the ongoing human rights
concerns related to the
English-speaking people in
Cameroon and if you have any
comment on the U.S. response
to that situation in Cameroon.
SENIOR DEPUTY ASSISTANT
ADMINISTRATOR KAREN FREEMAN:
The current announcement funds
more than $128 million for
Nigeria and the countries in
the Lake Chad region, that
does include Cameroon. I don’t
have a breakout on the
programming there that this
will go towards. The total,
since the beginning of 2017
comes to about $1.2 billion
for affected populations in
South Sudan, $565 million for
Ethiopia, more than $602
[million] in Somalia and more
than $655 million for affected
populations from the countries
in the Lake Chad region, which
does include Cameroon. ACTING
DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY
MARGARET POLLACK: Yes, this is
Margaret. Let me add to that,
specifically related to the
refugee response and specific
to Cameroon. In 2017, the
United States provided
approximately $21.6 million in
humanitarian response in
Cameroon and this included
$11.5 million for UNHCR [the
UN Refugee Agency] for their
country-wide operations for
refugees and IDPs [Internally
displaced persons] in
Cameroon, another $4.7 million
to ICRC [International
Committee of the Red Cross]for
protection and assistance for
conflict victims in Cameroon,
including populations affected
by Boko Haram. And then a few
other organizations including
WFP [World Food Programme],
UNICEF [United Nations
Children's Fund] and another
$4.3 million to NGO partners
working inside Cameroon." And
that was it. Audio here.
We'll have more on this. When
the Watchlist group held its
annual press conference on
children and armed conflict
recommendations on March 6,
Inner City Press asked about Cameroon
and what Watchlist thinks the
UN should do about abuses by
the AMISOM force in Somalia,
which the UN supports. The
written recommendation is to
"further investigate" in light
of UN reported rapes including
by the Ethiopian Non-AMISOM
Defense Forces. The cogent
answer included a description
of the role of Ethiopia, on
the Security Council, in
reviewing this. Interim video
here.
Before Inner City Press'
questions there was some
intra-correspondent jousting
about questions about Israel,
then a thank you for the UN
Correspondents Association
that ignored what had gone
before. Inner City Press for
the Free
UN Coalition for Access
then said, with so few
journalists in the room, there
was no reason for anyone's
follow up questions be be cut
off. But this is the UN, where
they throw critical Press out
of the briefing room and out
of its office and the
building, then restrict
it to minders while the human
rights groups in "dialogue"
with the UN say nothing, or
actively go along. Here
is Watchlist's report. After
the 10 am briefing, Inner City
Press asked the UN spokesman
if this year's report, after
last year's lobbying it
ascribed to Saudi lobbying,
will be on time. The spokesman
said it will - we'll see.
Nearly exactly a year ago on 1
March 2017 abuses against
children in Yemen, Burundi,
the Central African Republic
and Myanmar were raised to the
Watchlist group, and later to
the UN, by Inner City Press.
Watchlist, one of its two
speakers from Human Rights
Watch, diplomatically declined
to opine when Inner City Press
asked if the Saudi led
Coalition was behind the
non-renewal of Special Adviser
Leila Zerrougui's contract.
But why wasn't she present at
the Saudi foreign minister's
recent meeting on the 38th
floor, and the UN's holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
has refused to say why.
After
Watchlist's press conference
on March 1, at the noon
briefing an hour later Inner
City Press asked the UN's
Dujarric, transcript now here:
Inner City Press:
In this room, at 10:30,
Watchlist, the group about
Children and Armed Conflict,
were pretty critical of the
removal of the Saudi-led
Coalition from the Children
and Armed Conflict list,
basically urging the new
Secretary-General to put them
back on and also urging him to
take up, for the first time,
Burundi as a violator of
children's rights, including
on killing and maiming.
So I wanted to know, are you
aware of these calls?
Spokesman: Well, I'm
aware of it because I was
listening to it as I was…
Inner City Press: So what do
you think of it?
Spokesman: …preparing
for the briefing. I
think it's always important to
hear from NGOs
(non-governmental
organizations) who are heavily
involved in these things, and
the drafting of the report is
under way and should be out
not too long.
Inner City Press: Is
there any consideration of
including the various
peacekeepers in the Central
African Republic, including
the French force and the UN
forces…?
Spokesman: I will urge
you to wait for the
report.
We'll be here - unless
Dujarric has his way with what
he tried to do in 2016, get
Inner City Press kicked
out not only of the UN Press
Briefing Room but the UN
as a whole. (HRW did
nothing - in
fact, its UN lobbyist,
in a prior capacity, twice tried to
get Inner City Press thrown
out, misusing
the US Digital Millennium
Copyright Act to try to
cover up one of the attempts,
here.
See also this,
gotten under FOIA.)
Inner City
Press asked the Watchlist
speaker about Burundi, video
here, and after its
Periscope, about the group's
generally useful report's
failure to specifically
mention the plight of Rohingya
children in Myanmar. On that,
see here
(Arakan Project), and
watch this site.
***
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