Gabon's Ali Bongo,
After Met SG
Guterres, Shut Media
Echos du Nord, As UN Restricts
Press
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
June 16 – When UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres did a
photo op (Periscope here) and
meeting with Gabon's Ali
Bongo, who along with his
father Omar have consecutively
ruled Gabon since 1967, it
began a full 15 minutes late.
Not because Bongo was picking
up another dubious
award on the sidelines
of the sometimes dubious Ocean
Conference (see
here), but because
Guterres had another, unlisted
visitor. It was, Inner City
Press saw, Saudi Arabia's
ambassador to the UN,
presumably about the standoff
with Qatar. Guterres' holdover
spokesman Stephane Dujarric
has repeatedly said Guterres
is not involved. We'll have
more on this. On Bongo, he
stayed upstairs for 45 minutes
and then left with the media
he'd brought in, in a caravan
of vehicles with a police
escort. Periscope viewers told
Inner City Press Gabonese were
protesting Bongo, who they
call a killer, in front of the
Peninsula Hotel. Now Ali
Bongo, fresh off this award(s)
in New York, has unilaterally
suspended the media Echos du
Nord, here.
The UN itself evicted (audio)
and still
restricts Inner City
Press, and when Inner City
Press asked Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric,
who did it, about Gabon
including as relates to the
closed door briefing of
Francois Fall of UNOCA set up
in Gabon, Dujarric's response
was about the sports team the
New York Mets. This is today's
UN.
Watch this site.
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.
***
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