| On Margins of
ASEAN, Don Antonio Guterres
Welcome by UN, No Read-Outs
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Photos,
Periscope
UNITED NATIONS,
November 13 – UN Secretary
General Antonio Guterres flew
through the night to Manila,
but to what effect? The UN has
issued no read-outs; the UN in
the Philippines Facebook page
has a few photos welcoming "Don
Antonio Guterres." Is anything
being accomplished on the
Rohingya issue in Myanmar,
where Guterres provided
support to cover up artist
Renata Lok-Dessallien? The
draft ASEAN statement does not
use the term, or move the
issue forward. Even on UN -
Duterte relations, Guterres'
UN blocked
the Press from his meeting
with Duterte's foreign
minister Cayetano, then
delayed any read out (until
Inner City Press repeatedly
asked) such that UN special
rapporteur Agnes Callamard
issued rare intra-UN criticism
of Guterres' pervasive lack of
transparency. The only
rationale is that some quiet
diplomacy is being done. But
are conflicts being prevented?
Look for example at Cameroon:
no. We'll have more on this.
On November 10 when Guterres
took three media questions on
November 10 before leaving New
York for a week,starting with
ASEAN, none of them were on
Yemen, much less Cameroon or
the related Rosewood racket
scandal in which his Deputy
signed over 2,000 certificates
to send kosso wood to China.
After the last question - on
robots, for which Guterres
seemed strangely prepared -
there were (gently) shouted
questions on Yemen, and Inner
City Press asked about
Guterres calling Kenya's
Ambassador "unfair," click here
for that. Even on Myanmar,
question two of three,
Guterres' answer showed his
weakness. He is waiting for a
non-binding General Assembly
resolution to ask him to
appoint a Special Envoy,
sometime he could do without
any resolution. The glaring
omission of Yemen from his
opening statement or the three
questions his spokesman
Stephane Dujarric hand-picked
shows the extent to which
Guterres is afraid of Saudi
Arabia, which has imposed a
blockade on Yemen which
violates international law,
during a famine. Then Dujarric
canceled the day's noon press
briefing, so no other
questions could be asked.
Neither he or Guterres less
than credible public schedule
listed Guterres' next stop,
out of the building, at 9:15
am. More on that soon. On
October 4, Guterres took five
questions, all of them on
climate change, and his trip
to Antigua and Barbuda. With
the UN for example refusing to
give any estimate of how many
civilians Paul Biya killed
this week in Cameroon,
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric gave the first
question to Voice of
America (on
climate change), then AP and
SABC, then an ex-Reuters
reporter who called the US the
"elephant in the region." For
this, Dujarric canceled the
UN's noon briefing on all
other topics, while refusing
to answer the majority of
questions which Inner City
Press submits to him and his
deputy by email. Guterres
cited as a precedent the World
Bank loans to Jordan and
Lebanon. Inner City Press
previously asked him
about these, before he became
responsible for UN censorship
of the Press and cover ups in
Cameroon and elsewhere.
***
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