UN
Guterres Met ICC-Indicted Bashir
in 2018 UNscheduled And in 2012
Banned Inner City Press Learns
By Matthew
Russell Lee, CJR Letter
PFT Q&A
UNITED NATIONS
GATE, September 12 –
Despite Sudan's Omar al Bashir
being indicted for genocide,
Antonio Guterres has met with
him, as acknowledged to Inner
City Press by Guterres' deputy
spokesman Farhan Haq on 29
January 2018 (before Guterres
had Inner City Press roughed
up and banned from the UN for
71 days now) - and, we are now
told by UNHCR sources, in
2012.
This week,
banned by Guterres from
attending and asking questions
at the UN noon briefing as I
am done under Kofi Annan (Rest
in Peace) and even Ban
Ki-moon, on September 10 I
submitted questions in writing
to Haq, to lead spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, to
Guterres' e-mail address and
that of his Deputy and Global
Communicator Alison Smale,
including this one: “September
10-1: Please confirm or deny
that Antonio Guterres has met
with Omar al Bashir.
Separately, if he met Bashir
in 2012, and if so why, and
when the ICC was informed.”
Not that day but
the next, Dujarric replied
adding his response in capital
letters: “September 10-1:
Please confirm or deny that
Antonio Guterres has met with
Omar al Bashir. Separately, if
he met Bashir in 2012, and if
so why, and when the ICC was
informed. NO CONFIRMATION.”
This seemed
strange, given Haq's answer on
29 January 2018, so on
September 12 Inner City Press
asked, “September 10-1 / Sept
12-4: Please confirm or deny
that Antonio Guterres has met
with Omar al Bashir.
Separately, if he met Bashir
in 2012, and if so why, and
when the ICC was informed. You
wrote, “NO CONFIRMATION.” But
here was Deputy Spokesman
Haq's answer to me on 29
January 2018 (before I was
banned from attending and
asking questions at briefing
71 days now): Video here,
picked up here,
among other places.
So how can you say “no
confirmation”? Is your Office
/ SG Guterres retracting what
was said at the 29 Jan 2018
briefing?”
After conducting
an empty briefing from which
Inner City Press was banned by
Guterres and Smale, and that
again had no a single question
on Africa (in fact, one
Dujarric's and Haq's favored
interlocuters used the
Press-less briefing to say
that the corruption of Ng Lap
Seng and the UN Office of
South South Cooperation was
“fabricated”), Haq sent this:
"Regarding the 29 January 2018
noon briefing, I made clear at
that time, as the transcript
itself shows, that there was
no formal scheduled meeting;
they were in the same (large)
venue at the same time:
Question [Inner
City Press]: And did he
meet [Omar al] Bashir? This
reported… I heard your litany
of countries and I couldn't
quite keep up with them, and I
didn't see a readout. But the
Foreign Minister of Sudan has
said that he met with Omar
al-Bashir, who's indicted by
the ICC (International
Criminal Court), as you know,
for genocide and war crimes.
Did he meet with him? And
what… what… is this a change
of policy?
Spokesman:
It's not a change of policy.
They were both at the same
summit. In that context, they
did meet with each other on
the grounds of the sort of
operational necessity that
does allow the
Secretary-General to meet from
time to time with him. That
doesn't obviate the need, of
course, for respect of the
International Criminal Court.
[Inner City
Press] Question: But was
Sudan in the list of countries
that you read out just at the
top of the briefing? And if
not, why not?
Spokesman: It was not,
because it was not a formal
scheduled meeting."
So
apparently Guterres and his
enablers believe he can meet
with alleged war criminals as
long as he doesn't write it
down on his schedule. We have
more details on the 2012
meeting(s) but they will be in
a longer profile currently
planned for publication when
Guterres returns from his 15th
publicly funded junket to
Lisbon. By banning Inner City
Press they have tried to make
its reporting more difficult.
This is censorship - but the
reporting is not impossible
and will continue. Watch this
site.
***
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