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Inner City Press
Got UN To Confirm Guterres
Met Bashir, AP Wrote It As
If UN Disclosed
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Video
UNITED NATIONS,
January 29 – Inner City Press
on January 29 asked UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres' deputy spokesman
Farhan Haq to confirm or deny
that Guterres over the weekend
in Ethiopia met with
International Criminal Court
indictee Omar al Bashir of
Sudan, and if so why Haq
hadn't mentioned Sudan in the
dozen Guterres meetings he
mentioned at the beginning of
the UN noon briefing. Video here, UN transcript here
and below. Haq confirmed the
meeting, then tried to justify
it as being about
"operational" issues. Inner
City Press ask, But why was it
not disclosed? Haq said it was
not a formal meeting. Were all
of the others on his list?
After another correspondent,
from Associated Press,
belatedly asked a follow up
for more description of
Guterres' meeting with Bashir,
Inner City Press asked Haq
about Sudan's foreign minister
saying the meeting was
positive and full of praise
from Guterres. Haq dodged then
said, accurately, that the UN
doesn't give many read-outs
today. Inner City Press asked,
Isn't or wasn't there a UN
policy to only meet with ICC
indictees in absolutely
necessary circumstance? We'll
have more on this, even as
Guterres and his "Global
Communicator" Alison Smale
continue to restrict Inner
City Press. Typically, AP wrote
it up without giving any
credit, and worse making it
look like the UN has
unilaterally disclosed
Guterres meeting with Bashir -
it didn't. AP was the NYT's
"coverage." This is now the UN
works, or doesn't.
The UN gives work space and
full access to those who will
twist things to make the UN
look good, or who ask and
write nothing like Akhbar al
Yom. Here's from the UN transcript,
in chronological order with
AP's single belated question
included: Deputy Spokesman
Haq: The Secretary-General is
on his way back from Addis
Ababa, where he met with a
number of Heads of State and
Government and Foreign
Ministers, including those
from Ethiopia, Angola, Libya,
Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and
South Sudan. He also had
bilateral meetings with
leaders from Guinea, Somalia,
Liberia, the Central African
Republic, and South Africa....
Inner City Press: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? Deputy
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: But, was
Sudan in the list of countries
that you read out just at the
top of the briefing? And
if not, why not? Deputy
Spokesman: It was not,
because it was not a formal
scheduled meeting.... AP:
Thank you, Farhan. On
the Secretary-General's
meeting with President
al-Bashir, could you give us
any more details on what was
discussed? Deputy
Spokesman: No, I don't
have anything further.
Discussions on operational
necessities ultimately involve
the sort of work that we need
to accomplish on the
ground. So, obviously,
as you know, we do have a
presence on the ground with
our various forces, including
the African Union-United
Nations Hybrid Operation in
Darfur (UNAMID), the United
Nations Interim Security Force
for Abyei (UNISFA), and so it
would be about… some of that
would involve the work of
those bodies. Inner City
Press: Follow-up?
Okay. I wanted… because
this is what the Foreign
Minister of Sudan said about
the meeting. He
described the meeting as… as
extremely successful and
positive. He told
reporters on Sunday, the UN
Secretary-General hailed
Sudan's Government's efforts
to achieve peace in Darfur and
its declaration of a ceasefire
in the zones, and he went on…
you know, it… basically, he…
he kind of characterized it,
not so much as operational, as
being one of praise. And
I'm wondering, have you seen
this readout? And if so,
is it true or not true?
And why didn't you do your own
readout? Deputy
Spokesman: We are not
really issuing a lot of
readouts from any of these
meetings. We do provide
certain details, as I've done
here. But, regarding
that, it's typical for Member
States to have their own
characterizations of
meetings. When we talk
about meetings, ultimately,
the point that we give is that
they are designed to achieve
certain ends. We… you
know, we do them to make sure
that crucial bits of work are
achieved. It's not about
praise or about
compliments. It's about
concrete results. Inner City
Press: Was I wrong that there
was… at least under Ban
Ki-moon, there was a policy of
keeping contacts with
ICC-indicted individuals to an
absolute minimum? And
how do you put that meeting in
that context? Deputy
Spokesman: That remains
the case. The policy has
not changed." This is a new
low. When Guterres held a
"Global Town Hall Meeting" on
January 17, the meeting was
closed but Inner City Press
came in early to stake it out:
to stand in front and ask the
attendees what they think of
Guterres' performance. Unlike
other correspondents at the
UN, Inner City Press is
required to have a minder to
do such stakeouts on the UN's
second floor - and on January
17 at the appointed hour, 8:45
am, there was no minder
available. Periscope video here.
Finally it was possible, after
Guterres passed by and started
his pitch. At his press
conference the day before he
twice said, "there were no
budget cuts in relation to the
regular budget of the United
Nations." This is contrary to
what Inner City Press found
when it, as the only media
present, covered the UN budget
endgame through 2 am on
Christmas Eve. It is also
contradicted by this statement
exclusively to Inner City
Press from staff, edited to
preserve anonymity: "What
I feel the public or even the missions
themselves don't understand, are the
repercussions of the proposed cuts. The Fifth
Committee members slashed the budget left and
right, without thinking for one second what it
actually meant. The first thing to go as a
result, is one of your favorite topics:
transparency. Based on what has been said
internally, they are looking to cut down on
multilingualism and language accessibility
within DPI production, leaving English as a
lingua franca (!).
This means that missions interested in staying
up to date on UN news and events will not be
able to access information in their language,
if that language is indeed French,
Spanish, Arabic, Chinese or Russian. Nor will
the public. As you may imagine, this raises a
serious issue in regards to transparency and
multilingualism. The founding values of the UN
were set in place in order to make the body a
fair playing field for all. By making
information available only in English, what
message will that send? How will it affect the
missions? How will the UN be able to forge a
closer relationship with the public around the
world? The bias will shift heavily in favor of
developed countries, who will have the initial
access to all information due to linguistic
advantages. These talks on cuts are
happening behind closed doors and only
potentially affected employees are being
informed. The missions and the public won't
know until it's too late to do anything
about it, unless somebody holds them
accountable now. But now, you know.
And I hope that disseminating this information
and holding those in power at the higher
echelons of DPI accountable, will help
preserve access to information -- which is
after all, a human right. We hope to see you
there too." But the meeting was closed, and
minder only belatedly available. We'll have
more on this. The day before
on January 16 when Guterres
came to give his speech for
2018 to the UN General
Assembly, the Press was
blocked from staking it out by
the censorship restricts he
has in place. Periscope here,
UNresponded to letter here.
Once inside the Trusteeship
Council Chamber, Guterres said
he had 12 points. One was
Myanmar, although he did not
even mention the mandate on
his to name an envoy
to the country, which he has
not done. Another was North
Korea; he confirmed he will go
to the opening ceremony of the
PyeongChang
Olympics. He lumped all of
Africa into just one of his 12
points, despite the Continent
being 60% of the UN Security
Council's agenda. He did not
mention Cameroon
or other long time family
ruled countries like Togo and
Gabon that his envoys are
propping up. His Deputy Amina
J. Mohammed, who is in “her”
Nigeria silent on the
abductions there, was not
present; her chief staff was,
but as before, no response to
emails or questions about the
4000 rosewood
signature. Guterres hasn't
even started an audit of the
UN bribery indictments
of Patrick Ho and Cheikh Gadio
and regarding China Energy
Fund Committee brought
November 20 in the Southern
District of New York. Guterres
said he has zero tolerance for
sexual harassment but has done
none, and his spokesman
Stephane Dujarric hasn't even
answered Inner City Press on,
the case
of Frank La Rule at UNESCO.
The UN like UNESCO claims it
is for free speech and press
freedom, but no answer on The
Rappler; nor has DPI chief
Alison Smale even answered
Inner City Press' and the Free
UN Coalition for Access'
three petitions
about even handed media access
and content neutral rules, or
this
petition. Guterres is slated
to take, selected by Dujarric,
questions at 12:45. Watch this
site. The spring thaw in
Antonio Guterres' first year
as UN Secretary General, in
March and April, began to
reveal hypocrisy. A small but
telling example was when,
after Guterres called on
people all over the world to
turn off their lights for
Earth Hour, Inner City Press found
the lights on at the
UN-owned mansion on Sutton
Place where Guterres lives.
At first the UN
refused to answer Inner City
Press where Guterres was - Lisbon
- then accused it of “monitoring
the residence.” It's called
journalism: with the UN
refusing to disclose even what
country Guterres is in,
checking the residence is the
only way. The UN also refuses
to disclose how much these
Lisbon trips cost the global
taxpayers, for example how
many UN Security officials are
taken, where they stay and for
how much.
Likewise
Guterres' 2016 financial disclosure
differed significantly from
what he filed as head of UNHCR
in 2013. This has yet to be
explained. In April Guterres
was petitioned to replace the
UN's pro-Saudi Yemen
envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh
Ahmed. But when Inner City
Press asked, Guterres'
spokespeople refused to even
confirm receipt of the letter.
This happened on
a petition by staff
too, about retaliation by
Francis Gurry the head of the
UN World Intellectual Property
Organization, whose assistance
to North Korea's cyanide
patents Guterres did not act
on.
In late April,
Guterres did nothing as
Tanzania expelled
his resident coordinator, a
far cry from his knee-jerk
defense later in the year -
continuing on December
27 - of the 4000
rosewood signatures by his
Deputy SG Amina J. Mohammed.
Sustainable development? Try
hypocrisy, and censorship and
restriction of the Press which
covers it - and Cameroon, here. We'll have more
on this.
In Antonio
Guterres' first two months as
UN Secretary General, the
longstanding Cyprus talks
began to fall apart,
and Guterres stood silent
as Burundi, for example, banned
access by UN officials.
Guterres ignored a protest by
whistleblowers against Francis
Gurry of the UN World
Intellectual Property
Organization, and that UN
agency's work on North Korea's
cyanide patents.
He did
nothing about a UN waste dump
exposed
by Inner City Press in the
Central African Republic,
despite his predecessor Ban
Ki-moon's record with waste in
Haiti and elsewhere. While he
announced that Kenyan troops
would head back to South Sudan
to join UN Peacekeeping, he
appointed the fifth
Frenchman in a row to head
this DPKO, Jean-Pierre
Lacroix.
Meanwhile he was
rebuffed in his attempt to
appoint Fayyad to head the
UN's Libya mission, perhaps
explaining his refusal later
in the year to take a single
press question after reading
out his canned statement on
Jerusalem. In a harbinger of
his approach to UN corruption
and (non) reform, his UN was
named as not providing
requested documents in the first
UN bribery case, of Ng Lap
Seng. (In the second case, of
Patrick Ho and Cheikh Gadio,
Guterres has yet to even
launch an audit).
February 2017
ended with a seeming second
wind, the belated arrival of
Guterres deputy Amina J.
Mohammed. Inner City Press was
throughout constructive;
it would later emerge that
during the delay Mohammed
signed 4000 certificates for
endangered Nigerian and
Cameroonian rosewood already
exported to China, something
Guterres has refused to
investigate despite a petition
with 92,000 requests.
Guterres' first
interaction with UN staff was
a Town Hall meeting on January
9. Even though it was on the
UN's public website, when
Inner City Press live-streamed
it on Periscope
for the impacted public to see
it received a threat that this
violated unspecified
UN's guidelines. This has been
a pattern in Guterres' first
year: threats to Press for
unspecified violations, such
as that of Maher
Nasser on October 20,
and a total failure to respond
or reform by Nasser's boss, Alison
Smale. Ultimately,
Guterres is responsible.
***
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