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By Matthew Russell Lee, Periscope, Patreon

UN GATE, Jan 21 – How useless is Antonio Guterres as UN Secretary General? Well, on Libya he flew all the way to the Berlin Conference but didn't even meet with Sarraj while there. Apparently he just wanted to use the excuse and public money to fly to his real home in Lisbon (where he arranged for Angola's dos Santos' money to get this UNSG post he misuses). From his January 21, 2020 Q&A:

Q: Did you have any bilaterals in Berlin with Haftar or Serraj?    

Secretary-General: Haftar and Serraj were not part of this conference.    

Q: But on the sidelines – did you meet with them?    

Secretary-General: I had no meetings; it was the German presidency that had bilateral meetings with them."

  The UN under Guterres: irrelevant and corrupt.

 Amid the UN Security Council's days-long failure to even issue elements to the press about the airstrike on the detention center in Libya back in July, and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' typically empty statement while on a junket, on July 5 before Guterres' spokesperson Stephane Dujarric's UN Spokesperson's Office sent anything out his partner in censorship Al Jazeera reported a UNSC press statement. Banned Inner City Press noted it - then the French mission, not the president of the Council for July 5, tweeted it, echoed by France 24.

  Now on August 13, Guterres through his spokesman who has cancelled the UN noon briefing and refused Press questions issued this: "The Secretary-General has condemned in the strongest terms the car bomb attack on 10 August 2019 in Benghazi and emphasized that those behind the attack should be identified and held accountable. He has expressed his deepest sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and has wished a speedy and full recovery to those who were injured.     We are not aware of any claims of responsibility for the car bomb. We will try to ascertain the facts behind the incident, including by conducting an internal inquiry.     The United Nations Security Council, in an emergency session on 10 August, also condemned the attack in the strongest terms.     The United Nations emphasizes that lasting peace and stability in Libya, including an end to the worsening humanitarian crisis, will come only through a political solution and the parties should engage in dialogue without delay. The UN continues to stand ready to facilitate that dialogue.     Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General  New York, 13 August 2019."

 Talking about phoning it in. Meanwhile unanswered are questions such as these, submitted in writing, including to Guterres' incoming Communicator Melissa Fleming: "August 13-3: On UN sex exploitation and cover up(s), as Inner City Press asked on August 9 without any response to day, This is a Press request that you immediately provide all if-asked and additional information about the new allegation of SEA announced at 12:01 pm today, apparently of SE by a Tanzanian "peacekeeper" in DR Congo - and also why previously published charges are no longer in the data to which UN Peacekeeping Conduct and Discipline points, including what if being done for these victims and any steps taken to avoid this constant repetition of abuse despite the SG's ostensible commitments. Again, are new allegations being buried elsewhere on the data page? Inner City Press is asking in writing because banned from the noon briefings and any follow up questions, now for more than a year. Today as before none of Inner City Press' written questions, including on Cameroon, have been answered. This is a request that you immediately confirm receipt of these questions." Again, as Dujarric's office closed on August 13, no answers, no response. This is the UN's cover up of UN sexual abuse, and it's now on Melissa Fleming as well. Inner City Press also asked, ".  August 13-6: Given that the SG's public schedules for August 2, August 5, August 6, August 7, August 8, August 9 and now August 13 are entirely blank, not even "all appointments internal" as before but just blank, given that Poland's Foreign Minister was not able to meet with the SG on August 3, nor Pakistan PR Maleeha Lodhi on August 7 (tweeting "As the SG is away"), please immediately state where the UNSG is, now and for the next three weeks, and at what cost to the public. Additionally, since public officials from Trump to de Blasio to Corey Johnson all disclose where they are, and given the UN system travel scandals at UNRWA, UN Women and previously UNEP, explain why Mr. Guterres' lack of transparency is not part of the problem. Given the Secretariat's communication failures, state when exactly Ms. Fleming takes over from Alison Smale, whether Ms. Fleming is still has stated on her profile at UNHCR (Chief Communications  @Refugees as of August 7) and if she is answering some/any of her e-mail there." Nothing. We will stay on this.

  On August 10 France called an emergency UN Security Council meeting. Inner City Press, still banned from entering the UN by Guterres now for 404 days went to check it out. There was no one in the $15 million mansion Guterres sometimes lives in, here (he's been missing for a week); Inner City Press cannot enter the UN (UN gate Periscope here), but there was only one person at 4:30 pm at the UNSC stakeout. Tweeted photo here.

   Now, with Guterres still on vacation he doesn't even have the class to admit, the names of the UN dead have emerged: a Libyan, a Jamaican and a Fijian: Hussein Elhader, Clive Peck and Seniloli Tabuatausole, respectively. Guterres still missing, corrupt, having just given a UN humanitarian job to the UAE so active in Yemen and wannabe in Libya: "The following is the text of a joint statement by the governments of France, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.  Begin text:  The governments of France, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States welcome the announcement of a truce in Libya on the occasion of Eid el-Adha in response to the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) with the support of the Security Council (UNSC press statement on Libya of 11 August), and invite all parties to effectively cease hostilities across Libya. We stand ready to assist the UN Mission in monitoring the observance of the truce and address any attempt to break it." We call BS.

   So Inner City Press covered the vapid meeting by UNTV - nearly identical speeches, mostly by deputy ambassadors including in the case of France. Afterward at the stakeout only one ambassador, Russia's deputy, spoke. In response to a softball question from a state media he said, It was in the open, draw you own conclusions. And that was it. The UN under Guterres: irrelevant and corrupt.

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