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By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFT Q&A

UNITED NATIONS GATE, March 1 – After a long delay UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in April named as the UN envoy to Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener. The cover up by Guterres' enablers of his weak track record there (and even more ghoulish in Cameroon) has continued. Human Rights Watch's UN Director, for example, says the Guterres must "remain" vigilant; he also reports two days after the fact on a Budget Committee vote which even a participant admitted cut the ground transportation budget of the UN in half. These enablers also entirely avoid Guterres' false Public Finance Disclosure and cover up links to attempted Partex Oil sale to China Energy Fund Committee, even as they purported to be hawk eyed on Myanmar. Now in continued cover up, Guterres in naming Guatemala's former UN ambassador Gert Rosenthal to review not his failure, but the UN system's, and only on papers. Call it papering over. Rosenthal should review why Guterres ignored urging from his senior advisers to be more active on Myanmar, assuring them he could work with "the Lady" and having roughed up and still banned the Press that asked of this. Watch this site.  On July 3 Guterres had Inner City Press ousted from the UN, and on July 5 entirely banned pending a review of the "incident" - his own Security officers' abuse of the Press. Fox News story here, GAP blogs I and II. On August 17, Guterres though his Global Communicator Alison Smale issued a lifetime ban on Inner City Press, putting the UN into the US Press Freedom Tracker. On December 3 the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum said  that there is compelling evidence that the Burmese military committed ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and genocide against the Rohingya, the Muslim minority population of Burma.
The Museum came to this conclusion based on: a careful analysis in consultation with an advisory group of atrocity experts; its own on-the-ground, original research that resulted in a joint report in 2017 with Fortify Rights; and information recently released in the Department of State’s documentation report and the United Nations Fact Finding Mission. “The Burmese military’s campaign against the Rohingya, especially the attacks of August 2017, have been deliberate, systematic, and widespread,” said Lee Feinstein, a member of the Museum’s governing Council and the Chairman of its Committee on Conscience, which advises the genocide prevention work of the Museum. “For the sake of the remnant community of Rohingya still in Burma and those threatened with being returned, we hope this announcement prods action.” Don't count on UNSG Guterres - for months he rejected his own officials' urging that he act, assuring them that he would or could talk with "The Lady." Lot of good that did. Also on December 3, " The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today called on the U.S. government and the international community to pursue strong policy responses, including the continued use of targeted sanctions, to hold accountable members of Burma’s military, security forces, and some nonstate actors for severe human rights and religious freedom violations against Burma’s Rohingya Muslims and other religious and ethnic communities. These abuses against Rohingya and others, including Buddhists, Hindus, and Christians, as well as ethnic Kachin, Shan, Karen, have been committed, and in some cases continue to be committed, for decades, largely with impunity." We'll have more on this. There was on Myanmar a meeting in the UN Security Council, from which Guterres' private security on October 24 - "UN Day" - reiterated that Inner City Press is on Guterres' secret barred list and that they are lobbying even NYPD that no information about the list and who's on it - any Rohinga activists? - is released, this from Sweden: "The Security Council is meeting this afternoon to get a briefing from the Independent Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Myanmar. Together with eight other Security Council members, Sweden has called for this important briefing in order for the Council to hear from the Fact-Finding Mission first hand. Sweden strongly commends the Mission’s work.
The UN mandated Fact-Finding Mission’s report has provided the Council with solid and credible evidence of the gravest of violations having been committed in Myanmar. We note in particular that the FFM report includes crimes against humanity and even genocide, said Ambassador Olof Skoog ahead of the meeting. 
Sweden especially highlights four areas, where urgent action is now needed on the Myanmar crisis. The UN and humanitarian partners must be allowed full and unhindered access, conditions for safe return of refugees must be put in place, refugee camps in Bangladesh need more support, and accountability must be addressed.
Ambassador Olof Skoog: The presentation of the Fact-Finding Mission’s report to the Council today should be a turning point. With the facts established, the Council must now take meaningful action on accountability. We should pursue consultations on a Security Council resolution, including a referral of the situation to the International Criminal Court." Great - but what about Guterres' and his UN's lack of accountability? The UN has circulated without irony a statement calling for accountability, and this: "In Kachin state, the SESG also engaged with IDPs in camps around Myitkyina, some of whom have been displaced since 2011 without job prospects or hope of returning to their places of origin, due to land-mines and lack of security. She took note of the increasingly limited humanitarian access which affected the availability of medical assistance and aid. The SESG encouraged all stakeholders concerned to find constructive solutions for the benefit of the suffering civilians, especially the women and children. “Ultimately, only peace and a genuine political dialogue can address these problems." But nothing on Chin State, which the UN system has declared "stable and secure." For whom? Before the above quoted statement, for the October 19 noon briefing Inner City Press was banned from for the 108th day in a row, it asked in writing: "October 19-4: On Myanmar, does the SG agree or disagree that Chin State is now 'stable and secure'?" Contrary to what Guterres' Global Communicator Alison Smale has claimed, the question has still not been answered. There will be a UN Security Council meeting on Myanmar on October 24, from which Guterres and Smale will also ban Inner City Press. Call it hypocrisy. Also on Myanmar, even working from the UN Delegates Entrance bus stop under the lifetime ban of Guterres and his British USG Alison Smale, Inner City Press  learned of and hereby exclusively reports an  upcoming September 11 Myanmar meeting involving Christine Schraner Burgener in more white-washing and softening of Guterres long too pro ASSK position. It will be held outside of the UN campus, and so may be staked out - it's of the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum (CPPF) and the UN Department of Political Affairs -- which USG DiCarlo's chief of staff's husband who was handed DPA's website by pure nepotism defended by Guterres whose son's business links in Africa remain undisclosed has not had his contract renewed. No update, of course, from Guterres' spokesman / censor Stephane Dujarric.

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