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As UN Bans Inner City Press E-Asks Spox Dujarric Of SG China Corruption Sri Lanka Cameroon South Sudan Myanmar SG Censorship 400+ UNanswered

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFT Q&A, NY Post

UNITED NATIONS GATE, April 24 – Inner City Press on July 5 was banned from entering the UN, the day after it filed a criminal complaint against UN Security for physically removing it from covering the meeting about the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' $6.7 billion peacekeeping budget, as witnessed and essentially cheered on by senior UN official Christian Saunders, tearing its reporter's shirt, painfully and intentionally twisting his arm and slamming shut and damaging his laptop. On August 17, Guterres' Global Communicator Alison Smale issued a letter banning Inner City Press from the UN - for life. With no due process. She and Guterres have put the UN in the US Press Freedom Tracker, here. Smale said, again, that the UN would answer Press questions to the Spokesman Stephane Dujarric and his Office; Dujarric said the same on camera. On April 24 more than two hours before Dujarric held a UN noon briefing when he bragged on Venezuela that Guterres' meeting with Maduro's foreign minister was very "cordial," Inner City Press submitted 748 questions, including why it continues to be lawlessly banned from entering to ask questions in person: "There are more than 400+ questions UNanswered. And Monday Sept 17, Tuesday Sept 18, Wed Sept 19 and  Thurs and Fri Sept 21, that whole week, no questions answered. Nor Sept 25, nor 28th - nor October 2 nor 3. While appreciating and using what was sent on March 28 in partial request to Inner City Press' questions about the UN bribery sentence of Patrick Ho of CEFC and CEFC's 2018 attempt to buy the oil company of Gulbenkian Foundation which paid the SG, no answers on Dec 17 or 18 or 19 or 20 or 21 - another FIVE days in a row, even as SG's direct conflicts of interest and failure to disclose emerge, and a newest low. No answers on January 30 nor 31 nor February 1 nor 4 nor 5 nor 6 nor 7 nor 11 nor 12 nor 13 nor 14 nor 15 nor 18 nor 19 nor 20 nor 21 nor 22 nor 25 nor 26 nor 27 nor March 1 - 27 (!) And now April 1, 3-23. No answers at all during those four days of the US v Ho trial showing corruption in the UN says it all. This ban is just censorship - and Inner City Press must be allowed back into the noon briefing to ask its questions in person and follow up on them. 

April 24-1: Now that SG Guterres is all-in with and going to China's "Belt and Road" event, please immediate how the trip is costing, the size and composition of the UN delegation, and who is paying for it (given that even the PGA now discloses this information).  

April 24-2: What is the SG's comment and action if any given his claimed concern for Sri Lanka on that aChinese state-owned company took over the majority stake in Hambantota port as Sri Lanka struggled to pay off its Chinese loans – a move that prompted concerns that Beijing may try to use the strategic port for military purposes even though it was a commercial contract? Again, state whether after the UN bribery conviction of Patrick Ho of CEFC, and CEFC's attempt to purchase the oil company of Gulbenkian Foundation which paid Mr. Guterres in 2016 (omitted from his online public financial disclosure covering 2016), he intends to raise corruption and UN bribery issues with China. 

April 24-3: In Cameroon, what is the role of the UN in propping up ELECAM even as non violent opponents of Paul Biya are jailed? What has the SG done about that, after he took the golden statue in Yaounde and met about Budget Committee favors repeatedly with Biya Ambassador Tommo Monthe? 

April 24-4: On South Sudan, what is the SG's comment and position, given the $1 billion UN mission there, on that Salva Kiir called on Riek Machar to immediately return to Juba despite the failure to implement security arrangments? What is UNMISS's role in this - and what has been done on UNMISS killing at least two civilians as they worked on an UNMISS facility? Is this total impunity, as elsewhere in the UN system? 

April 24-5: On Myanmar, what is the SG's and his envoys' comment and action if any on that China appears to have protected the “Wa” territory from any enemies, particularly the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s military). The Chinese government needs the UWSA in order to play its political game in Myanmar. C. S. Kuppuswamy wrote that “China has been a longtime patron of the UWSA and considers the UWSA as its key ally in its relations with the Myanmar government. It has been supporting the UWSA both economically and militarily as a pressure tactic against the Myanmar government.”  It has become more publicly visible that the UWSA is obtaining modern military equipment and weaponry from China. In 2013, China sent helicopters equipped with missiles, which could provide a “serious deterrent” to the Tatmadaw. It appears that China started pushing its investment in the UWSA after Myanmar veered toward the West by, for instance, accepting a visit from a U.S. warship in April 2017? 

April 24-6: On freedom of the press and Myanmar, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that the Myanmar military has sued The Irrawaddy News under Article 66(d) of the Telecommunications Law for its coverage of recent clashes between the Army and the Arakan Army ethnic armed group in the ancient town of Mrauk-U in Rakhine State? The military’s Yangon Region Command filed the case against the news agency’s Burmese edition editor U Ye Ni on April 12 at Kyauktada Police Station. It is the second time the military has taken legal action against The Irrawaddy in the past three years. In June 2017 a reporter from the news organization and two others from Democratic Voice of Burma were detained by the military and charged under Article 17(1) of the Unlawful Association Act during a reporting trip to northern Shan State... What is each of yours - particularly the SG's - response to the letter written and sent by Burundi activist Manisha Lievin? To the April 15 letter to the SG, DSG and USG Smale for which receipt has not even been acknowledged, other than a single lawless line from MALU: "Your media accreditation request, with reference no: M66561081, has been declined"? This is a formal request for the UN's explanation of grounds for this denied, and since SGcentral, the SG's chief of staff and Deputy SG and USG Smale haven't even confirmed receipt of the April 15 letter much less responded, for reconsideration. AGAIN, immediately explain how it is legitimate to ban from enter into the UN the media that has been asking about these and other questions, with no hearing or appeal.

April 23-3: On Iran and human rights, what is SG Guterres' comment and action on the reiteration of the 13-year prison sentence of human rights attorney Mohammad Najafi who was jailed in 2018 after voicing support for people detained during anti-government protests? Najafi was sentenced in December to 10 years for “conveying information to a hostile country” through interviews with foreign media, two years for insulting the supreme leader and one year for publicly supporting opposition groups.  Mohammad Najafi had been imprisoned since October 28, 2018, for informing media outlets about the suspicious case of Vahid Heydari, 22, who died in detention at the 12th Police Station in Arak. That on April 16, 2019, Branch 2 of the Prosecutor’s Office in Tehran’s Evin prison issued an indictment against Amir Salar Davoudi on charges of “cooperating with hostile governments"? 

April 22-5: What is the status of OIOS head Heidi Mendoza? Is she still on medical leave, despite having flown to New York for an event at the Filipino consulate? 

April 4-2: On UN bribery and censorship, what now is the SG's comment and response to the April 3article in Serbia about CEFC which Mr Guterres has refused to audit - and about his refusal to answer, and censorship of Press "Gutereš had and had his own financial link with the CEFC, through the Gulbenkian Foundation. On the orders of Guteres, on June 22 and July 3, 2018, the security came to me, and I was banned from reporting from the UN. In fact, Gutereš took advantage of his security from the UN to distance me from his speech at the Park East Synagogue, and recently physically stopped me while he entered the mosque in 96th Street"  and now this  - "Patrick Ho, a businessman who was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the world's corrupting affair, claims investigative journalist Matthew Russell Li in the documentary "Hong Kong Connection, Patrick Ho's List." Li, in a documentary broadcast on the Hong Kong Radio-Television portal, revealed Jeremic's role in this affair, a tens of millions of dollars, as well as his private dilutes, which he made while serving as the chairman of the United Nations General Assembly.  - Jeremic's testimony at the Ho trial was problematic because he turned out to be working for "CEFC Energy" (a Chinese conglomerate led by Ho, prim. Aut.) While serving as the chairman of the UN General Assembly. He took their money, exchanged e-mails with them ... He did many things. It is surprising to me that the focus of the prosecution was at Ho. The prosecutors used his testimony to show how Ho established a relationship, and in fact what Jeremic was doing might be worse for the public - Li said.  Investigative reporters also uncovered the flows of money flowing to Jeremic's accounts. Hoov CEFC paid Jeremic as a consultant a total of $ 5.3 million. It turns out that some companies that paid this money are completely phantom, because they do not exist at the registered addresses at all."  As always, what is the process of appealing or getting a hearing on the now 274 day ban amid this questions, or process to reapply which was denied summarily on 2 January 2019? How is this not censorship?)  and the translated 22 minute documentary about Patrick Ho and CEFC's bribes through the UN including Mr. Guterres' refusal to answer Inner City Press' question on it on 5 December 2018, and that Inner City Press for allegedly not complying with interview "rules" has been disqualified from reporting within the UN?  Again, the  sentencing memorandum includes quotes from his e-mails regarding aiming to violate sanctions and deal in arms not only to Chad but also South Sudan, Libya & Qatar. What is the SG's comment and action? Again, why has no audit even been begun of CEFC, at least like the one Mr. Guterres' predecessor did of Ng Lap Seng's Sun Kian Ip Foundation? Why did Mr Guterres omit payments from Gulbenkian Foundation, which sought to sell its oil company Partex to CEFC China Energy, from his public financial disclosure covering 2016? Where are the more recent public financial disclosures - has Mr. Guterres ended that program? Why? 

March 25-8: On the SG's March 22 appearance on 96th Street, please immediately provide the name of the UN DSS officer who spoke to NYPD on 96th Street to get them to restraint in advance Inner City Press while UN Photo and others like AP walked freely, the basis for this censorship and any and all records regarding it. 

More here.

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