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As UN Bans Inner City Press E-Asks Spox Dujarric Of Darfur Cambodia Cameroon Sidibe UN Women WHO Burundi SG Censorship 500+ UNanswered

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

UNITED NATIONS GATE, May 9 – 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 May 9 more than three hours before a UN noon briefing in which Dujarric's Deputy Farhan Haq, confirming what Inner City Press reported days ago that Alison Smale will belatedly be leaving the UN before the next UN General Assembly High Level Week,  Inner City Press submitted  810 questions, including why it continues to be lawlessly banned from entering to ask questions in person: "There are more than 500+ 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 belatedly sent on May 8 about sexual exploitation allegations and 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, 3-30 (one answer in the entire month - corrupt), and now May 1-9. 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.  

May 9-1: On Cambodia, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that Sam Rainsy, the “acting president” of the Supreme Court-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party, was sentenced to a total of eight years in prison on two charges, with security forces ordered to arrest and throw him in jail? 

May 9-2: On Sudan and Darfur, what are the comment and action of the SG, his joint AU SRSG and Mission on that on May 4, residents of the Otash displaced person’s camp joined protests in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur. Government forces, which according to witnesses included the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group responsible for grave crimes in Darfur, Southern Kordofan, and Blue Nile over the past five years, tried to disperse the protesters by beating and shooting live bullets and teargas at them, reportedly killing an 18-year old and injuring others in the process. Days earlier, media reported RSF soldiers used violence to break up protests in Zalingei, Central Darfur? 

May 9-3: On South Sudan, what are the comments, actions and involvement if any of the SG, his SRSG and Mission, military troops occupied the Freedom Square late Tuesday evening in an attempt to prevent anti-government protests called by the youth.  The country's youth in diaspora and at home are mobilizing across the country and through social media demanding the toppling of President Salva Kiir's regime.  Many of the social media messages are emanating from a group calling itself South Sudanese for Change.  Among the grievances is the government's failure to restore stability in the war-torn country, abuse of human rights, corruption and intolerance of criticism.  The youth have called for a mass rally on May 15 in Juba to launch the nationwide protests with the ambition to oust Kiir and form a provisional government of national unity? 

May 9-4: On Cameroon, ONCE AGAIN, what is SG Guterres comment on the recent government torture and murders there and please immediately state whether any member of the Secretariat, including SCAD, has been informed an any upcoming UNSC meeting or informal consultations about Cameroon, separately who if anyone would brief, and the SG's position, particularly in light of the Cameroon government memo about their July 2018 meeting with SG Guterres. 

May 9-5: On the Public Financial Disclosures for 2017 belatedly published over the weekend of April 27-28, please state why UN Women's  Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, like UNOG chief Michael Moller, UNDP chief Achim Steiner, USG Mark Lowcock,  Heidi Mendoza, Adama Dieng, UN Security chief Peter Drennan, Rosemary DiCarlo and Nicholas Haysum, is not even on the list. OIOS chief Inga-Britt Ahlenius reported - why not Mendoza? Where IS Mendoza? Isn't it a bad practice for the UN's head (anti) genocide definition official to conceal from the public even cursory financial disclosure? Did DiCarlo decline to make any public disclosure despite being the UN's top political officer? What is the even plausible applicability of this line from SG Guterres' web page: "Please note that given the multi-cultural environment of the UN and the often security sensitive locations where UN staff are either working or come from, full public disclosure may not always be a viable or sensible option for certain staff members"? Why has Guterres changed the previous system in a which a "choosing not to disclose" statement was upload and listed, to one which helps conceal who reports and who does not?  Again, state why considering 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 was omitted from his online public financial disclosure covering 2016, and why Guterres has not even started an audit of CEFC in the UN. 

May 9-6: With the SG at the CEB, what is his comment and action on the internal complaint at the World Health Organization’s ethics office that has questioned the appointment of Dr. Zsuzsanna Jakab as WHO’s new deputy director-general, from a “group of concerned staff members at WHO” who “feel confused and outraged” by Jakab’s elevation. The complaint alleges that Jakab, while serving as regional director of WHO’s European office from 2010 to early 2019, was a recipient of “many allegations of harassment.” In addition, the complaint also alleges that by appointing 67-year-old Jakab to the position, WHO has violated the retirement age limit of 65. What is the SG's response, particularly on harassment, and age? 

May 9-7: Given the findings about UNAIDS under Michel Sidibe, what is the SG's comment and view on him being named the minister of health of Mali, where the UN has a mission? 

May 9-8: On press freedom and Burundi, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that a senior Burundi election official has called for independent media to be barred from covering the East African country's presidential polls in 2020, local press and witnesses reported Wednesday.  Jean Anastase Hicuburund, from the National Independent Electoral Commission, urged that official steps be taken to "block the way for those media who do not want to follow the path taken by the government".  "They have done everything to bring the country to its knees," he told an audience of journalists and civil society groups in Bujumbura.  The comments were reported by SOS Media Burundi? 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.

May 7-1:  On Tanzania, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that an outspoken critic of President John Magufuli is missing after being snatched off the road by armed men in the country's far south? 

May 6-3: On Fiji, in the run up to SG Guterres' visit there, what is his comment and action if any on that more than thirty union members were in police custody overnight including the national secretary of the Fiji Trades Union Congress, Felix Anthony? 

May 3-6: On press freedom and the African continent, beyond what SG Guterres has remained silent on in Cameroon, what are his belated comments and actions if any on, for example, that two journalists from the Comores, Abdallah Abdou Hassane and Oubeidillah Mchangama, working for critical news outlet FCFK, were arrested and are facing multiple charges including defamation, disturbing public order, incitement to violence, offence against the head of state, insulting the magistrate, and forgery? Two popular bloggers in Mauritania, Abderrahmane Weddady and Sheikh Ould Jiddou were detained for republishing and commenting on a story that had made the headlines in various international media outlets.   In Harare, Lovejoy Mutongwiza, a reporter with 263Chat, was taking pictures of a joint operation by the ZRP working with the Harare municipal police to arrest vendors operating in the vicinity of the 263Chat offices. Lovejoy reports that he was pursued into the media outlet's offices, after which officers of the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) intentionally shot three teargas canisters into the offices, one of which hit Mutongwiza, and then barricaded the doors, preventing staff from escaping. Misa Zimbabwe has condemned the police actions?

May 2-1: On Indonesia, what is the SG's comment and action if any on the human rights lawyers taking the Indonesian police to court on behalf of West Papuans, in an unprecedented civil case over what she claims is the illegal takeover of an activist group’s headquarters?

May 1-1: Please immediately state to WHOM in the Chinese government Antonio Guterres claims to have raised that government's abuse of the Uighurs, given that the claim Guterres raised the issue to Xi has had to be retracted - although this false information remains online in many places including TIME and the South China Morning Post, and state what if anything the UN is doing to having this false information about Guterres and Xi corrected / clarified. 

April 30-2: On Cameroon, along with the many unanswered Inner City Press questions, please state whether as before DSG Amina J Mohammed and chef de cabinet Viotti will be attending the La Republique du Cameroun National Day, if so what they will say given Biya's ongoing killings. 

April 4-2: On UN bribery and censorship, what now is the SG's comment and response to the April 3 article in Serbia about CEFC which Mr Guterres has refused to audit - and about his refusal to answer, and censorship of Press "Guteres 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?  

More here.

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