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As UN Bans Inner City Press E-Asks Spox Dujarric of Myanmar Egypt Cameroon China Chagos Bangladesh SG Censorship 500+ UNanswered

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

UNITED NATIONS GATE, May 22 – 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 22 more than three hours before a UN noon briefing in which Dujarric jokes with his friends he lets in about the New York Mets, Inner City Press submitted 861 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 20 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 1-13, 15-17, 21, many questions. 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 22-1: On Myanmar and India, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that the ongoing military operations in Myanmar against rebel groups from India’s Northeast, including the Yung Aung faction of National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Khaplang (NSCN-K), have triggered outrage in Nagaland? As the Naga civilian population of Myanmar is caught in the conflict, several tribal organisations in Nagaland have appealed to Myanmar government to end the “hostilities”. They say the offensive is coordinated by Indian security forces.  The Naga Hoho, which is Nagaland’s apex tribal organisation, urged Indian and Myanmar armies for immediate cessation of the military action “against the Nagas”. 

May 22-2: On Nigeria, what are the comments and actions if any of the SG and separately DSG Amina J. Mohammed on that the Network of Niger Delta Republic Fighters in a statement on Monday has threatened to declare a Niger Delta Republic on June 1, 2019? And here in New York City on the indictment yesterday of MCC prison guard Colin Akparanta for forcing female prisoners to have sex with him? 

May 22-3: On sexual harassment, also, AGAIN, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that women attending a UN international civil servants conference complained to organisers over the presence of FAO Human Resources Director Fernando Servan who has been dubbed a 'sex predator'? UN trade union sources said they were raising with the UN Secretary General (SG) Antonio Gutteres their concerns about the Peruvian executive’s presence at the International Civil Service Commission meeting in New York given the SG's supposed policy of 'zero tolerance' of sexual harassment. 

May 22-4: On Egypt and the rights and conditions of the poor, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that Egypt will raise electricity prices by an average of 14.9 percent in the 2019-2020 fiscal year beginning in July, Sisi's Electricity Minister Mohamed Shaker said on Tuesday? Egypt has committed to deep cuts to energy subsidies as part of a three-year, $12 billion IMF loan program it began in late 2016... 

May 22-5: On Cameroon, what is the SG's comment if any and action if any at all on for example that Paul Biya's forces reportedly shot dead 4 month old Martha in Muyuka on 20th May? 

May 22-6: On China, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Mr. Yu Wensheng, who for a number of years has defended human rights and promoted the rule of law in China and represented human rights activists and lawyers, was put on trial behind closed doors on 9 May at the Intermediate People’s Court of Xuzhou City?

May 22-7: On Tibet and China, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that Chinese authorities continue to detain Tibetan monks and other peaceful critics arbitrarily imprisoned since the protests across the Tibetan plateau? There has been no information regarding some of the prisoners’ whereabouts, wellbeing, or charges... 

May 22-8: On Taiwan and China and the WHO, please immediately state does SG Guterres support or oppose calls for Taiwan to be granted observer status at the World Health Organisation’s annual gathering? 

May 22-9: Also on colonialism and the P5, please immediately state the SG's position on calls for the UK to relinquish control over the Chagos Islands 

May 22-10: On press freedom and Bangladesh, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that Bangladesh authorities have blocked access to the popular news portal Poriborton.com, one of the country's top five online news outlets, which was shut without notice on Sunday? Again, on press freedom (in courthouses) and Bangladesh, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that on 16 May the Bangladesh Supreme Court issued a notification restricting the publication of news on on-going cases? 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 21-1: On Cameroon, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that Member of Parliament Essomba Bengono has said on TV, "Do you know how many times God had to wipe out the human race to constitute a people? Do you know how many times? The number of alliances he made with man? He sais “I’m destroying Sodom and Gomorrah”. We are not counting the number of deaths, you understand?" 

May 20-1: On Sri Lanka, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that ten years since the end of Sri Lanka's brutal civil war, the government has failed to provide justice for the conflict's many victims. The Sri Lankan government pledged to provide justice for wartime abuses and to take other measures to promote respect for human rights in a United Nations Human Rights Council resolution adopted in October 2015. But there has been none to provide justice and accountability. What has the SG done? 

May 16-2: On Sudan, what is the SG's comment and action if any that the new interim vice president, Mohamed Hamdan “Hemeti” Dagolo, was in charge of the janjaweed militias in Darfur? 

May 15-3: On the Public Financial Disclosures for 2017 belatedly published over the weekend of April 27-28, please state why Mohammed Ibn Chambas, like the Executive Secretary of the UN Biodiversity Convention, Cristiana Paşca-Palmer, UNICEF's Henriette Fore, with documented links to ExxonMobil and others, USG Mark Lowcock (undisclosed while the Secretariat's speaker at the UNSC Arria on Cameroon), UNCTAD's Mukhisa Kituyi, UN Women's Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UNOG chief Michael Moller, UNDP chief Achim Steiner,  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. 

More here.

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