UN's
Anti-Corruption Posture on
Guatemala Undercut by Ng UN
Bribery Inaction, Censorship
By Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS,
August 28 – Today's UN
presenting itself as a
champion against corruption,
as in Secretary General
Antonio Guterres' August 27
statement about Guatemala,
is more than a little ironic.
Less than a month ago,
Macau-based businessman Ng Lap
Seng was convicted in the U.S.
on six counts of UN bribery.
Yet UN officials exposed in
the trial as having helped Ng
still work at the UN; there
has been no accountability.
When Inner City Press directly
asked Guterres for his comment
on the verdict, he refused
to answer. His lawyers have
claimed that the UN was the
victim and should get paid.
And on August 25, when
Guatemalan President Jimmy
Morales came to New York to
meet with Guterres,
simultaneously in the UN's
ECOSOC chamber an event
was allowed to take place sponsored
by an NGO with multiple links
to, for example, former El
Salvador ambassador Carlos Garcia
who was shown in Ng's trial to
have helped him launder bribe
money. Inner City Press asked
Guterres' spokesman Stephane
Dujarric about these links
before the August 25 event -
and during it, written
questions that have still not
been answered. Dujarric had
Inner City Press evicted from
the UN Press Briefing Room -
empty this week - and from its
office, still
restricted, for its pursuit
of the Ng Lap Seng scandal.
We'll have more on this. As to
Guatemala, on August 25 media
mostly Spanish and Inner City
Press set up a stakeout in the
UN Secretariat lobby, to
afterward hear his views on
Ivan Velasquez and the future
of the CICIG. The meeting
began at 5 pm, but it was well
after 6 pm when Guterres came
down to his waiting car and
driver. Inner City Press
asked, Que pasa con la CICIG?
But Guterres merely waved.
Moments later his spokesman
Stephane Dujarric, who
declined to answer or even
confirm receipt of written
questions from Inner City
Press, issued a canned
read-out which "reiterated his
confidence in Commissioner
Ivan Velásquez.” Now on August
27, after not speaking at or
even coming to the waiting
stakeout at the UN, Morales
has issued a video, on
Twitter, declaring Valasquez
persona non grata. Here.
Guterres is with sheikhs in
Kuwait; Inner City Press asked
his spokesman Stephane
Dujarric: "This is a Press
request on deadline for the
UN's / Secretary General's
response to this,
from Jimmy Morales of
Guatemala. Also please explain
why UN Photo still does not
have any photo of the Morales
/ SG photo op online, and
state where Yemen envoy IOCA
is, if he is not in Kuwait
(didn't see him in the photo).
Inner City Press has more
questions and will be
submitting them for responses,
while noting that Friday's
question was not even
acknowledged, much less
answered. Please explain." He
replied, "Statement coming
shortly." Then, a tweet from
Jeffrey Feltman's DPA: ".@UN
Secretary-General shocked at
announcement that Guatemala's
President has declared
@Ivan_Velasquez_ persona non
grata." Shocked implies that
Morales didn't raise this
possibility in their long
meeting on Friday. More to
follow.
More to
come.
***
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