On
Peacebuilding, To Ask UN PGA
About Myanmar, ICP Requires
Minder, Beah on Cameroon, #MeToo
By Matthew
Russell Lee, PGA
Photos, Beah
UNITED NATIONS,
April 24 –
On the eve of the UN meeting
on Peacebuilding and
Sustaining Peace, Inner City
Press asked the spokesman for
President of the General
Assembly Miroslav Lajcak how
these concepts of his debate
would apply to South Sudan,
given attacks
on health care facilities and
sexual abuse
including by UN peacekeepers.
The spokesman declined to
directly answer, instead
telling Inner City Press to
come to the General Assembly
stakeout area and ask the
questions there, during the
meeting.
But it was
not that easy. Unlike other
correspondents, who didn't ask
the spokesman any questions,
Inner City Press requires an
escort or minder to get to the
stakeout, due to UN censorship
- eviction and continued
restriction for pursuing
the story of UN bribery by Ng
Lap Seng and now Patrick Ho of
CEFC
China Energy. When Inner
City Press sought to get to
the scheduled Q&As of Colombia's
President Santos it was unable
to the lack of a minder.
Finally it got
there for Lajcak, but was not
given one of the two
questions. So it asked anyway,
briefly: what of the call for
timely mediation, given that
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres (ultimately
responsible for the above
described censorship) has
failed to name a Myanmar
envoy despite the mandate
and funding by the General
Assembly in December? Lajcak
politely dodged the question.
Earlier, Inner
City Press asked Ishmail Beah,
child soldier turned author,
about Cameroon's
crackdown on Anglophones, and
about the sexual harassment
resignation of Justin Forsyth
from UNICEF, for which Beah is
an Advocate. His answers are here.
At the stakeout, speaking with
two European ambassadors (but
not for six months answering
detailed petitions
about her Department's ongoing
censorship) was Guterres'
Global Communicator Alison
Smale. We'll have more on
this.
***
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