UN
Guterres Meets Greek FM
Kotzias, Echoes of Crans Montana
Failure, Nimetz in the House
By Matthew
Russell Lee, DR
Photo, Photos
UNITED NATIONS,
September 17 – The day before
the UN reform speech by
US President Donald Trump, UN
Secretary General Antonio
Guterres on September 17 held a
meeting and short photo-op with
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos
Kotzias. Present was the UN's
long time envoy on the "name
issue" (FYROM / Macedonia),
Matthew Nimetz. Kotzias signed
the visitors book first; Guterres
told him no one else could be in
the room while he signed. So
that he could, if needed, write
that he was taken hostage? On
the agenda, one imagines, is
Cyprus and the Crans Montana
failure. Before that was the
president of the Dominican
Republic, Danilo Medina Sanchez,
who insisted despite Guterres'
resistance on signing the visitors'
book before the grip and grin. Alamy
photo here.
When the read-out comes out, we
bet Dominican deputy ambassador
Francis Lorenzo, who pleaded
guilty to UN bribery in the Ng
Lap Seng / John Ashe case, is not
mentioned in it. Before
that was Jordan's King Abdullah
II ibn Al Hussein. Photos on
Alamy here.
Guterres' holdover spokesman
Stephane Dujarric showed up just
before the meeting, but even of
the Saudi meeting an hour before
there was still no read-out.
[Then this
update.] It was not at his
office on the 38th floor, but
rather in a suite on the 27th
floor with an Oriental rug, two
flags and a small stand on which
to sign the UN Visitors' book.
Under Guterres the UN has become
(even) less media friendly, with
the investigative Press
restricted to minders and, on
September 16, barred from
entering to cover a UN Media
Alert-listed even on Guterres'
signature issue, refugees. Guterres'
head of Global
Communications
Alison Smale,
petitioned on
these issues
since September
1, has done
nothing to reverse
them. UN is
both
UNprepared and
UNfair -
including on
such issues as
Myanmar,
Yemen,
Burundi
and Cameroon.
Next up,on
September 18,
US President
Trump,
Ambassador
Nikki Haley
and UN
Secretary
General
Antonio
Guterres in
the UN's
ECOSOC
Chamber.
September.
Guterres'
spokesman
Stephane
Dujarric has
repeatedly
said he will
distribute a
list of
meetings and
bilaterals of
his boss, his
third
Secretary
General in a
row, Antonio
Guterres. As
of the evening
of Friday,
September 15
it has not
happened.
Dujarric tried
to limit
his
"background"
briefing at 10
am on
September 15
only to his
friends in the
UN
Correspondents
Association, a
group which
accepted
advertising
funds from
Macau-based
businessman Ng
Lap Seng's
South South
News then
provided the
venue for Ng's
photos with
Dujarric's
previous boss
Ban Ki-moon.
Now several
disgusted UNCA
members have
forwarded
Inner City
Press this
UNCA bragging,
how UNCA has
negotiated to
exclude the
vast majority
of journalists
covering UNGA
from access to
the Conference
Building: the
UNCA members
"have access
to B1 area
with secondary
passes AND
without
cameras...The
UNCA chair in
the Press
Briefing Room
now has a
plaque
alerting
visiting media
that the seat
is reserved."
Way to try to
let the
"visiting
media" and the
UN-based media
which covers
corruption
know who you
think is boss.
On September 14 Guterres met
with Angelina Jolie, formally
Special Envoy of the United
Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees. (Recently a UNHCR
staffer called for harder
repression of Anglophones in Cameroon,
click here
for that). The photo-op almost
didn't happen. Ten minutes after
it was to take place, Guterres
was on an UNdisclosed phone
call, when Jolie came down the
hall on the UN's 38th floor. She
went straight into Guterres'
office. A long time UN staffer
told the photographers and
Press, "Sorry," then called for
only Mark Garten of UN Photo to
enter. After some groans, Jolie
and Guterres came out and a
short handshake photo-op took
place. Photos on Alamy, here.
Then it was over. Periscope
video here.
On September 12, Guterres was
scheduled to take the
credentials of four countries'
new Ambassador to the UN. But a
fifth one, Cote d'Ivoire, was
added without any notice; then
the International Sea Bed
Authority's representative, for
whom Inner City Press was asked
to leave. As Norway's Tore
Hattrem left, he told Guterres
he would be working hard next
week. Guterres responded that it
was a "merry-go-round." Earlier
in the day Guterres gave
a job, the Oceans Envoy post, to
just-former President of the
General Assembly Peter Thomson.
It's not only a merry-go-round,
it's a revolving door. Here are
Inner City Press' Alamy photos
of the new Ambassadors of Ecuador
(Diego Fernando Morejon Pazmino), Norway,
Guinea
Bissau (Fernando Delfim Da
Silva) and Iraq
(Mohammed Hussein Bahr Aluloom). The UN is getting
more and more murky; Guterres'
spokesman Stephane Dujarric has
refused to say how NGO(s)
purchasing an event in the UN
General Assembly Hall on August
23 were vetted, even after the
Ng Lap Seng bribery verdict.
***
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