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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
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UN GATE, May 4 – In the United Nations from which SG Antonio Guterres has banned Inner City Press 671 days for asking about his complicity in the killing of civilians in Cameroon and their mass imprisonment by China in Xinjiang, on May 1 Estonia Ambassador Sven Jürgenson held a censored online press conference about the coming month in the Security Council.

  He took questions only from pre-screened in-house correspondents, ignoring or even pretending not to see a question about Cameroon by Inner City Press. Periscope here. Twitter here.

  Jurgenson said not a word about the slaughter in Cameroon; he did not answer the on-line question about new cases of UN sex abuse.

  Most questions read out by his off camera staffer were by the same part-time correspondents and state media. Even for eight hours after the briefing, the PoW on the Council's website was from April. And now answer from the Estonian Mission to formal questions posed.

 After 9 pm on May 1, notice that the Program belatedly went up - yes, nothing on Cameroon. Just Somalia on May 21 and a lot of vacations.

 Now on May 4, after Estonia's first Council meeting of the month was closed, this is the outcome, not yet (as of 2:40 pm) read out by Estonia, on Lebanon which Inner City Press covers with the IMF answering its questions, here, unlike Guterres' Secretariat and now Estonia: "Security Council Press Elements on Lebanon- 4 May 2020        UN Special Coordinator Ján Kubiš and USG Jean-Pierre Lacroix briefed the Security Council on the situation in Lebanon, during its regular meeting on implementation of UNSCR 1701.     The Members of the Security Council commended the key and continued efforts of UNIFIL to maintain calm along the Blue Line, its cooperation with the Lebanese Armed Forces with the aim of extending the control of the Government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory, and stressed the importance of UNIFIL being able to fulfil its mandate.     The Members of the Security Council expressed their deep concern following the recent incidents, which occurred across the Blue Line and in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon’s (UNIFIL) area of operations as well as all the violations of UNSCR1701, including by land and air. They recalled that all parties should make every effort to ensure that the cessation of hostilities is sustained, exercise maximum calm and restraint and refrain from any action or rhetoric that could jeopardize the cessation of hostilities or destabilize the region. The Members of the Security Council welcomed the will of the concerned parties to make the best use of the tripartite mechanism. They condemned any attacks against UNIFIL peacekeepers.     In addition to those exchanges on the implementation of UNSCR1701 and considering the major and acute crisis Lebanon is now facing, the Members of the Security Council took due note of the approval, by the Government of Lebanon, of an economic plan as well as of its decision to request an IMF program. They took note of the urgent need for the Lebanese authorities to respond to the aspirations of the Lebanese people by implementing meaningful economic reforms, and notably the commitments made in the framework of the CEDRE conference as well as at the International Support Group for Lebanon meeting held in Paris on the 11th of December. On the basis of those necessary reforms, the Members of the Security Council expressed support to Lebanon to help it exit the current crisis and to address the economic, security, humanitarian challenges , as well as the impact of COVID-19 facing the country, and called the international community, including international organizations, to do so.     The Members of the Security Council recognised the additional challenges posed by the global COVID pandemic, also on the Lebanese economy, and commended the preventive measures taken by UNIFIL in that regard.     The Members of the Security Council reaffirmed their strong support for the stability, security, territorial integrity, sovereignty, and political independence of Lebanon, in accordance with relevant UNSCRs." We'll have more on this.

  Back on February 3, before Coronavirus hit New York (but after the first cases covered up in Wuhan in December 2019) Belgian Ambassador Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve held an in person but also friends-only press conference about his upcoming month as Security Council president, with few questions on Africa. Program of Work tweeted by Inner City Press here.

  Belgium, of course, oversaw the colonialism and killing in the Congo. Its mission to the UN,in 2018 and since, did not respond to Inner City Press' formal communications about Guterres having it roughed up and banned. Still the Mission and Ambassador pontificate about press freedom and even the safety of journalists.

  The next, such as it was, is that Jared Kushner will brief the Security Council behind closed doors on February 6 at noon, when Guterres' spokes- / hatchetman Stephane Dujarric holds his noon briefing will refusing all questions from Inner City Press despite an on camera promise.

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