UK
In November Made UNSC More
Secret With Pierce Formula
Sofa Talk No Cameroon Meeting
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Photos,
Periscope
UN GATE, Nov 30 –
With the UN Security Council
presidency for November having
been taken over by the UK
Mission and its Karen Pierce,
things are scarcely better at
month's end. It is just as
bloody in Cameroon; the UN has
killed one or more civilians
in Beni. Pierce bragged in her
1 November 2019 press
conference that the UK would
have a lot of meetings about
Africa. Video from presser here.
And what was accomplished?
Tellingly,
the main innovation by the UK
is to try to make the UNSC
even less transparent, with
so-called "Sofa Talks." In a
public meeting this month,
Pierce reminded the other
ambassadors they needn't speak
on the open chamber, there
would be consultations
afterward. Sofa Talk goes one
step more secret. It's like a
colonial parlor game: can we
agree how to sweep this or
that aspiration under the rug?
Since
Pierce not only didn't oppose
but functionally has supported
Guterres' roughing up and
banning of the Press, it is
perhaps fitting that this new
move to secrecy is being
called the "Pierce formula."
In the past, the Arria formula
acted to open the UNSC to NGOs
and others. Now the Pierce
Formula will make this private
and censorious. Many
government have Open Meetings
laws. The UNSC is moving in
the opposite direction - and
fails even more than most
governments. Today's UN is
failing, and is moving in the
wrong directions, under
Guterres and, for example, Pierce.
Still banned Inner City Press
will have more on this.
Deputy Ambassador Jonathan
Allen did a pal-sey stakeout
about the DR Congo, on which
Guterres also refuses
questions - but it it is not
even on UNTV archive. It's as
if it never happened. So too
Karen Pierce's dodging
apparently off camera evasion
on North Korea later on
November 13.
On
Cameroon as it turns out, just
as Liam Fox bragged about New
Age oil's deal with Biya, now
London-based Tower Resources
is bragging about its "in"
with Biya's ministry: "Tower
Resources said it had hired
Geoquip Marine Operations to
conduct a site survey of a
planned well location at its
Thali block in Cameroon.
The contract provided for
investigator to arrive in
Cameroon between 15 November
and 30 December, subject to
all relevant permits and the
requisite license extension
being received from the
Ministry of Mines, Industry
and Technological
Development... 'We are
looking forward to getting the
site survey underway, which
should be the final
operational step before
commencing drilling operations
at Njonji,' chief executive
Jeremy Asher said. 'We
are still awaiting the formal
extension from the ministry,
but we are confident that this
will be in place in good time
for the survey.'"
The
UK has denied Inner City
Press' FOIA request on its
role in Cameroon, and its
Mission and Pierce did nothing
when UNSG Antonio Guterres had
Inner City Press roughed up
and banned now 485 days amid
its questions about Guterres'
Budget Committee deal with
Biya's Tommo Monthe,
procedural favors for silence.
By Africa
Pierce apparently meant only
those countries where
neo-colonial UK still wants to
have a role, if only by
getting its national appointed
to UN roles, like Somalia and
Libya.
While
there were mostly softball
questions about rugby and,
from Chinese state media, on
the UK's supposed love of
mediation and/or
reconciliation, Pierce
pointedly and repeatedly
demanded to know who one
questioning journalist was,
and his media.
Apparently
Inner City Press which would
have her, as it did Jonathan
Allen, about Cameroon was not
enough - she wanted only
friendly questions. She said
UK diplomacy is alive and
well. That's not the story
that FOIA, and the Mission's
continued support of Guterres'
ban on Inner City Press,
tells.
The UK has
have a debate on Africa on
November 4, and reconciliation
on the 19th. There's Libya on
the 18th, and Somalia no less
than twice (but no Somaliland,
Pierce made clear). November
22 is Yemen, on which Pierce
took a question from a Saudi
media she often pals around
with, Jamal Khashoggi
notwithstanding.
Cyprus, of
course, on November 25 - and
Big Tony's Big Lunch on
November 20. Inner City Press
will cover as many of these as
it can, including from the
Delegates Entrance Gate where
the UK Mission watched and did
nothing, or worse, as
censorship of Press took place
right in front of them. Watch
this site.
***
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