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On Togo, ICP Asked UN of Crackdown on Protests, Silence, Like Gabon & Cameroon

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, August 21 – After major protests in Togo were crackdown on with authorities shooting and killed two or seven protesters, Inner City Press on August 21 asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: Togo, as you may have seen, there’ve been major protests against the now 50-year rule of the same family, and several protesters were killed.  The Government says two, the opposition says seven.  I’m wondering, you know, you have an office on West Africa.  What is the UN… are they following this?  Do they intend to…

Spokesman:  We are following it.  I don’t have any language on Togo right now, but we’ll see what we can get.

   Five hours later, nothing. This is a trend, and not only in Cameroon. When UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres earlier this summer did a photo op (Periscope here) and meeting with Gabon's Ali Bongo, who along with his father Omar have consecutively ruled Gabon since 1967, it began a full 15 minutes late. Not because Bongo was picking up another dubious award on the sidelines of the sometimes dubious Ocean Conference (see here), but because Guterres had another, unlisted visitor. It was, Inner City Press saw, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the UN, presumably about the standoff with Qatar. Guterres' holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric has repeatedly said Guterres is not involved. We'll have more on this. On Bongo, he stayed upstairs for 45 minutes and then left with the media he'd brought in, in a caravan of vehicles with a police escort. Periscope viewers told Inner City Press Gabonese were protesting Bongo, who they call a killer, in front of the Peninsula Hotel. Now Jean Ping is calling for UN action, saying pointedly that he "cancelled plans to visit the United Nations and meet with U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres. 'I don’t need to be just received. But I have the impression that (anything beyond that) is a long way off because of the system.'" Reuters neglects to note that Ping was not only a chair of the African Union, but a President of the UN General Assembly. Then again, Reuters is barely reporting on the UN bribery trial of one of Ping's successors as PGA, John Ashe. We'll have more on this. Ali Bongo, fresh off this award(s) in New York, unilaterally suspended the media Echos du Nord, here. The UN itself evicted (audio) and still restricts Inner City Press, and when Inner City Press asked Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who did it, about Gabon including as relates to the closed door briefing of Francois Fall of UNOCA set up in Gabon, Dujarric's response was about the sports team the New York Mets. This is today's UN.
Watch this site.  Guterres' holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric declined to offer any explanation of the differences. As noted, under Ban Ki-moon he had Inner City Press thrown out of the UN Press Briefing Room and UN, where it is still restricted even as the Ng Lap Seng / John Ashe UN bribery case it was covering is coming to trial. Is the UN reforming? Watch this site.

 

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