By Matthew Russell Lee, Video, en francais, 1st Person
UNITED NATIONS, December 31 – After UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres accepted a golden statue from Cameroon's 35-year president Paul Biya in Biya's palace in Yaounde, Guterres again shook hands with Biya in Paris at the One Planet event, photo here; UN told Inner City Press no meeting was scheduled. On December 29, Inner City Press asked Guterres' lead spokesman Stephane Dujarric and then his delegated spokesman Mathias Gillmann about, among other things, "the continued detention of now hospitalized opposition leader Mancho Bibixi" - with no answer at all.
The year-end speech by Paul Biya said, "in the North-West and South-West Regions, socio-professional grievances, which the Government nonetheless strove to address adequately, were exploited by extremists seeking to impose their secessionist plans through violence" - nearly exactly what the UN's Francois Lounceny Fall, who ran from the Security Council without answer Press questions, says. Guterres says he's issuing a "red alter to our world" for 2018, but in 2017 he helped give a green light to Biya's and others' crackdowns. On December 26, Patrice Nganang was taken from jail in Yaounde to flown out of the country and back to the US, his Cameroonian passport confiscated. The UN did nothing for him; at the UN last week when Inner City Press asked Cameroon's Ambassador about the release after more than two years of Ahmed Abba he smiled, in his way, and bragged that his government held him in jail more than two years. This is Biya's Cameroon. And this is Antonio Guterres' UN: on December 21, after Guterres' spokesman bragged about his record on human rights, Inner City Press asked him a follow up questions on Cameroon. From the UN transcript: Inner City Press: I think the Secretary-General has been very vocal in his defence of human rights. I would refer you to his speech he delivered in London a few weeks ago on the need to ensure the full protection of human rights in the fight against terrorism. He has spoken out in different fora, in different places, to different audiences, about the importance of human rights, the importance of free speech, the importance of an active and vibrant civil society. I will leave it at that. I don't… you know, obviously, you and your colleagues are free to analyse and dissect the relationships, but that's where we stand on it. Inner City Press One last just very specific on that. In the sense that you're saying very… very, you know, active on human rights, can you say a number… how many people… whether it's the Secretariat or, to your knowledge, the… the… the High Commissioner, how many people do they think have been actually… civilians have been killed in the Anglophone areas of Cameroon? The last number I heard out of the UN was ten, and media put the number… much higher than that. Spokesman: I don't have… I don't have… I don't have… I don't have an updated number." Of course not. Guterres is on vacation until January 3. As of December 19 it seems clear Guterres has not lifted a finger on the case of journalist Patrice Nganang, jailed by Biya for ten days and counting. Inner City Press asked Guterres' spokesman at the December 15 UN noon briefing, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: wanted to ask you again about… about the journalist clocked up in Cameroon for ten days now, Patrice Nganang, who was, you know… basically had investigated the Anglophone areas and was picked up from the airport in Douala, is in jail, charged with insulting or threatening the president. Has the UN done anything on that? Spokesman: I don't have an update on the case in Cameroon." Later on December 15, Guterres was slated to be sold for $1200 a table at a Wall Street fundraiser; we'll have more on this. When Guterres' envoy Francois Lounceny Fall briefed the UN Security Council on December 13, he lumped Boko Haram and "the Anglophone separatist movement" in the same sentence. On UN Radio, Fall has equated secessionists with extremists. On December 13 he said "clashes have continued between radicals and government forces resulting in the death of security officers in the North-West and South-West regions likely to further inflame tensions." Wait, security officers were the only ones, even as implied here the first ones, to be killed? Inner City Press at noon on December 13, after Fall ran past it at the stakeout saying he had another meeting, asked UN Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq about it, UN transcript here and below. On December 14, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Haq again about Fall, who is failing on the Lord's Resistance Army (and Gabon) as well, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: I'd asked you yesterday about whether Mr. [Francois Lounceny] Fall would answer questions, and many… given… after his briefing yesterday, many people, in looking at the paragraph on Cameroon, in particular, have many questions about it. He referred to clashes between radicals. And so people want to know, in the same way that he called secessionists extremists, what he meant by radicals. I guess I'm just wondering, is he still in New York? I know he was here Monday through Wednesday. And is there some way to get him to clarify why… for example, the refugee flows into Nigeria are not mentioned in his report and sort of what he's actually doing on this issue? Deputy Spokesman: Well, it's certainly his call whether he wants to come to the press. He chose not to do that yesterday, but he did have an open briefing, and we provided the contents of he said. Hold on. Hold on. [Cutting Press off. Later:] Inner City Press: I'd wanted… also, one of the sections of Mr. Fall's briefing was about the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), and after his briefing, so it's not addressed in it, the US has announced new sanctions against two members of the LRA, particularly in connection with the Central African Republic. This is a major part of his mandate, but it's confined to one paragraph of his briefing. That's, I guess, why I'm, again, asking you. Is there some way for him to respond to the issues unaddressed or that arose after yesterday's presentation? Deputy Spokesman: Well, like I said, we'll reach out and see whether he wants to or intends to speak to the press. Ultimately, that's his decision." And a bad one. A fish rots from the head. From the December 13 transcript: Inner City Press: I wanted to ask you about Cameroon. Can we get Mr. François Fall to have a stakeout or some kind of media availability? He came out of the Council just now and ran by. He didn't answer a question on Patrice Nganang, nor did he answer about… basically, his briefing seems to conclude with the death of security officers, which has taken place, but absolutely nothing on the death of civilians. So, I wanted to know, can you give a little bit more flavor beyond the paragraph in his open briefing? And will he make himself available at a stakeout or in some other way while he's in New York? And, finally, I did… there's a photo of António Guterres with Paul Biya, I guess, on the steps of the Élysée Palace. Do you have any readouts of any of his meetings at that One Planet Summit? Deputy Spokesman: No, he did not have a meeting with President Biya, nor was one scheduled. I believe he met with Mayor Mike Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, to discuss climate change issues. We don't have any extensive readouts because there wasn't a large number of meetings with Heads of State or Government. And, regarding Mr. Fall, of course, it's his determination whether he wants to do a press availability, but we've raised that before. Inner City Press: Can you then ask him whether he raised, in the… in the consultations anything to do with press freedom in Cameroon? Because one of the participants in the… in the… in the… in the consultations said basically that he didn't. It's not in his briefing. And, obviously, there are not only… not just the one I've asked about, journalists detained, still restrictions on the Internet, and it's nowhere in his briefing. So, is there something outside of the Security Council process that he's doing, or… or is he doing nothing on that? Deputy Spokesman: Well, he's in touch with the Member States bilaterally, as well as through the Council, but regarding the public record, we've provided the actual remarks that he delivered in the Security Council." We'll have more on this - Fall did not mention press freedom, detentions like that of Patrice Nganang or the cut off and slowing down of the Internet and social networks. On December 12, when Inner City Press asked UN spokesman Farhan Haq for the fourth time about Biya's imprisonment of Stonybrook profession Patrice Nganang, Haq had a prepared statement ready, calling for due process and offering the UN's "good offices" for dialogue, in the person of Francois Fall. Fall will brief the Security Council on December 13 and a source who has seen his remarks in advance tells Inner City Press the word "Anglophone" is in there. But Fall has equated secessionists with extremists, and has said that even Federalism is off the table. These are bad offices. There were threats of prosecution against people who refuse to celebrate Biya's 35 years in power. Photo of letter here. So is this was Guterres celebrates, under the Guterres Doctrine? What is the relation to the illegal lumber exports signed off on by Guterres' Deputy, Amina J. Mohammed in the #RosewoodRacket? There were threats to Inner City Press' accreditation at the UN, here. And in Cameroon, worse - and tellingly, the UN's partners even find a way to report on Biya's censorship without naming the UN as complicit. But the UN is complicit. After Paul Biya detained Stonybrook professor Patrice Nganang for his reporting from the Anglophone zones, Inner City Press twice asked the UN about it, with only evasions, video here.
