By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive, G77 draft
UNITED NATIONS, December 23 – The UN budget was supposed to be adopted on December 22 then, the Committee chairman told Inner City Press, noon on Saturday December 23. But when Inner City Press came in through the tourists' entrance Saturday at 2, nothing was moving except diplomats sleepwalking down in the 1B basement. One told Inner City Press the vote might not happen until 8 pm on Saturday; another gave it a copy of the "negotiators' broad agreement" including 10% to 25% cuts in human rights.
Exclusive photo here. (Inner City Press would scan the whole document, but its scanned was evicted from UN along with all in its office by UN Department of Public Information, run by Alison Smale.) Where was UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, with the reforms he ran on and supposedly cares about also getting bogged down? He was on vacation already, for the next ten days, leaving the investigative Press restricted and killings in Cameroon and elsewhere unaddressed. Among the parts of the UN facing budget cuts for waste is not only the Department of Public Information, increasingly a propaganda arm which, as if as a sidelight, engages in censorship of the investigative Press, but also the UN's Regional Commissions, Budget Committee officials told Inner City Press on December 13. On December 21, as Inner City Press covered the process down in the UN basement past 11 pm, this was confirmed. The US wants to cut from Regional Commissions, the sources said, while others target "human rights" and DESA, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, respectively. Inner City Press asked the spokesman for the President of the General Assembly about it on December 22, then at 3 pm headed down to Conference Room 5. After other reporting, Inner City Press asked the chair, Saturday? He said, Yes, we'll vote as the Fifth Committee plenary at noon on Saturday, then GA in the afternoon. During this, Secretary General Antonio Guterres is already on vacation, through January 3. The chair told Inner City Press, we're just working through associated issues. These include the Group of 77 and China's response to vacationing Antonio Guterres requesting more discretion. See G77 draft Combined Proposal as of 8 am on December 22, which for example "15. decides not to implement any changes at present regarding any expansion of exceptional budgetary authorities, unforeseen and extraordinary expenses, and the Secretary-General’s limited budgetary discretion." Full draft here on Patreon. Late night on December 21-22 Paraguay bought in empanadas just before midnight; UK Deputy Jonathan Allen, who had spoken on Peacekeeping much earlier in the day, told Inner City Press, "Could be a long one." It always is - and this year, there are more cuts publicly threatened. Inner City Press was exclusively informed by sources that of the $250 million cut proposed by the US, the cutting number is now $166 million, "it's just a question of where." In the 1B basement there were meetings on Reform, Construction and the all-important Budget in multiple locations. "China has gotten involved," another source told Inner City Press, naming Cherith Norman as involved for the US and contrasting her to former US rep Joe Torsella. "We will work all night," another source said," and vote it through at 3, or 6, or 10 pm." There were jokes made about a UNGA speech on "puppets" earlier in the day. "Watch out, though," one source said, "like the lady across the street, he might rising up in his government." Antonio Guterres was long gone, on vacation through January 3. His deputy Amina Mohammed, the spokesman told Inner City Press, would remain. But she withheld information even from her public schedule.It was the UN caste system at work, although UK Deputy Permanent Representative Jonathan Allen was still there at 10 pm, telling Inner City Press, "Live the dream." Only at the UN. Inner City Press has previously reported on and asked about the presence of the Latin American Regional Commission (ECLAC) chief Alicia Barcena with Antonio Guterres when he spoke before the Committee. The UN then told Inner City Press Barcena was called on by Guterres for her expertise, but remains head of ECLAC. We'll have more on this.
