By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, May 16 -- Amid protests in Madagascar that have turned deadly, of the attempt to ban former president Marc Ravalomanana from running for office, Inner City Press on April 23 asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric if the UN had any comment. No, he said. Now Guterres has started paying as a UN envoy a person already accused of taking money from a controversial rules, Ali Bongo of Gabon. On April 25 Inner City Press asked Dujarric again, citing the deaths, and Dujarric said said he might have something later. Minutes afterward - apparently being held to never be read unless asked in the briefing room from which Dujarric has previously evictedInner City Press - came this UN response: “Your question on Madagascar: The Secretary-General is aware of reports of loss of life and many injured during recent demonstrations in Madagascar. He extends his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a speedy recovery to those injured. He calls for calm, and urges the political actors to engage in dialogue to avoid the repeat of the crises of the past. The achievements that have been made in recent years to restore the rule of law and respect for human rights must be preserved for the benefit of all the people of Madagascar.” We'll have more on this (previous pre-eviction Madagascar coverage here). The protests are also against current president Hery Rajaonarimampianina. But on April 27 Dujarric read out this statement: "The Secretary-General spoke with H.E. Mr. Hery Rajaonarimampianina, President of Madagascar, this morning. The Secretary-General reiterated his call for political dialogue, offered his good offices, and agreed with the President to dispatch his Special Adviser, Mr. Abdoulaye Bathily, to Madagascar immediately. Mr. Bathily will work closely with the African Union and the Southern African Development Community. The Secretary-General calls on all stakeholders to extend their support and cooperate with his Special Adviser in the discharge of his duties." It's a small and some say dirty world: back on 10 April 2018 Inner City Press asked Dujarric, in writing, about Bathily:
a published report says Fall's predecessor at UNOCA Abdoulaye Bathily has similarly in the pocket of Gabon's hereditary ruler Ali Bongo - for money. See report, here, picked up in Senegal, here. Dujarric and his deputy never responded to the repeated. On April 26 when Inner City Press asked again, in person. UN transcript here: Inner City Press: with this announcement about Madagascar, I had wanted to ask you, you said Mr. Bathily, I guess, is going to be the envoy. I… one, what's his role in that with the UN? I thought he used to be the head of UNOCA [United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa].
Spokesman: Right. He's now… as of today, he's a Special Adviser of Secretary-General on a when-employed basis, and he will be employed to go to Madagascar along the terms outlined in the readout.
Inner City Press: And I had asked you in writing on 10 April about a published report in Senegal and elsewhere in Africa… Afrique Confidentielle, saying that essentially, this is their report, that Mr. Bathily received money from Ali Bongo while he was working on Gabon and I wonder, you never responded to that. Is that something… once that was published and you didn't answer the question, did the UN look into that publication?
Spokesman: We don't believe these reports to be true.
Inner City Press: So who suggested Mr. Bathily? Was it the Secretary-General or the President of Madagascar?
Spokesman: He has been on the Secretary-General's radar as someone who could help on Madagascar. Obviously, it's the Secretary-General's choice. As when he sends an envoy representative to any country, it has to be done with the agreement of the receiving country.
Inner City Press: But this… this published… this previous published report basically implies that as a UN envoy, officially at the time, Mr. Bathily went… I don't know, went soft, didn't… was not critical of Gabon in exchange for money.
Spokesman: As I said to you, we believe these reports to be false. What's your next question?" That how the UN covers up. On May 16, Inner City Press asked Dujarric's deputy Farhan Haq, video here, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: in Madagascar, seeing, you know, there was a sort of a readout at the end of Mr. [Abdoulaye] Bathily's mission there and there are also articles from reputable sources saying the opposition, quote, snubbed him, didn't believe in his presentations. Is there some… does he feel it was a successful trip? And, two, now that it's over and he was “when actually employed”, how much has it cost the UN, this mission?
Deputy Spokesman: Well, we calculate the costs of the use for Mr. Bathily as we need to use some over the course of a period of time, so if we need to use them again, we will continue to do that. There is no calculation to be made immediately. And regarding Mr. Bathily's efforts, I would just refer to the information we put out there.
Inner City Press: But is he paid at the level of an Under-Secretary-General? I know it's when actually employed and that is why I'm asking you, he was not an UN person?
Deputy Spokesman: He has a “when actually employed” contract and we will deal with his salary as the figures come up." The cynical lack of transparency of Antonio Guterres' UN administration was on display on April 23 when he secretly issued a statement on Armenia, while his Office denied it to the Press, then modified it hours later. Amid the protests in Yeravan, Inner City Press after an Armenia-less UN noon briefing on April 23 went to Guterres' Spokesperson's Office and asked if Guterres had made a statement. No, Inner City Press was told, the UN was only thinking about making a statement. Hours later Inner City Press by a fortuity - at the UN Tourists' Entrance it is forced to use for two years and counting for reporting on UN corruption - was informed that that was "language" issued in response to a question. But it has not been read out at the noon briefing, as happens on other questions. And later after 8 pm a Guterres statement was issued, different from the first one. It added, for example, "The Secretary-General seizes this opportunity to echo the recent appeal by the OSCE’s Minsk Group Co-Chairs urging all sides to prevent any potential escalations along the Line of Contact and to intensify efforts toward a peaceful negotiated solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict." So on April 24, Inner City Press asked Guterres' holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: yesterday, I saw it just after the noon briefing, that there had been a statement on Armenia. I just want to understand sort of how it came out, so then I went to your office and asked. They said there wasn't a statement…
Spokesman: No, there was no statement.
Inner City Press: Then they said there was an answer given…
Spokesman: There was no statement at the time you asked. There was a question that was asked by one of your colleagues. It was not a statement. We gave him an answer. And then, later in the day, an official statement was released, and we shared that with everybody.
Inner City Press: Did you give the answer… was it in a f… in typed-up paper form? Because it was tweeted as a photograph of what looked just like a statement.
Spokesman: It was given… when a journalist asks us a question outside of the briefing room, we share it with that journalist. Right?
Inner City Press: When you choose to answer.
Spokesman: When we're able to answer. Okay? If there is a statement, we will share it broadly. If there is… if someone raises a question in this briefing and then we answer later, we share it with everybody.
Inner City Press: Then how do you decide? Sometimes you come in here you say, in response to questions from your colleagues, I have the following to say… When do you do it?
Spokesman: It's the beauty of the authority that's invested in me." Bragging of lawlessness, as when Dujarric evicted Inner City Press from the UN Press Briefing Room while leaving other correspondents on it.
a published report says Fall's predecessor at UNOCA Abdoulaye Bathily has similarly in the pocket of Gabon's hereditary ruler Ali Bongo - for money. See report, here, picked up in Senegal, here. Dujarric and his deputy never responded to the repeated. On April 26 when Inner City Press asked again, in person. UN transcript here: Inner City Press: with this announcement about Madagascar, I had wanted to ask you, you said Mr. Bathily, I guess, is going to be the envoy. I… one, what's his role in that with the UN? I thought he used to be the head of UNOCA [United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa].
Spokesman: Right. He's now… as of today, he's a Special Adviser of Secretary-General on a when-employed basis, and he will be employed to go to Madagascar along the terms outlined in the readout.
Inner City Press: And I had asked you in writing on 10 April about a published report in Senegal and elsewhere in Africa… Afrique Confidentielle, saying that essentially, this is their report, that Mr. Bathily received money from Ali Bongo while he was working on Gabon and I wonder, you never responded to that. Is that something… once that was published and you didn't answer the question, did the UN look into that publication?
Spokesman: We don't believe these reports to be true.
Inner City Press: So who suggested Mr. Bathily? Was it the Secretary-General or the President of Madagascar?
Spokesman: He has been on the Secretary-General's radar as someone who could help on Madagascar. Obviously, it's the Secretary-General's choice. As when he sends an envoy representative to any country, it has to be done with the agreement of the receiving country.
Inner City Press: But this… this published… this previous published report basically implies that as a UN envoy, officially at the time, Mr. Bathily went… I don't know, went soft, didn't… was not critical of Gabon in exchange for money.
Spokesman: As I said to you, we believe these reports to be false. What's your next question?" That how the UN covers up. On May 16, Inner City Press asked Dujarric's deputy Farhan Haq, video here, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: in Madagascar, seeing, you know, there was a sort of a readout at the end of Mr. [Abdoulaye] Bathily's mission there and there are also articles from reputable sources saying the opposition, quote, snubbed him, didn't believe in his presentations. Is there some… does he feel it was a successful trip? And, two, now that it's over and he was “when actually employed”, how much has it cost the UN, this mission?
Deputy Spokesman: Well, we calculate the costs of the use for Mr. Bathily as we need to use some over the course of a period of time, so if we need to use them again, we will continue to do that. There is no calculation to be made immediately. And regarding Mr. Bathily's efforts, I would just refer to the information we put out there.
Inner City Press: But is he paid at the level of an Under-Secretary-General? I know it's when actually employed and that is why I'm asking you, he was not an UN person?
Deputy Spokesman: He has a “when actually employed” contract and we will deal with his salary as the figures come up." The cynical lack of transparency of Antonio Guterres' UN administration was on display on April 23 when he secretly issued a statement on Armenia, while his Office denied it to the Press, then modified it hours later. Amid the protests in Yeravan, Inner City Press after an Armenia-less UN noon briefing on April 23 went to Guterres' Spokesperson's Office and asked if Guterres had made a statement. No, Inner City Press was told, the UN was only thinking about making a statement. Hours later Inner City Press by a fortuity - at the UN Tourists' Entrance it is forced to use for two years and counting for reporting on UN corruption - was informed that that was "language" issued in response to a question. But it has not been read out at the noon briefing, as happens on other questions. And later after 8 pm a Guterres statement was issued, different from the first one. It added, for example, "The Secretary-General seizes this opportunity to echo the recent appeal by the OSCE’s Minsk Group Co-Chairs urging all sides to prevent any potential escalations along the Line of Contact and to intensify efforts toward a peaceful negotiated solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict." So on April 24, Inner City Press asked Guterres' holdover spokesman Stephane Dujarric, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: yesterday, I saw it just after the noon briefing, that there had been a statement on Armenia. I just want to understand sort of how it came out, so then I went to your office and asked. They said there wasn't a statement…
Spokesman: No, there was no statement.
Inner City Press: Then they said there was an answer given…
Spokesman: There was no statement at the time you asked. There was a question that was asked by one of your colleagues. It was not a statement. We gave him an answer. And then, later in the day, an official statement was released, and we shared that with everybody.
Inner City Press: Did you give the answer… was it in a f… in typed-up paper form? Because it was tweeted as a photograph of what looked just like a statement.
Spokesman: It was given… when a journalist asks us a question outside of the briefing room, we share it with that journalist. Right?
Inner City Press: When you choose to answer.
Spokesman: When we're able to answer. Okay? If there is a statement, we will share it broadly. If there is… if someone raises a question in this briefing and then we answer later, we share it with everybody.
Inner City Press: Then how do you decide? Sometimes you come in here you say, in response to questions from your colleagues, I have the following to say… When do you do it?
Spokesman: It's the beauty of the authority that's invested in me." Bragging of lawlessness, as when Dujarric evicted Inner City Press from the UN Press Briefing Room while leaving other correspondents on it.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres slightly delayed his trip to Saudi Arabia, but not by much. After accepting a $930 million check from the Saudi Crown Prince and in remarks not mentioning the civilians deaths caused by Saudi bombing of Yemen, now Guterres has delivered again, remarks praising Saudi Arabia's counter terrorism work. Some find it ironic; some call this trip "Blood Money II." But duty called. Before he left, Guterres whorefused actually pointed Press questions with dismissive wave of the hand, delivered a 20 minute interview to Saudi aligned media. Now there, he is quoted with more praise of Saudi, by the Saudi Press Agency (to which his UN has given office space and full access while evictingand restricting the independent Press). The UN has yet to send out a transcript of Guterres' craven remarks quoted by the Saudi Press Agency, sending so far only a speech beginning "Your Excellency, Foreign Minister al-Jubeir, Your Excellency, Ambassador Al-Mouallimi, I want to express my deep gratitude to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for its generous support to the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Centre, a support without which the Centre, would probably never have been able to be born. And I thank Ambassador Al Mouallimi for his able chairmanship of this Advisory Board... I recently launched the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Compact, which I signed with the heads of 36 UN entities, the INTERPOL and the World Customs Organization." INTERPOL, of course, is used by some governments to arrest or travel ban their opponents. We'll have more on this. Only a week before as Guterres took off on his trip to China, Inner City Press which has pursued the UN bribery scandals of Ng Lap Seng and now the China Energy Fund Committee asked Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric on April 6 if Guterres will address any of these issues during his five days in the country. Dujarric was dismissive, and ended the briefing. Video here; UN transcript here and below. This cutting off of public quesitons happened after Guterres gave a private (self) promotional interview to China's state media Xinhua, touting the trip and China as "absolutely essential" on the North Korea nuclear issue. Dujarric race off the podium made it impossible to ask him for Guterres' opinion on if the gifts given to Kim Jong Un on his recent train trip to China violated the UN's 1718 sanctions. Then again, the UN's own World Intellectual Property Organization helped on North Korea's cyanide patents without telling the 1718 Committee, and Guterres has been as hands-off with WIPO's Gurry as he has been with UNAIDS' Michel Sidibe on the sexual harassment and retaliation scandal. We'll have more on this. From the UN's April 6 transcript: Inner City Press: I wanted to ask about the… the trip to China by the Secretary-General. You know, as you know there's… there's one being concluded and one still active UN bribery cases pending in the Southern District of New York. Most recently…
Spokesman: I don't agree with your characterization.
Inner City Press: They're both about bribing the PGA. I guess you can say the PGA is not really the UN, but…
Spokesman: Go ahead. Go ahead.
Inner City Press: Okay. So my question is since there seems to be a pattern of… in two cases, one was Ng Lap Seng, South-South News, who Vivian Wang has now pleaded guilty. The other is the China Energy Fund Committee, which remains in consultative status with ECOSOC [Economic and Social Council]. Is this an issue that the Secretary-General, in visiting the home base of both operations, and both are alleged to be Government connected?
Spokesman: The United Nations has cooperated with the Southern District here in New York in whatever way we can in any and all investigations. The legal process here has played itself out and is playing itself out, and as for the accreditation of the ECOSOC accreditation, as I've told you numerous times, it's a member state issue…". And then Dujarric ran off the podium. We'll have more on this. The UN has been targeting not only Inner City Press for censorship, but also its sources, for retaliation.
Spokesman: I don't agree with your characterization.
Inner City Press: They're both about bribing the PGA. I guess you can say the PGA is not really the UN, but…
Spokesman: Go ahead. Go ahead.
Inner City Press: Okay. So my question is since there seems to be a pattern of… in two cases, one was Ng Lap Seng, South-South News, who Vivian Wang has now pleaded guilty. The other is the China Energy Fund Committee, which remains in consultative status with ECOSOC [Economic and Social Council]. Is this an issue that the Secretary-General, in visiting the home base of both operations, and both are alleged to be Government connected?
Spokesman: The United Nations has cooperated with the Southern District here in New York in whatever way we can in any and all investigations. The legal process here has played itself out and is playing itself out, and as for the accreditation of the ECOSOC accreditation, as I've told you numerous times, it's a member state issue…". And then Dujarric ran off the podium. We'll have more on this. The UN has been targeting not only Inner City Press for censorship, but also its sources, for retaliation.
It was reported and quoted here: "Looks like UN is making efforts to ID people who send stuff to media: 'Identified a computer used to print an email that was later leaked to Inner City Press, by correlating an URL on the top of the leaked document with Webmail & DHCP logs.' Are they punishing whistleblowers?"
Well, yes. And the investigative Press.
On March 14, Inner City Press asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' deputy spokesman Farhan Haq about the above-quoted and he said, since the UN has confidential information it can and does investigate leaks and leakers. Video here.
