By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusives I II III
UN GATE, Nov 4 – After Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades met with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on 22 March 2017 Inner City Press about one of its Cyprus exclusives (I II and III) asked UN spokesman Farhan Haq a question at that day's UN noon briefing (from which for its questions it has now been banned for 1319 days).
On November 4, 2021 Guterres named an official linked to sexual harrassment, from the failed Western Sahara mission, to take over for the UN in Cyprus: Colin Stewart.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres claims he has a zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment, but continues to reward UN officials who are charged with harassment. Inner City Press previously reported on Guterres promoting his official Fabrizio Hochschild Drummond of Chile, after sexual harassment in his own 38th floor office, to "Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Preparations for the Commemoration of the United Nations’ 75th Anniversary."
On June 29 Inner City Press, then banned from the UN by Guterres for 361 days, exclusively reported on another reward being fulled in Guterres' world of double-speak, harassment and hypocrisy.
Colin Stewart is accused of sexual harassment, covered up by Guterres official to protect yet another official - and Steward is being given the post in Cyprus, another of Guterres' failing peacekeeping missions. There is pushback by some UN staff and whistleblowers, but these people under Guterres are ignored and retaliated against.
While Stewart was Political Director at the UN Office in Addis Ababa the serious charge arose. In typical UN fashion a cover up began. But the charge gathered force and was soon seen as being inconvenient for Stewart's immediate supervisor Haile Menkerios.
That's when the real cover-up team got active, including Kyoko Shiotani who Inner City Press has previously shown to have gotten her husband an entirely unmerited paid UN job on the UN website while serving as chief of staff to UN Political Affairs boss Rosemary DiCarlo.
More on Patreon, here: it's even worse than it looks. And now this update: NY also got word that this was not the first time and that such allegations were brought forward against him in previous occasions. Why no one looked into it as per established procedure? Why no one approached the victims? Regrettably, no one did anything and for NYHQ to investigate these complains at this late stage would expose his direct supervisors SRSG Menkarios and the Chief of Staff of UNOAU Nathalie Ndongo-Seh, who should have acted on the allegations and initiated an investigation. Instead, they sat on the cases and dismissed everything. What happened? After several back and forth with Addis, NYHQ decided to bury the issue to protect Menkarios and Nathalie. Kiki Shiatoni and Fatime Ziai led the effort. Kiki was hopping to win points with Menkarios for her future promotion. NYHQ decided to go ahead with appointment for a short period giving them the time to find a suitable replacement. Who cares about the victims? Who should be held accountable for lack of due process and collusion? Those behind this have grown more powerful and unchecked.
In October 2021, Guterres' fecklessness was recognized and alluded to by President Nicos Anastasiades has voiced displeasure over the UN Secretary-General’s handling of the aftermath of a three-way meeting with the Turkish Cypriot leader in New York last week and is in contact with the UN over the matter, particularly the non-announcement of a new special envoy for Cyprus. In an interview with CyBC aired on Monday evening, Anastasiades described Antonio Guterres’ stance as “adroit neutrality.” [Or, sleazy censorship.]
During the September 27 meeting Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar grudgingly agreed to the appointment by the UN of a special envoy for Cyprus, replacing Jane Holl Lute. A routine announcement regarding the new envoy was expected to follow. But a week later, Guterres has yet to issue a statement on the matter. The Greek Cypriot side believes this to be the result of Tatar having backtracked on the envoy issue since the September 27 meeting. “Shouldn’t the Secretary-General convey the truth?” Anastasiades asked.
But does Guterres ever? He continues to ban Inner City Press and refuse to answer any of its questions including on Cyprus.
Guterres has failed not only on Cyprus, where part time envoy Lute has failed on UN sex abuse too, but also Yemen, Western Sahara, Cameroon, Honduras and more.
Here's the 22 March 2017 UN transcript.
Inner City Press: On UNFICYP [United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus], I wanted to ask… it's been said from here that there… I guess UNFICYP or people here at Headquarters are looking at two issues: one, the Chief Financial Officer becoming a Cypriot citizen, seemingly in violation of the status of for… status of mission agreement; and also the… the… the filmed stealing of watches by UNFICYP personnel. Particularly, on the latter, where it seems like it's on video, what's actually been done since this video emerged?
Deputy Spokesman: You've heard what we've had to say about both of those questions. I don't have anything further to say at this point. Once there's an update, we'll provide it.
Question: Is there a timeline?
Deputy Spokesman: Once we're done with the process, we'll let you know. And if that's it...
Haq never sent any update to Inner City Press - and in mid 2018 the Office of the Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric and Alison Smale for Antonio Guterres had Inner City Press roughed up and banned from the UN.
Now on December 30, 2019, the US announces on on his upcoming trip, "Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo will travel to Kyiv, Ukraine; Minsk, Belarus; Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan; Tashkent, Uzbekistan; and Nicosia, Cyprus from January 3-7... On January 7, the Secretary will travel to Nicosia where he will meet with President Anastasiades and Foreign Minister Christodoulides to reaffirm the robust U.S.-Republic of Cyprus relationship. While there, the Secretary will also meet with Turkish Cypriot Leader Akinci. The Secretary will reaffirm to leaders of both communities continued U.S. support for UN-facilitated Cypriot-led efforts to reunify Cyprus as a bizonal, bicommunal federation in line with UN Security Council Resolutions."
But how corrupt is today's UN? On Christmas 2019, this: Residents of the village of Denia on Cyprus complained to the government and United Nations peacekeepers that Turkish-Cypriots came into a buffer zone and started cultivating land belonging to Greek-Cypriots. Community leader Christakis Panayiotou told reporters that Cypriot farmers growing products in the buffer zone saw that tractors had arrived with a truck and started cultivating fields. “We spoke to them, we notified the UN that asked them to leave,” he said, adding however that as soon as the peacekeepers left, they returned, this time escorted by Turkish soldiers and continued to work." Sounds like the UN - useless. Inner City Press will be asking Guterres, Stephane Dujarric and Melissa Fleming, who bans Inner City Press, about it. Watch this site.
The information continues to come in, even if Dujarric refuses to answer written questions despite the promise of Smale to UNSR David Kaye and his own on camera promise, here. Now on March 14, a day when Guterres' UN physically pushed Inner City Press out of a "press freedom" event it was invited to, this: "Dear Mr. Lee. As the deadline approaches for Mr. Husein Moussa’s normal retirement age of 62 in April of 2019, one can only begin to wonder as to why the UNFICYP Mission did not open a vacancy for his post. The answer of course is simple yet complex. The simple answer is that Mr. Moussa has requested to continue to work until the age of 65 and the mission has accepted his request. Here’s where the answer becomes complex considering the following facts: Mr. Moussa is holding a professional post but he does not have a university degree. Mr. Moussa was found guilty by the organization of abusing the female staff in his section. Mr. Moussa, acquired the citizenship of the Republic of Cyprus (the hosting country) losing in the process his impartiality which in turn resulted to his declaration as “persona no grata” by the Turkish Authorities. Mr. Moussa has accepted a high valued gift which he proudly portrait on his Facebook page. The gift was given by Ms. Avgoustina Diola in aid of their “quid pro quo” agreement. “Quid pro quo” agreement. Mr. Moussa offered a temporary job to Ms. Avgoustina Diola in UNFICYP’s Finance Section followed by the promise of a permanent job with the condition that she will use her connections in the Republic of Cyprus in order for him to acquire the Cypriot citizenship. Ms. Diola kept her part of the deal and Mr. Moussa became a citizen of the Republic of Cyprus. Once Mr. Moussa became a Cypriot, he did not honor his part of the deal but instead of offering Ms. Diola a permanent job, he requested for her temporary contract not be renewed ever again. All of the above raise the following questions: Why is the Organization rewarding Mr. Moussa by extending his contract for another three years? Did the Organization consider the above facts before extending Mr. Moussa’s contract? Is the organization ever going to question Mr. Moussa about his nonexistent university degree? How can a Cypriot Citizen hold an international post in Cyprus? Is the organization ever going to discipline Mr. Moussa for accepting a gift in exchange for a favor?" No - under Guterres it only targets the Press that reports. Guterres is corrupt.
***
