by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
UN GATE, April 23 – As the military and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces shoot it out in Khartoum and its airport, the United Nations (which has taken and wasted billions from the public under Antonio Guterres, in Sudan as elsewhere) has been useless.
And now the US has pulled out its diplomats, and undisclosed others, with the support of the RSF. In a Saturday night special call, US vAssistant Secretary for African Affairs Ambassador Molly Phee said that "on Thursday, at the invitation of the African Union Chairperson Moussa Faki, the Secretary and the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres joined other regional and international partners to press for an Eid al-Fitr ceasefire."
By the weekend, the US had to fly its military from Djibouti to Ethiopia to Khartoum and flying out its personnel, and undisclosed NGOs and other countries' diplomats. They said an American private citizen has been killed in the cross fire. Guterres is a weak and turncoat on this as on Ukraine, Iran - and when he did selfies with terrorists on one of his recent junkets.
[In fairness, US Under Secretary for Management Ambassador John Bass cited "assertions in social media in recent hours that the Rapid Security Forces somehow coordinated with us and supported this operation. That was not the case. They cooperated to the extent that they did not fire on our service members in the course of the operation. I would submit that’s as much in their self-interest as anything else." Oh.
Inner City Press, which before Guterres' reign of censorship was in the UN, and accompanied and covered a UN Security Council mission to Khartoum and Juba, recently asked Guterres' spokespeople Stephane Dujarric and Melissa Fleming:
"On Sudan, what are the comments and actions if any of SG Guterres on that Sudanese security forces in the capital have fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse thousands of people protesting against military rule. The demonstrators marched towards the presidential palace but were chased away by police. They dismissed a deal signed recently between the military and civilians, saying it was too vague."
No answer at all.
In New York, spokesman-censor Dujarric read a statement in response to softball questions (video here), while refusing Inner City Press' written questions, which he'd promised to answer, here.
Inner City Press has appealed its ban, to UN Security boss Gilles Michaud as PGA President Csaba Korosi's spokesperson Paulina Kubiak directed. Still, no answer.
So how can a US journalists with an NYC Press Press, invited to briefings from the IMF to the DOJ, remain barred from even entering the UN like a tourist? Since the UN won't answer, you'd have to asked USUN - or Bass or McPhee.
More on Substack here.
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