On Yemen, UN Guterres Praises and Takes $930M Check From Saudi Prince MBS Who Comes 30 Minutes Late

By Matthew Russell Lee, Photos, Periscope

UNITED NATIONS, March 27 -- UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres lavished praised on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on March 27, with not a work of the Saudi led bombing campaign that has killed civilians and caused cholera in Yemen. The occasion was Guterres accepting a $930 million check for the 2018 Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan. Call it blood money. 

The Crown Prince -- MBS as he is known -- arrived a full hald hour later, with Guterres and his outgoing head of Police Affairs Jeffrey Feltman pacing around but not complaining. (Feltman whose last day at the UN is March 29 when asked if Trump might hire him laughed and said he didn't think so. This was after the 5 pm listed start time for the MBS photo op, but Inner City Press in an abundance of caution after repeated UN censorship threats was not yet Periscoping.) Alamy photos here.

When MBS did arrive, there was a fast photo op then the media was ushered to wait in the conference room of Guterres' absent Deputy Amina J. Mohammed, delivering equally craven statements in her native Nigeria. Although the UN Department of Public Information run by British Alison Smale had said no shoulder-held video cameras in the conference room, exception was made for "Saudi official" media - just as Smale's DPI has purported to award Inner City Press' long time work space S-303 to "Egypt official" media Sanaa Youssef of Akhbar al Yom, who has not asked the UN a question in a decade. Exceptions are made. 

  Guterres' speech is here, along with MBS' claim he never violates international law notwithstanding bombing funerals and wedding parties. Guterres made a special category for the Saudi-led Coaltion: the so-called "good child killers" list. This invention was paid back on March 27 -- only half of the money comes from Saudi, the rest from the UAE -- and the killing is such to continue. The Security Council is being asked, however, to speak solely on missiles the Houthis have launched. One might ask, which came first. But exceptions are made. Back on March 15 as in the US Senate a bill attempting to end support to the Saudi-led Coalition's bombing of Yemen was proceeding toward its 55-44 failure, Inner City Press asked Saudi Ambassador to the UN Abdallah Y. Al-Mouallimi if he is concerned at loss of support in the US for the bombing, which is killing children and spreading cholera. Video here. 

Al-Mouallimi called the bill an internal matter of the US, at an early stage; he said the US fully supports what his country is doing. He blamed all death of civilians on the Houthis. Earlier Inner City Press asked Sweden's deputy ambassador Carl Skau if the day's Security Council Presidential Statement had been agreed to be the Coalition and the Houthis. He said non Council members find their way to have input. But how do the Houthis? 

The UN, under Antonio Guterres, his Deputy Amina J. Mohammed and it turns out his Global Communicator Alison Smale, have made their position clear. Mohammed and Smale sent a long time the night before at a Saudi event on women's rights. 

Smale, who is responsible for restrictions on Inner City Press which she refuses to explain or reconsider, was at the event; on March 15 her restrictions resulted in Inner City Press unlike no-show state media from Egypt and others being initially unable to reach the Council stakeout. The glass door was inexplicably locked despite Guterres' spokesperson's office announcing that the Saudi ambassador would speak. Once he began, a UN Security officer nevertheless at the turnstile Inner City Press' pass no longer opens demanded that it have a minder or “sponsor.” This is UNacceptable, as it the continued death in Yemen. Watch this site.

The United Kingdom's murky role in the killings in Yemen persist even in the face of a Freedom of Information Act request from Inner City Press. 

More than five months ago on 15 August 2017 Inner City Press asked the UK government for records concerning Yemen. The UK sells weapons to Saudi Arabia, and has now implanted a UK citizen as UN envoy on Yemen in the person of Martin Griffiths (Inner City Press story and questions here.) After repeatedly extending the time to response, now the UK has denied access to all responsive records, letter here, saying that "the release of information relating to the UK’s discussion on UN business could harm our relations and other member states of the United Nations (UN)." 

Here on Patreon is the full denial letter, from which Inner City Press is preparing an appeal, on Cameroon as well - it has 40 working days. 

This is shameful - the UK is also exiting transparency. 

As Inner City Press pursues these questions at the UN, it remains restricted to minders by the head of the UN Department of Public Information Alison Smale, who it is noted is British - and functionally a censor. A retaliator, too? Smale has not explained why Inner City Press' long time work space is assigned to no-show, no-question Egyptian state media Akhbar al Youm. 

On Cameroon and Yemen, UK Denies Inner City Press FOIA Request After 170 Days, Preparing to Appeal, 40 Work... by Matthew Russell Lee on Scribd

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In Darfur, UN Prepares To Hand Over Bashir's Enemies for “Blood Money- Exclusive

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, September 28, 2010 -- In Darfur, the Joint African Union - UN peacekeeping mission UNAMID is preparing to turn over to the government of Omar al Bashir five supporters of rebel leader Abdel Wahid Nur who have been “accused by Sudanese authorities of having committed crimes,” as shown by UNAMID documents obtained by Inner City Press.

For two months the government of Bashir, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and genocide, has demanded that UNAMID and the UN turn over the five, who “sought refuge in the Community Policing Center of the Kalma Camp for Internally Displaced Persons” after an outburst of violence in the camp.

Bashir's government imposed a blockade on the camp, not allowing in food or fuel or medicine, and now seeks to close down the camp.

A draft letter from UNAMID chief Ibrahim Gambari to Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Karti recites that Bashir's government “explained its position of principle that Sudan has the right to apply the death penalty as such a penalty is not illegal under international law and is part of Sudan's criminal code.”

Nevertheless, Gambari writes, “without prejudice to its position of principle, the Government has undertaken to work in a co-operative manner with UNAMID... with a view to bringing the issue to a mutually acceptable conclusion.”

Click here to see Gambari's letter, as obtained exclusively by Inner City Press.

In the concluding paragraph of his letter, Gambari “propose[s] that the issue of the five individuals be brought to a conclusion... on the basis of the additional terms set forth in the attachment hereto... to ensure that the five individuals concerned are transferred to the relevant authorities of the Government.”

So what are the terms under which the UN, Gambari and UNAMID would turn over the five to Bashir's government?

Click here to see Gambari's and the UN's Additional Terms, as obtained exclusively by Inner City Press.

Amazingly to some, under Gambari's Additional Terms, “blood relatives of the victims of the alleged crimes will be called upon to exercise their power to waive the death penalty and seek payment of compensation in the form of 'blood money' instead.”

This in reminiscent of an incident in Geneina, multiply described to Inner City Press, in which UNAMID became involved in and even proposed the payment of “blood money” by IDPs to janjaweed who came into the camp beating up IDPs and demanding money for a person they said had been killed.

The “Additional Terms of the Government's assurances for the transfer of the five individuals from the Kalma CPC to the host country authorities” ends with assurances that “UNAMID's Human Rights Division” could visit the prisoners, and that Bashir's government will not “undermine UNAMID's ability to conduct its activities.”

But Bashir's government has restricted the movement of UNAMID peacekeepers and helicopters, as peacekeepers and civilians as in the Tarabat Market early this money lay dying. The UN's human rights divisions in Sudan have been accused by opposition leaders of failing even to come on a timely basis to examine the body of a slain Darfuri student.

(The UN says it tried, but the Government stopped it -- even if true, hardly a basis for replying on the assurances in the Additional Terms. On September 27, Inner City Press asked a series of questions to Gambari, UN Humanitarian Coordinator Georg Charpentier and Under Secretary General for Field Support Susana Malcorra, click here for article, here for video.)

In this case of the five, UNAMID would rely on “the Ajaweed traditional justice” and, again amazingly, that “the President” -- indicted war criminal Omar al Bashir -- “has the prerogative of mercy which he has confirmed he will exercise in the event that the death penalty is imposed on the accused.”

To many, this is a new low for the UN: accepting the promise of an indicted war criminal not to kill again as a basis to turn over more of his enemies to him. Watch this site.