Heading UNSC Equatorial Guinea Dodged on Cameroon Despite No Program Now Bridge In Chinese State Media

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR Letter PFT Q&A

UNITED NATIONS GATE, February 3 – When the Presidency of the UN Security Council was taken over by Equatorial Guinea on February 1 its Ambassador Ndong Mba held a press conference to take questions. But it was only from the media NOT banned by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, his Alison Smale and spokesman Stephane Dujarric. Nevertheless, one of the few remaining independent minded journalists asked Mba why there is no meeting this month on Cameroon (where Paul Biya is slaughtering Anglophones daily). Mba archly replied, video here, that he had no comment as Cameroon is not on the Council's agenda (colonial power France, and turncoat UK haven't even asked, as UK Minister Liam Fox bragged about a New Age natural gas deal with Biya). Remarked on only by banned Inner City Press: Equatorial Guinea's Teodoro Obiang Nguema was the firstto congratulate Paul Biya on his seventh term, on 20 October 2018, two full days before the dubious results were announced. But who's counting? Now this, from Chinese state media: Officials of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea said on February 2 that they have agreed on plans to construct a bridge to link both countries.  "It is an integrating project that establishes the possibility of movement between the two countries. Once this project is realized, we will have another possibility of traveling by land through Cameroon and the Republic of Equatorial Guinea," said Paul Tasong, Cameroonian ministerial delegate from the Ministry of Economy Planning and Regional Development.  At the end of the day, the agreement was reached during a meeting in Cameroon's commercial capital Douala between delegations led by Tasong and Baltasar Engonga Edjo, Equatorial Guinean minister in charge of regional integration.  The bridge will be constructed over the Ntem River, on the corridor linking Kribi, Campo in Cameroon and Bata in Equatorial Guinea.  A memorandum of understanding will be signed between both countries on March 15. One Belt One Road?  On Cameroon, Mba said he could not comment on Cameroon because "it is not on the program of work of the Security Council." Video here. But there IS no program of work, still - so it's a strange defense, a bridge to nowhere. On February 1 in the mere eight questions taken there was not one about human rights in Equatorial Guinea, which has had the same president for forty years. The first question was taken by the United Nations Correspondents Association, whose Valeria Robecco said there are two issues in Africa: Boko Haram and the DR Congo. That'll all? This UN Correspondents Association - which at most represents 10% even of the journalist who come into the UN each year, and did nothing about its partners Guterres, Dujarric and Smale's censorship - has said nothing about, for example, the automatic exclusion by Guterres' UN of journalists from Taiwan. We'll have more on this UNCA and the permanent seat they devote to China. On February 1, Inner City Press live-tweeted the increasingly craven "press conference" until, at the end, one of the few independent thinking and asking correspondents made it a point to ask why Cameroon was not on the agenda. Ngong Mba answered archly that he would not say anything about Cameroon, since it is not on the Security Council's agenda. That's deference, from a country with a 40 year president to another with a 36 year ruler, currently slaughtering Anglophones with very little said by UNSG Antonio Guterres including in his meetings with Mba's Cameroonian counterpart when he was chair of the UN Budget Committee where Guterres wanted favors. Mba to his credit did reveal that Kuwait has asked for an Any Other Business meeting about Hebron. The session was brief, perhaps in part because there was no Program of Work handed out. Those who want to knock Kosovo off the quarterly reporting schedule refused to agree to a February 7 meeting. Mba cited the US in September as also not having a program of work. But there was a hand out of the rest of the schedule. Not so with Equatorial Guinea. They should be sending their information to Inner City Press which covers the UN Security Council closely - in person until roughed up and banned by Guterres amid its questions about his spending and silence on Cameroon, Obiang style -  but we'll see. Watch this site, daily.  In the eight questions there was no follow up on the expulsion of Guterres' envoy Nicholas Haysom from Somalia.  Nothing on Burundi, or Gabon or Togo.  But on those, the answer presumably would have been the same. This is today's UN, so far unchanged by the other "new" UNSC members Germany, Indonesia, South Africa and Belgium...

In UN Shortest UNSC Presser Ever Nothing on Africa As Dominican Republic Takes Over As Prez

By Matthew Russell Lee, CJR LetterPFT Q&A

UNITED NATIONS GATE, January 2 – When the Presidency of the UN Security Council was taken over by the Dominican Republic on January 2 its José Singer held a press conference to take questions. But it was only from the media NOT banned by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. And in the mere seven questions taken there was not one about anything in Africa, which makes up over 60% of the Council's agenda. Nothing on the expulsion of Guterres' envoy Nicholas Haysom from Somalia. Nothing on the disenfranchisement of 1.2 million in the DR Congo, where the UN has (mis) spent billions of dollars. Nothing on Cameroon, or Burundi, or Gabon or Togo. Nothing on the Dominican Republic's neighbor Haiti. It took a mere 22 minutes, the shortest and most vacuous ever, including Singer's opening statement. The set-aide first question was not on Africa; there was a question about the UN Charter and a media invitation to visit Gaza. Guterres, who had roughed up and banned Inner City Press as it inquired into his failure in Cameroon, where human lives were exchanged for Budget Commitee favors, has deployed his UN Global Censor Alison Smale to try to ensure that his failures and conflicts of interest can't be asked about. They are asked about by Inner City Press in writing, and not answered - no answers from Spokesmen Farhan Haq or Stephane Dujarric today. But they cannot stop reporting. An hour earlier - in a ceremony which lasted longer than the correspondents' questions - when the five new UN Security Council members joined for two year terms on January 2, the foreign minister of the Dominican Republic, Council President for January, gave a longish speech in Spanish which while stressing Latin American issued did not mention next door Haiti. There, the UN brought cholera which killed at least 10,000 people; UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has not raised or paid in restitution any significant amount. Whether this issue gets address during January, or even in the next two years, remains to be seen. In the ceremony, presided over by outgoing member Kazakhstan, the Permanent Representatives of Germany, Indonesia, South Africa and Belgium carried their flags forward and planted them, with Indonesia and then South Africa waving their flags. Inner City Press covered this process in previously, for example two years ago with Bolivia, before Guterres amid Inner City Press questions about his failure onCameroon and links with UN briber China Energy Fund Committee President had Inner City Press roughed up and banned since. This should be addressed - watch this site.  A month ago, when Cote d'Ivoire Ambassador Kacou Houadja Léon Adomu held a Press-less press conference on December 3, he listed as Africa issues to be address during the month South Sudan, Central African Republic, Guinea Bissau and the Sahel. No one present asked about Burundi much less Cameroon, and Inner City Press was unable, being banned without hearing or appeal. Kacou Houadja Léon Adomu would not answer on North Korea human rights if his country will sign the draft letter for a Council meeting, nor how it would stand in any procedural vote. Many of the questions could have been addressed by just looking at the Program of Work. Inner City Press has more questions - watch this site.Troublingly, the UN allows in Morocco state media, which got a question from its perspective. Inner City Press still banned from the UN without any due process or appeal gets questions answered by the International Monetary Fund which it covers, on Yemen and Sri Lanka. At the IMF briefing, spokesman Gerry Rice was asked about US sanctions on Venezuela gold sales. In New York, Ambassador Ma reiterated that China is against all unilateral sanctions. So what will the Council be doing when the new US sanctions on Iran kick in? Watch this site - we continue the UN as actively as anyone. Last month Bolivia's Ambassador Llorenti talked up his upcoming field trip to DR Congo, like the Security Council visit he led to Haiti, which Inner City Press went on and reported from. But now that Guterres for his own reasons has had Inner City Press roughed up and banned since July 3, Llorenti's Mission has yet to respond to this, regarding (now) October 11: "find myself banned from even entering the UN, since 3 July 2018 when I was physically ousted while staking out the Fifth Committee meeting from the Vienna Cafe area, at the invitation of member states on the Committee. I would like to request that you / your Mission ensure that I can enter the UN to cover and hopefully ask a question at your Program of Work press conference tomorrow, and after that to cover / stakeout such meetings at the October 11 consultations on Western Sahara / MINURSO, which is almost impossible to cover without being in the building. As you may know, there are numerous Morocco state media given office space and resident correspondent status by DPI under USG Alison Smale, who has refused to answer a single one of my 10 e-mails. They will cover the Western Sahara meeting, from their perspective. I believe I have a similar right to continue this issue.
Responsible are Chef de Cabinet Viotti (who was called by the Reporters Committee on Freedom of the Press) and/or DSG Amina Mohammed. Or, pending that, please have the Mission bring me in to these meetings. The only written communication I have received from the UN is this letter from USG Smale, here." We'll have more on this, (well) before October 11.  Back on September 4 when US Ambassador Nikki Haley held a press conference about her Security Council residency, her second, of the 14 questions called on by the US Mission to the UN not one was about anything in Africa or even about UN reform. This happened as 60% of the UN's work is in Africa, the UN is caught up in sexual abuse and harassment scandals and while Inner City Press, which covers UN abuse and has uncovered Secretary General Antonio Guterres' inaction in Cameroon and the African business links of his son Pedro Guimarães e Melo De Oliveira Guterres has been bannedfrom the UN for 63 days by Guterres, prospectively to miss access to the General Assembly High Level week for the first time in 11 years.
   When Inner City Press was roughed up while it covered the UN Budget Committee and a plan by Guterres to move jobs including from New York to Mexico City, it was covered by Fox News which one assumes the US Mission reads. Inner City Press did not reach out for any assistance from the Mission, holding to the principle that the UN should treat journalists fairly without a state sponsor.
   Nothing improved. In fact, Guterres' British head of Global Communications Alison Smale issued a letter banning Inner City Press, dredging up old discredited complaints from Morocco and her bitter deputy. Still, nothing from Haley or the US Mission.
   Finally on August 24, after Inner City Press learned from a non-US source of President Trump's plan for a meeting about drugs on September 24, Inner City Press formally raised the matter to Haley's spokesman, a holdover from the Samantha Power days, John Degory. He indicated he heard what was said.

  But access was not arranged to Haley's September 4 press conference, at which after Haley to her credit at least raised South Sudan in her opening remarks Degory tried to give a question to among others a retired travel agent and a barely intelligible resident correspondent from Pakistan who beyond assisting in Inner City Press' eviction spent the past weekend tweeting that tennis star Serena Williams and her outfits are “pathetic.” That's today's UN.

   Now there is a deadline to cover the UN General Assembly and Inner City Press has applied and has writing an open letter to Haley, below, and cc-ed her and Degory on its polite letter to Smale. Watch this site. Sixty days after Inner City Press was physically ousted frm the UN and then subject to a ongoing ban from entry to cover the Security Council or UN noon briefing, Inner City Press sent a now open letter to US Ambassador Nikki Haley, here:
Dear Ambassador Haley:

   On this the first day of your UN Security Council Presidency, this concerns the censorship of Press the UN has engaged in since July 3.

   I was physically ousted that day by UN Security while I staked-out a meeting of the Fifth (Budget) Committee as I have for a decade. Right after I spoke to Cameroon Ambassador Tommo Monthe, chair of the Fifth Committee, I was grabbed by Lt Ronald E. Dobbins and another officer, shirt torn, laptop damaged, arm twisted. This was covered in Fox News, here, as well as The (UK) Independent.

  On July 5 when I came to cover the Security Council meetings on Syria and Yemen, I was banned from entering UN. After a no due process review by the Department of Public Information's Alison Smale, my accreditation was “withdrawn” on August 17, seemingly for life. The letter is online here, downloadable with some of my rebuttal (not heard by Smale or DPI) here.

  I have raised this verbally to some in your US Mission to the UN, including eight days ago to your spokesman John Degory, followed up in writing with a request to be admitted to your September 4 Program of World press conference. In your first such press conference on 3 April 2017, I asked you about peacekeepers' sexual abuse and the continuing need for the Freedom of Information Act at the UN. Video here. 

   As things stand, without any due process, I am banned from your press conference -- at which, for the record, I would like to ask you about the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon which I asked you about on 18 October 2017. Video here. I am also banned from covering the General Assembly High Level week, the deadline for accreditation for which is September 5. 

   I firmly believe I have a right to cover this member states' event, despite what I see as bias and lawlessness by DPI and the wider Secretariat. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric in an August 27 noon briefing I was banned from attending cut off a question about my ouster, video here,  insisting that to say this is about freedom of the press would be wrong. (Then why is it in the Press Freedom Tracker, here, and the Columbia Journalism Review, among others for example in the UK, Japan,Italy and Cameroon? Why this 5000+ signature petition?) They have gotten so petty as to get UNICEF to block me from a book event they had invited me to on September 5. They similarly got my blocked from a press conference held outside of the UN at the Pierre Hotel by the UN World Intellectual Property Organization, whose work on North Korea's cyanide patents I have also asked you about.

  So I am writing to you, asking for your intervention at least on the limited issues of not being blocked from attending your September 4 press conference and relatedly DPI relenting and not blocking me from covering the GA High Level Week, and allowing me to apply and be accredited on Sept 5 like thousands of other correspondents, many state media of government with little respect for press freedom.

Bigger picture, why has the UN banned me for 60 days and counting? I think it is because, more than before, they cannot or feel they do not have to put up with critical questions and coverage.

  Not to be put too fine a point on it, but this is NOT a new day at the UN - or what is new about it is the willingness to rough up and journalist and ban its media for life, with no due process or appeal. This is not consistent with the First Amendment of the US Constitution (which it is now clear entirely stops east of First Avenue) - nor with Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

  This is an outrage at the UN that must be addressed.

Matthew Russell Lee, InnerCityPress.com

North Korea UNSC Meeting Set for December 10, But At 8 am Not in UN Journal, MALU Alert or Program of Work, Free UN Coalition for Access Asks Why

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 10, 8 am -- For today on Human Rights Day it's been said, a week ago then December 8 at the UN Security Council stakeout, that there will be a Security Council meeting about human rights in North Korea today at 2:30 pm.

 But as of 8 am, the day's UN Journal does not list it; nor does the UN Media Alert nor the Security Council's online Program of Work. The last of these may explain it: after the Council's closed door meetings on Western Sahara (listed) and Turkey on December 8, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the press that the US should have disclosed the intended North Korea meeting when formulating its Program of Work for December, when the US is President.

  Inner City Press has checked with another Security Council delegation, which said it is a good argument, but not enough to "stop" the meeting. But enough to have the meeting UNlisted, even six and a half hours before?

  The UN has an archaic, anti-public game under which "Arria formula" meetings of the Security Council are not listed in the UN Journal, sometimes not even on the blue signs outside the meeting. The Free UN Coalition for Access thinks that sending diplomatic signals by withholding information from the public is not what the UN, ostensibly about "We the Peoples," should be about. We'll hare more on this.

For more than a month there have been rumors, stoked in some cases by the UN, that Secretary General Ban Ki-moon may visit North Korea.

 To some it seemed strange, right after the UN's Third Committee enacted a resolution about human rights in North Korea. What that country might gain from a high level UN visit might be clear -- showing that the resolution didn't mean much -- and some surmise that the Korean Peninsula is increasingly Ban's focus. But what would be in it, from a Ban-to-DPRK visit, for the resolution's proponents?

  On December 3 the Spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the UN Hagar Chemali issued a statement that “last year in December the UN Security Council convened for the first time in history to discuss the human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). Today, Chile, France, Jordan, Lithuania, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States have requested another meeting of the Security Council to examine conditions in DPRK and their effects on international peace and security. As President of the Security Council for the month of December, the United States will now work quickly to schedule this meeting. We will provide additional details as soon as we have them.”

  Now, again from Ms. Chemali, this: "We intend to convene the Security Council meeting on the situation in the DPRK on Thursday, December 10 at 2:30 PM. We are currently working with the Secretariat to explore the availability of senior briefers from DPA and OHCHR. We will update on briefers as soon as we have more details."

  In the US Mission's December 3 statement, Ambassador Samantha Power said: “A year ago, the Security Council met for the first time on the widespread and systematic human rights violations being committed by the North Korean government. Having placed the issue on the Security Council’s agenda last year, we believe it is critical for the Council to continue to shine a light on the abuses in North Korea and speak regularly about the DPRK’s human rights situation – and what we can do to change it – for as long as the crimes committed there persist.”

   For now we can say, this would seem to make a Ban Ki-moon visit to DPRK (even) less likely, at last in December. And in January, when Uruguay is set to be UN Security Council president? Watch this site.

Back on November 17 when Ri Hung Sik, Ambassador at-large of the Democratic People's Republic of Korean, held a press conference at the North Korean mission, he said that he had heard nothing, nothing at all, about UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon visiting North Korea, which Yonhap ascribed to a senior UN source.

Even when asked a leading question about a hypothetical Ban trip, Ri Hung Sik said Ban's UN would have to improve its relations with DPRK. Inner City Press is putting the audio online here, and embedded below.

 Inner City Press ran back to the UN and asked Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric, transcript here:

Inner City Press: here was just a press conference at the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) mission, and there their minister, Ri Hung Sik, asked about the Secretary-General's possible reported trip, said he's heard nothing about it at all and that there are many rumours on the internet.  He also said that this South Korean national security law that makes it illegal for South Korean citizens to speak positively of the DPRK… that's how he described it… should be looked at by the UN.  So I wanted to know, what is the Secretary-General's view of that law?  And if that's an accurate description, is he bound by it?

Spokesman:  I'm not aware of the law.  As far as Ban Ki-moon, he is the Secretary-General of the United Nations and is doing his duty as such.

   But why did Team Ban play it so coy on Yonhap's report? Now late on November 17, the UN has issued this more specific denial:

"In response to questions asked about a report from Xinhua and the Korean Central News Agency stating that the Secretary-General would be travelling to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea next week, the Spokesman had the following to say: The Secretary-General will not be travelling to the DPRK next week. He will be in New York most of the week and then travel to Malta for the Commonwealth Summit. From there, he will go to directly to Paris to attend CoP21. The Secretary-General has repeatedly said that he is willing to play any constructive role, including traveling to the DPRK, in an effort to work for peace, stability and dialogue on the Korean Peninsula."

  Before Inner City Press left the DPRK mission on November 17, it asked Ri Hung Sik for his view of UN Special Rapporteur Marzuki Darusman and when or if UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Prince Zeid will visit North Korea.

  Of Darusman, Ri Hung Sik said he met him only once, and that it seems Darusman does not speak his own words, or think his own thoughts. Of Zeid, he said the discussion is of technical cooperation, but no date was given. Video here.

   During the press conference, there was no question, as at a prior DPRK press conference, about Donald Trump...

New Zealand's UN Security Council Month Has SIDS & de Mistura on Syria, Burundi & Maybe Central African Republic Rapes Report

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, July 2 -- As he took over the Presidency of the UN Security Council for the month of July, New Zealand's Permanent Representative to the UN Gerard van Bohemen on July 2 took questions about his Program of Work for the month. Video here, more here.

  It begins for real on July 7 with Bosnia and Herzegovina, on which van Bohemen said he hopes the draft resolution on Srebrenica can be adopted. (There are, Inner City Press understands, two drafts and a wide gulf).

 Jumping to July 9, there will be a briefing and then closed door consultations on Burundi, where for now Pierre Nkurunziza is set to go for a controversial third term on July 15.

  Inner City Press asked van Bohemen if the "product" being worked on is a Presidential Statement (it's a Press Statement) and if it might address the third term and postponing the July 15 voting. Wait and see, van Bohemen said.

  Van Bohemen said that the UN's Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura will be in New York next week and he will meet the envoy, as President of the Security Council. Then de Mistura will return to New York and brief the full Council on July 28.

  On July 14 there's the mission in the DR Congo -- van Bohemen, it turns out, was his country's deputy ambassador at the UN during the Rwanda genocide, and negotiated the statute of the ICTR International Criminal Tribunal on Rwanda on which we'll have more -- and on July 16 there's Cypus, Somalia and Eritrea.

  On July 22 there's Iraq and on July 23, the day long open debate on the Middle East (that is, Palestine.) New Zealand's big debate is about SIDS, small island developing states, on July 30 with its foreign minister. At the UN on July 1, the representative of Barbados proposed renaming SIDS as "LODS" -- large ocean developing states.

  New Zealand's many footnotes for the months, items that could be raised, include Ukraine, Yemen, Libya, South Sudan and reviews of peacebuilding and Peace Operations.

  Inner City Press asked van Bohemen if under his Presidency the Security Council will seek information about peacekeepers' sexual abuse, for example in the Central African Republic where Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has had to convene an "Independent" Panel incuding Hassan Jallow of the ICTR. On this, van Bohemen said there is interest in the Council.

 On June 30 van Bohemen spoke off the cuff about the problems he sees in the Council -- divisions on Syria and Yemen, for example -- and proposed that in July all 15 Permanent Representatives commit to actually talk about the resolutions and statements the Council issues. On that, he held a breakfast with Ambassadors to beginning the talking, on which we'll have more.

   Here is Inner City Pro's transcription of van Bohemen remarks at what's called the wrap-up session which ended Malaysia's Presidency for June of the Security Council:

My team was so keen that I should offer my personal reflections that they declined to give me [notes], so I'm going to see how we go. We did have some very good debates this month... I thought the discussion of peace-building was also very interesting and again exposes some of the areas we need to be prepared to go into, if we’re going to make the best use of the machinery that covers this area, beyond this Council.

We also had good results on MINUSMA and UNAMID, even though there were some quite deep seated differences amongst delegations about aspects of whether those mandates needed to be adjusted. I thought it was good that we managed to get over those differences and adopt them as a united Council. I do hope, as I said yesterday, that this new mandate for UNAMID provides an opportunity in particular for a better relationship between the government of Sudan and this Council.

But if we look behind the formal outcomes, what we achieved this month, and look at problems of the world, we have to acknowledge we haven’t done all that well. On Syria, Yemen, and Libya, we have got real problems. There are peace talks fitfully under way in Libya, perhaps underway in Yemen, and nothing at all in Syria. We have real problems in Burundi, which is demonstrating how difficult it is to get engaged in prevention, if the other party doesn’t want to talk to you, it’s very difficult to be an engaged participant. And that is a real difficulty. And we’ve just heard some graphically horrible statistics about what’s happening in South Sudan.

These are situations that reflect very badly on all of us and I don’t mean just the member of the Council, but I mean as an international community. There are things about the Council which I think we can properly take on our shoulders but we also have to admit that there are real limits as to what the Council can do. If you look in your quiver to see what arrows you can fire, there aren’t that many, particularly if other countries aren’t prepared to put their troops on the line, if people aren’t prepared to authorize more aggressive use of force. And even if they were, we know how difficult it is to actually achieve in these outcomes. So I don’t want to say it’s all about the Council’s problems. It isn’t.

But turning to what’s behind that, in particular if you look at Syria, we have a real problem, because the Council is divided. Similar divisions are playing out in Yemen. Because of those divisions, we are not able to really talk to each other, but instead score points. That’s not helpful. As to the way we go about our business, some comments have already been made to this, and I want to endorse entirely what the ambassador from the United Kingdom has said, about the need to engage more informally. After all, these are informal consultations in that room, and yet they’ve managed to build up a cadre of practice that is so self-denying that it’s unbelievable at times, as is what you can and can’t talk about it, or how you can talk about it.

I also agree with the delegation of Spain, that the business of pen holding and how resolutions are negotiated is an issue we need to think about. One option might be the co-pen-holder proposal, but at least I would ask the Permanent members to think if you are one of the Five how it looks when the resolution comes from one of the five, to the five, and then to the ten, and then that’s going to be put to the vote in a day or two. This isn’t the most useful way of engagement.

I also think we as ambassadors have a responsibility to engage more in the products we negotiate, which are negotiated and adopted. While of course we recognize the great work done by experts and political coordinators, we in the end are responsible for the products of this council. And how often do we really talk about them? How often do we actually have a conversation as ambassadors about what we are doing? I really believe we need to do that, to reach down and say, let’s bring this to the room and talk about it, as a group.

So, there’s a kind of sneak preview of the things I would like to explore next month when I’m the President. I don’t know how I’ll get on, but I do hope you’ll help me. Thank you.

   Inner City Press (and InnerCityPro.com) will be covering the Security Council closely. Watch them.

   

With Jordan As UN Security Council President, Inner City Press Asks Dina Kawar of Western Sahara, UN Police Shooting Protesters in Gao in Mali

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, April 2 -- When Ambassador Dina Kawar of Jordan assumed the presidency of the Security Council and held a press conference on April 2, Inner City Press asked her about the review of Western Sahara scheduled for the month, and about a report to be presented that afternoon behind closed doors about UN Peacekeepers in Mali killing three civilians by using excessive force. Video here and embedded below.

   Inner City Press asked if the Security Council under Ambassador Kawar will see that there is accountability for the UN Peacekeepers who killed the three civilians, beyond simply being repatriated to their home country (which UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq would not even identify.)

  Ambassador Kawar said that “of course it's not justifiable” but added that she had not yet seen the UN report into the killings in Gao. 

Inner City Press has asked the Council's president in March, Francois Delattre of France, about the Gao report; his spokesman said its release will be up to the Secretary General. 

 A single stakeout by UN Peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous will foreseeably not be enough. Ladsous has refused to answer Press questions, from rapes in the DR Congo to Darfur, video here, Vine here.

   Ambassador Kawar said that peacekeeping is one of the topics in the Security Council's retreat with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon -- peacekeepers' “work, their relationship with the host country -- along with “sanctions in general.” One wonders if the Ramos Horta report, and Ladsous' resistance to accountability, will or should be among the topics.

  On Mali more generally, Ambassador Kawar said “we happy with the talks with the Algerians as mediators,” acknowledging that not all have agreed (for example the MNLA). She went philosophical, that intra-state conflicts are more complicated that those between states.

  On Western Sahara, as Inner City Press reiterated the question including on the inclusion of human rights monitoring in the mandate of MINURSO, Ambassador Kawar said that “the mandate will be extended” but that she couldn't say more for now, not yet having seen the report. We'll have more on this.

  Inner City Press began its question by thanking Ambassador Kawar for the briefing on behalf of the new Free UN Coalition for Access, expressing a hope she will hold question and answer stakeouts at the UNTV stakeout after closed door consultations.

  We'll have more on this as well -- and on Jordan main thematic debate for the month, on April 23, on "the role of youth in countering violent extremism and promoting peace." There will also be a briefing by Staffan de Mistura on April 24, and an Arria formula meeting on cultural destruction on April 27. Watch this site.

   

Exclusive: In UN Security Council, French March Has DR Congo, Haiti and Other Colonies, Herve Ladsous' DPKO, For Now

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, February 25 -- With the UN Security Council presidency set to be taken over in March by France, Inner City Press is today exclusively publishing the draft “Program of Work” for the month, here. 

  As Inner City Press also exclusively reported late last year, Council member Chad's program was circulated in advance by Australia; this shouldn't only happen to Elected Ten, much less only to African, members of the Security Council.

  As reflected by the Program of Work Inner City Press isputting online today, France plans to hold debates on March 9 on the European Union, and on March 25 on Children and Armed Conflict. 

  Will they inquire into why their Herve Ladsous' mission in South Sudan conceal for a full week the February 15 seizing of child soldiers, which Inner City Press asked the UN about on February 24 and 25?

  On March 4, Libya is on the agenda; on March 5 it's Yemen, where according to well-placed UN sources France long opposed sanctions on Ali Saleh because of his willingness to give contracts to French company TOTAL. There's Syria too, that day.

  There's scheduled a trip to the Central African Republic, Burundi and Addis Ababa -- reported after Inner City Pressdid by Al Jazeera, obviating selective retaliation -- from March 10 to 13. Inner City Press had the draft “Terms of Reference” for the trip; watch this site.

 (We don't lightly note retaliation, after Cote d'Ivoire exclusives being called a "hostile act" and for example today this.)

  On March 17 it's Darfur, where Ladsous' UNAMID mission covered up mass rape in Tabit in a November 9, 2014 press release which has yet to be retracted. 

  There's also Lebanon that day, and a Troop Contributing Countries meeting about the DR Congo, where Ladsous has declined to attack the Hutu FDLR as he did the largely Tutsi M23 - history here, and refusals to answere here,here and here (Vine). If the current French government cared about the UN, it would at least take action on this.

   On March 18, what else but Haiti, and a briefing on the Council's visit to other former French colonies?

  On March 19, a briefing on MONUSCO in the DR Congo -- will envoy Martin Kobler have by then been named to replace Valerie Amos atop OCHA, as Inner City Press has reported on in exclusives credited by, among others, UK Channel 4, here?

  The rest of the months is blur or to be boycotted. All 14 other Security Council members have the Press at their reviews; France has until now - or since Inner City Press' reporting on Cote d'Ivoire -- refuses; watch this site.

    

With Chad Atop UN Security Council for December, Inner City Press Asks of Palestine & CAR Refugees, FUNCA Thanks for Briefing, Censors Out

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, December 2, more here -- When Chad's Permanent Representative to the UN Mahamat Zene Cherif held his Program of Work press conference as Security Council president on December 2, Inner City Press asked him about a vote on a Palestine resolution during the month, and about the rights of refugees from the Central African Republic.

  Mahamat Zene Cherif said he is not yet seized of a draft resolution on Palestine but that it might happen. On CAR refugees, he said there are 100,000 in Chad and more in Cameroon. In his national capacity, he said they should be allowed to vote and participate in CAR, that will be a gauge of the process. He mentioned mobile voting places and a role for the UN.

  Before these first questions of the press conference, Inner City Press for the Free UN Coalition for Access thanked Mahamat Zene Cherif for the briefing. It has been absurdly argued that there is some rule or precedent that the old UNCA, become the UN's Censorship Alliance, gets a set-aside first question. From today, that is no longer the case. (Earlier on December 2, FUNCA asked the UN about censorship in Libya, here.)

  Mahamat Zene Cherif fielded questions on North Korea (that was UNCA's, as second), Libya, Security Council reform, Syria, Ebola and others. He announced that only that morning five soldiers from Chad were injured in Mali by a mine: news, when a Troop Contributing Country holds the Security Council presidency.

  During the month, the Sahel, the African Union, the delayed Kosovo debate and Afghanistan, among others, will be considered, and covered on this site.

  Amid calls for UN Security Council reform of the powers of the permanent five members, there are also slights among the elected ten members.

With Chad set to take over Presidency of the Security Council on December 1, on November 13 it bristled when this month's President, Australia, circulated a “Program of Work” for December, Chad's month.

Chad's protest, which multiple sources exclusively provided to Inner City Press and which it is publishing here in redacted form, tells the Australian Mission's Political Coordinator Michael Bliss that

“Chad is surprised by your email circulating the December POW. The procedure is that the mission assuming the presidency of that month is the one authorized to do so. We think it is a profound lack of responsibility by the Australian Mission. I hope that we will continue to respect ourselves as non permanent members of the Security Council.”

  That is, Chad not only challenged the violation of procedures, but noted that it was one non-permanent member doing it to another.

  The email of Michael Bliss of the Australian Mission angered those who provided it to Inner City Press. In a reference to Bob Geldof's “Do They Even Know It's Christmas,” Bliss wrote that 

“in respect to that question asked long ago by Bob Geldof, and friends of some other Africans, the Chadian mission do know that it is Christmas time in the week of 22/12 but, I am told, has resisted SCAD's strenuous attempts to arrange the program so that scheduled work concludes by 19/12.”

  SCAD is the UN Department of Political Affairs' Security Council Affairs Division. On the one hand this seems to be a problem between member states, elected members of the Security Council from different continents, of different religions and different cultures.  Inner City Press reached out to the Australian mission and understands that the joking reference was to wanting a quiet Christmas, and is now to their credit acknowledged as ill-considered.

  But on the other hand, Inner City Press is informed, others up to the level of Permanent Representative wonder who gave Chad's Program of Work to Australia - whose Bliss said it came from "off the back of a truck." Which truck? We'll have more on all this.

   

Exclusive: In UN Security Council, Chad Protests Australia Sending Out the Program of Work for its Presidency in December, Christmas / Geldof Dispute

By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive

UNITED NATIONS, November 18, more here -- Amid calls for UN Security Council reform of the powers of the permanent five members, there are also slights among the elected ten members.

With Chad set to take over Presidency of the Security Council on December 1, on November 13 it bristled when this month's President, Australia, circulated a “Program of Work” for December, Chad's month.

Chad's protest, which multiple sources exclusively provided to Inner City Press and which it is publishing here in redacted form, tells the Australian Mission's Political Coordinator Michael Bliss that

“Chad is surprised by your email circulating the December POW. The procedure is that the mission assuming the presidency of that month is the one authorized to do so. We think it is a profound lack of responsibility by the Australian Mission. I hope that we will continue to respect ourselves as non permanent members of the Security Council.”

  That is, Chad not only challenged the violation of procedures, but noted that it was one non-permanent member doing it to another.

  The email of Michael Bliss of the Australian Mission angered those who provided it to Inner City Press. In a reference to Bob Geldof's “Do They Even Know It's Christmas,” Bliss wrote that 

“in respect to that question asked long ago by Bob Geldof, and friends of some other Africans, the Chadian mission do know that it is Christmas time in the week of 22/12 but, I am told, has resisted SCAD's strenuous attempts to arrange the program so that scheduled work concludes by 19/12.”

  SCAD is the UN Department of Political Affairs' Security Council Affairs Division. On the one hand this seems to be a problem between member states, elected members of the Security Council from different continents, of different religions and different cultures.  Inner City Press reached out to the Australian mission and understands that the joking reference was to wanting a quiet Christmas, and is now to their credit acknowledged as ill-considered.

  But on the other hand, Inner City Press is informed, others up to the level of Permanent Representative wonder who gave Chad's Program of Work to Australia - whose Bliss said it came from "off the back of a truck." Which truck? We'll have more on all this.