UNITED NATIONS GATE, April 7 – On the solemn 25th anniversary of the beginning of the Rwanda genocide against the Tutsis of 1994, the United Nations of Secretary General Antonio Guterres and his head of communications Alison Smale has hit a new low. Not only has Guterres in for example Cameroon demonstrated the unchanged nature of UN collusion with some mass killings - he and Smale have sought to blur and unremember the UN's role in Rwanda, and now in Cameroon.
In a 7 April 2019 piece by UN News Centre which Smale runs for Guterres, there is no mention of UN Peacekeepers standing up and pulling out amid the 1993 and 1994 killings, nor of some UN staff helping the genocidaires, with radios and white 4 by 4 vehicles. Instead the piece present the UN as a poster child of reconciliation and turns the intra-Rwanda genocide into a lesson about migration. Here is the piece, which is a new low for the UN.
Blathering at yet another international conference, Guterres' fig leaf Deputy Amina J. Mohammed on April 6 praised Kofi Annan with no mention of his admitted role in not passing on information about the Rwanda Habyarinama regime stockpiling machetes for the killings.
The UN is trying to erase its culpability - and as one part of it, has had roughed up and banned now for 277 days and counting the Press that has asked Guterres about it.
Inner City Press on 5 July 2018 was banned from entering the UN, the day after it filed a criminal complaint against UN Security for physically removing it from covering the meeting about the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' $6.7 billion peacekeeping budget, as witnessed and essentially cheered on by senior UN official Christian Saunders, tearing its reporter's shirt, painfully and intentionally twisting his arm and slamming shut and damaging his laptop. On August 17, Guterres' Global Communicator Alison Smale issued a letter banning Inner City Press from the UN - for life. With no due process. She and Guterres have put the UN in the US Press Freedom Tracker, here.
Smale said, again, that the UN would answer Press questions to the Spokesman Stephane Dujarric and his Office; Dujarric said the same on camera. On April 4 more than two hours before the UN noonbriefing Inner City Press submitted 696 questions: "There are more than 400+ questions UNanswered. No answers on March 1 - 27 (!) And now April 1, 3-5. No answers at all during those four days of the US v Ho trial showing corruption in the UN says it all. This ban is just censorship - and Inner City Press must be allowed back into the noon briefing to ask its questions in person and follow up on them.
April 3-5: On Cameroon and freedom of expression, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that "popular makossa icon Longkana Ango Simon aka Longue Longue was on Tuesday arrested in Douala by security forces, sources have said. Sources say Longue Longue was arrested at a hotel in Douala before he was ferried to the Judicial Police in Bonanjo for questioning. Though no reeason has been advanced for his arrest, sources say it could be connected to a recent video the artist published on social media criticising the regime in place. In the video released last week, the artist claimed the detained leader of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement Maurice Kamto had won the October 7 Presidential election but did not provide proofs to back his claims up. He accused incumbent Paul Biya of stealing Kamto’s challenging the regime to organise elections city by city and Kamto will emerge winner. He described Maurice Kamto’s arrest and detention as politically motivated"? What is each of yours - particularly the SG's - response to the letter written and sent by Burundi activist Manisha Lievin? AGAIN, immediately explain how it is legitimate to ban from enter into the UN the media that has been asking about these and other questions, with no hearing or appeal.
April 4-1: On Myanmar and the Rohingya, what is the SG's comment and action on that in a valley in Buthidaung township, near a village that was home to Rohingya Muslim families. “A military airstrike killed five people, including one of our villagers, at around 4 pm yesterday,” Zaw Kir Ahmed, a community leader from Kin Taung village said?
April 4-2: On UN bribery and censorship, what now is the SG's comment and response to the April 3article in Serbia about CEFC which Mr Guterres has refused to audit - and about his refusal to answer, and censorship of Press "Gutereš had and had his own financial link with the CEFC, through the Gulbenkian Foundation. On the orders of Guteres, on June 22 and July 3, 2018, the security came to me, and I was banned from reporting from the UN. In fact, Gutereš took advantage of his security from the UN to distance me from his speech at the Park East Synagogue, and recently physically stopped me while he entered the mosque in 96th Street" and now this - "Patrick Ho, a businessman who was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in the world's corrupting affair, claims investigative journalist Matthew Russell Li in the documentary "Hong Kong Connection, Patrick Ho's List." Li, in a documentary broadcast on the Hong Kong Radio-Television portal, revealed Jeremic's role in this affair, a tens of millions of dollars, as well as his private dilutes, which he made while serving as the chairman of the United Nations General Assembly. - Jeremic's testimony at the Ho trial was problematic because he turned out to be working for "CEFC Energy" (a Chinese conglomerate led by Ho, prim. Aut.) While serving as the chairman of the UN General Assembly. He took their money, exchanged e-mails with them ... He did many things. It is surprising to me that the focus of the prosecution was at Ho. The prosecutors used his testimony to show how Ho established a relationship, and in fact what Jeremic was doing might be worse for the public - Li said. Investigative reporters also uncovered the flows of money flowing to Jeremic's accounts. Hoov CEFC paid Jeremic as a consultant a total of $ 5.3 million. It turns out that some companies that paid this money are completely phantom, because they do not exist at the registered addresses at all." As always, what is the process of appealing or getting a hearing on the now 274 day ban amid this questions, or process to reapply which was denied summarily on 2 January 2019? How is this not censorship?) and the translated 22 minute documentary about Patrick Ho and CEFC's bribes through the UN including Mr. Guterres' refusal to answer Inner City Press' question on it on 5 December 2018, and that Inner City Press for allegedly not complying with interview "rules" has been disqualified from reporting within the UN? Again, the sentencing memorandum includes quotes from his e-mails regarding aiming to violate sanctions and deal in arms not only to Chad but also South Sudan, Libya & Qatar. What is the SG's comment and action? Again, why has no audit even been begun of CEFC, at least like the one Mr. Guterres' predecessor did of Ng Lap Seng's Sun Kian Ip Foundation? Why did Mr Guterres omit payments from Gulbenkian Foundation, which sought to sell its oil company Partex to CEFC China Energy, from his public financial disclosure covering 2016? Where are the more recent public financial disclosures - has Mr. Guterres ended that program? Why?
April 4-3: Also on China, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that a prominent Chinese human rights lawyer said he was blocked on vague national security grounds from leaving the country to participate in a U.S. State Department-sponsored studies program. Chen Jiangang said he was pulled aside Monday at Beijing airport and told by a customs agent that he was forbidden to leave but he was given no detailed reasons or a written explanation.
April 4-4: On Zimbabwe, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that 400 people have been jailed for the violence that rocked the country in January this year. The violence was triggered by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s decision to announce a 150% fuel price hike that had a domino effect on prices of basic goods and services. Labour federation, the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) reacted by calling for a stay-away that turned into an orgy of violence bringing business to a halt for close to a week. Authorities announced 1 000 people including children had been arrested for the riots that forced Mnangagwa to deploy the army. Live ammunition was used with civil society and human rights groups claiming some 17 people had been killed while dozens were left with gunshot wounds amid claims of rape by the army.
April 3-1: On Indonesia, what is the SG's comment and action if any on that "military operations conducted by the Indonesian Military (TNI) in Nduga regency, Papua, in the past few months have led to various human rights violations?
April 3-3: On UN sexual abuse and exploitation, please immediately provide all if-asked further information about the allegations put online on March 28 when there was no noon briefing, regarding Burundi and Republic of Congo peacekeepers and still the Cameroon troops' rape allegations you have not provide any further information on?
March 25-5: On your / Spokesperson Dujarric's recent podcast interview, please immediately explain what was meant by a relationship with journalists of "mutually assured destruction" - and why the podcast links are mostly 404/no longer online.
March 25-8: On the SG's March 22 appearance on 96th Street, please immediately provide the name of the UN DSS officer who spoke to NYPD on 96th Street to get them to restraint in advance Inner City Press while UN Photo and others like AP walked freely, the basis for this censorship and any and all records regarding it.
