By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - CJR - PFT
UN GATE, Nov 10 – In the United Nations from which SG Antonio Guterres has banned Inner City Press 861 days for asking about his complicity in the killing of civilians in Cameroon and Sudan and their mass imprisonment by China in Xinjiang, there are blatantly double or triple standards between national staff, "regular" international staff and then, at the top, corrupt Tony and his cronies.
Below Inner City Press publishes a complaint sent to it on November 10 by OCHA staff, about USG Mark Lowcock (who refuses to file any public financial disclosure) deciding to move them out of Geneva without consultation: "Geneva, 10 November 2020 Dear Mr. Lowcock, I would like to commend through you all OCHA staff for their hard work in delivering OCHA’s mandate under very difficult and increasingly challenging humanitarian and personal circumstances. I am writing to you following the information that we have recently received regarding the relocation of 23 positions at the professional level from OCHA Geneva office to Istanbul and the abolition of 6 General Service positions in 2021, which comes in addition to the first wave of relocations to The Hague that led to a reduction of staff in 2020. We have also learnt about your intention to offshore administrative positions from Geneva for financial reasons and to make future positions in Geneva as temporary job openings in order to make OCHA staff more mobile. We are seriously concerned regarding these decisions that were never consulted with the staff representatives despite the fact that they have a clear impact on the future of the Geneva office and its staff. First of all, based on the information that has been communicated to staff, the main reason behind the relocation is to get closer to those who benefit from OCHA’s humanitarian assistance. If this is indeed the case, we wonder about the rationale behind the choice of both The Hague and Istanbul as places for the relocation. We also wonder why the Geneva office is the one that has been witnessing a significant reduction in its staff since the beginning of the process. The logical conclusion that can be drawn is that the only rationale behind these decisions is a short-term one, with the aim to cutting costs by considerably reducing the size of the Geneva office, yet missing out on the long-term benefits of being located in a humanitarian hub. Further, this restructuring and relocation process has been ongoing for more than two years and comes quick on the heels of earlier restructuring and relocation processes. Cumulatively, this has created huge uncertainty and unnecessary stress for staff. Year after year they live in fear of having their position abolished or relocated, often for no obvious reason. The stress inflicted on OCHA staff by its leadership has been exacerbated by its occurring during the pandemic. Staff were and are still obliged to take decisions about their move despite the fact that the overall world, including the United Nations, is struggling to overcome the pandemic and its consequences on the health and lives of people. As one staff member rightly put it: “While the UN continues to focus on the stresses caused by COVID, they have completely ignored those caused by the cruel approaches OCHA senior management has taken to decentralization”. It is unfortunate to conclude that this reflects a total lack of duty of care from OCHA towards its own staff. In addition, we regret to note that relocation decisions are being taken without putting the staff at the center, as it should be for a humanitarian entity like OCHA. We also fail to understand what OCHA is trying to achieve by forcing staff who are close to retirement or who have personal constraints, to move against their own will. As you know, refusing to relocate means for many staff leaving OCHA despite years of dedicated service. While we understand the need for mobility of staff, we believe that decisions should be first and foremost human- centered. Instead, your leadership has conspired to take the human out of “humanitarian”. Based on the above, we would like to get a confirmation from you that your decisions in terms of relocation do not aim at closing the Geneva office. We also would like to kindly ask you to inform us about the real rationale behind the choices of Istanbul and The Hague as places to relocate. We also would like to see an immediate suspension of the relocation process until the pandemic, currently raging across Europe, is well contained. As you know, without a pool of dedicated staff, OCHA will not be able to deliver on its crucial mandate. Making savings at the expenses of your own staff is not the best way to go." But this is Guterres' corrupt UN. Inner City Press will ask his spokespeople Stephane Dujarric and Melissa Fleming in writing - but probably they will not answer. Totally UNaccountable.
And here's one from October 31 by UN national staff in Sudan, screwed as the UN and AU close down the failed but cash cow UNAMID mission.
The complaint was triggered by the total contempt shown to them by Tony's head of peacekeeping, the sixth Frenchman in a row to hold the post, Jean-Pierre Lacroix. He is traveling around, which would in New York require a two week quarantine upon return.
(Guterres complained of this in a Zoom call with diplomats that Inner City Press published, with Guterres bragged he's doing to Boston to meet a plane from Portugal, evading the rules amid the UN Covid outbreak).
So can it be that Guterres lets his highest cronies live wherever in the world they want, on the public dime, while "regular" international staff were all told they had to return to their duty stations like New York, or not get paid? Who else has this secret and sleazy deal? Guterres' spokespeople Stephane Dujarric and Melissa Fleming refuse to answer any of Inner City Press' written questions, so we'll find out in other ways - watch this site.
The Sudan national staff says they have been in a sit-in strike in front of the mission since August. But gallivanting Lacroix didn't even stop to see them. We'll have more on this, too.
Back on September 1 Inner City Press wrote to the Niger Mission, as incoming UN Security Council president, with questions about Cameroon, Somalia and UNsexploitation.
The email address on the Niger Mission's UN web page did not work; it bounced back. A Direct Message on Twitter to @Niger_ONU was not answered.
And now as the UN closes down for COVID spread multiple sources told Inner City Press it is the Niger Mission. Inner City Press was the first to report this. And also, Guterres' sleazy plan to evade quarantine, even now, and spread it to Boston.
The United Nations General Assembly in New York will be closed on October 27 as at least five members on a member state's mission have tested positive for COVID-19, letter first tweeted by Inner City Press here
and below.
But many hours later, at 8:30 am on October 27, still nothing from Guterers or his Media Acceditation and Liaison Unit. It is surmised that Guterres, ever selfish, still wants to slip away to Boston and meet a plane from Lisbon this coming weekend. As if Massachusetts should let him in without quarantining there? No answers.
"Following information from the Secretariat regarding five COVID infections at a Mission of a Member State, the advice of the Medical Unit is to cancel in-person meetings at UNHQ tomorrow, Tuesday 27 October, pending contact tracing. Accordingly, after consulting the Main Committee Chairs, and in light of the need to safeguard public health, all in-person meetings of the Main Committees of the General Assembly tomorrow are cancelled."
This is the UN whose Secretary General Antonio Guterres, a week ago bragged about evading quarantine, video here. This while his spokesman Stephane Dujarric briefing maskless in a windowless room, five feet from equally maskless correspondents from Al Jazeera and other state media, here. Their UN should leave New York.
This as Sani I. Mahamadou, Deputy Chief of Staff to Niger's president, bragged online of a "Very big day for Niger, who begins his month of presidency of the United Nations Security Council." They're off to a terrible start.
Apparently Niger PR Abdou Abarry could only handle questions from pre-screened in-house correspondents, one of whose media has no story by her since 2017, another with no stories at all, at least one - actually, more -- a repeated #MeToo violator. Periscope here.
Niger has not said a word about the slaughter in Cameroon, nor about the UN Peacekeeping sexploitation exposed by Inner City Press.
The Program belatedly went up - with countries on which Niger ignored and censored questions: Myanmar, Somalia, where UNMAS sent local staff to be killed, and Colombia and South Sudan. There will be Francophonie on September 8. We have now written directly to the Mission's 404 spokesman - and will have more on this.
When Guterres' spokes- / hatchetman Stephane Dujarric holds his noon briefings this month while refusing all questions from Inner City Press despite an on camera promise. And Indonesia? We'll report.
Watch this site.
