By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Video
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - CJR - PFT
UN GATE, Feb 2 – The increasing corruption of the United Nations under Secretary General Antonio Guterres, and of the UN Correspondents Association he works with to intimidate and then rough up and ban the investigative Press, has been made clear today in a statement by former Ambassador of Sri Lanka Palitha Kohona, who has been accused of war crimes in the White Flags Killings, see below.
On November 2, 2020 after Inner City Press' written questions to Guterres and his spokespeople Stephane Dujarric and Melissa Fleming, about Mahinda Rajapaksa, went entirely unanswered, a long time UNCA correspondent said the Tamils "should be more quiet." Video here. This is disgusting, today's UN and UNCA.
Now on Feb 2, this call: "The United Nations Peacekeeping department should suspend all deployments from Sri Lanka following the latest report of the UN human rights body which warns that the independence and credibility of the body tasked with vetting the troops had been fundamentally eroded1 . “The UN Department of Peace Operations has a legal duty to ensure due diligence before deploying troops,” said the Executive Director of the International Truth and Justice Project, Yasmin Sooka. “The report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights confirms that New York is not in a position now to certify that the Sri Lankan troops have been properly vetted and screened and must urgently take steps to move the screening process back to Geneva.” Under the current arrangement the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka carries out the vetting of troops in Colombo. The appointment of Shavendra Silva to Army Commander in 2019 triggered the UN’s announcement that it was suspending deployment of all Sri Lankan peacekeepers, except where operations could be endangered... The UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations said it would suspend future Sri Lankan army deployments, “except where suspension would expose UN operations to serious operational risk”. a quarter of Sri Lankan peacekeepers - namely those deployed in Lebanon who would be replaced by troops from other countries . In addition, departing Sri Lankan contingents were photographed repeatedly saluting an alleged war criminal, Shavendra Silva, at farewell parades . This is in spite of the widespread international criticism of the appointment of Shavendra Silva to Army Commander in 2019. Later in February 2020, the US Government made public its designation of Shavendra Silva and his family for alleged gross violations of human rights10. Shavendra Silva was subsequently given the additional responsibility of acting Chief of Defence Staff – the top most military position - and was recently promoted to the rank of four star General." The UN has failed on this, and Guterres keeps censoring.
Here from the UN noon briefing Guterres banned Inner City Press from for the 853rd day, with the collusion of the UN Censorship Alliance, is the transcript:
Question: Yep. My question is that why, the Tamils, when the war is over and they're attacking past history, don't they try now to have a coalition, which is so key in international politics? If you continue eradicating the opposition long after there's peace in the country and it’s prospering, why are they, with this human rights question, still attacking the ones... the Tamils, why are they still not being more quiet?
Spokesman: As you know, we have supported dialogue among all the communities in Sri Lanka, and we continue to do that. And certainly, we believe that there has been some progress on this front in recent years, but much more does need to be done. Sherwin, you have a question? Sherwin, the floor is yours. Sherwin, are you there? Sherwin, if you're having problems un‑muting, you can write the question in chat, and I'll answer that way. Okay. Sherwin is asking, is there any statement on the US election, given high levels of anxiety and growing fears of post‑election violence? I don't have anything to say right now. Of course, we expect the election will go ahead tomorrow. If we have something to say on that day, we'll let you know then. And if I see no other questions, I will now turn the floor over to Brenden Varma, who is at the podium."
Notice that an UN big wig spoke right after his/their member's "the Tamils should be more quiet comment" and said nothing about it; Inner City Press and its Sri Lanka mass killing and UN collusion questions were banned. These people are in league with mass killing, in Sri Lanka as in Cameroon, and censoring to cover it up. This is today's UN - and UNCA.
In an article he published in Asia Tribune, Kohona writes / admits once Inner City Press (he says, "the blogger") "began undermining Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, we mounted a quiet campaign against him within the UN press corps itself... information from our own sources was made available to many members of the UN press corps with a view to impugning the credibility of the man. It took a while, but his bravado unraveled when he fell afoul of the President of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), Giampaolo Pioli, who commenced proceedings to take him to court. Then he began to spar with a number of respected journalists who were beginning to approach us... The UN proceeded to evict him from the room that he was occupying and eventually from the UN itself." See Guterres action, continued by Melissa Fleming, here.
Both have been asked, including today, to explain - nothing, no response. They are corrupt.
Who is Kohona referring to, as helping him? Well, as a first example - there are more - here's an article Inner City Press published at the time, with people who are still at the UN working with Guterres:
Pamela Falk of CBS told Inner City Press on February 22 that writing to the big media companies on the UN Correspondents Association board about their policies "could constitute a crime."
As well as being the president of UNCA, which in 2012 tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN, Falk is a lawyer -- but she did not specify what crime this would be.
Nor would the UN, whose Media Accreditation boss Stephane Dujarric on February 27 filed a false complaint against Inner City Press for reporting Falk's comments.
Shown that his complaint was false -- Inner City Press had said loudly, “you are on the record” and Falk said “he's going to write this up,” audio here -- Dujarric refused to retract it.
Rather, another UNCA “leader,” Tim Witcher of Agence France Presse, along with Reuters' Michelle Nichols, filed their own false complaints with UN Security, apparently based on Inner City Press replying to Witcher hissing “lies and distortion” by saying, “lapdog.” (Significantly, Falk on February 22 called Inner City Press "a mugger.")
Despite repeated requests, the UN won't disclose even a summary of the complaints -- to which it has nonetheless twice in Kafka-esque form demanded a written response -- nor its rules for the filing of false or pre-textual complaints, as the New York Civil Liberties Union asked the chief of the UN Department of Public Information on July 5, 2012 regarding an ejection attempt by UNCA before Falk blithely took it over.
Those elections, those in UNCA, used by Kohona to oust Press:
Here are the December 2103 results, compared to votes in December 2011 for the "candidate" or their predecessor
Dec '13 Dec '11
Prez: * 78 [85] Pamela Falk, CBS News TV and Radio
1st VP * 74 [79] Kahraman Haliscelik, TRT Turkish Radio & TV now Turkish government outright
2d VP * 48 71 Masood Haider, Dawn, Pakistan
* 48 [71] Sylviane Zehil, L’Orient Le Jour
3d VP * 55 [62] Erol Avdovic, Webpublicapress
38 Ali Barada, An-Nahar/France 24
Trez * 81 [71] Bouchra Benyoussef, Maghreb Arab Press - & UN
Sect * 79 [81] Seana Magee, Kyodo News
Members at Large (9)
* 57 Nabil Abi Saab , Alhurra TV
* 57 Talal Al-Haj ,Al-Arabiya News channel
22 George Baumgarten , Jewish Newspapers, Nation Media
* 50 Sherwin Bryce-Pease, South African Broadcasting (SABC)
* 51 Zhenqiu Gu, Xinhua News Agency
* 69 Melissa Kent, CBC/Radio Canada
* 56 Evelyn Leopold, Huffington Post Contributor
* 67 Michelle Nichols, Reuters
27 Cia Pak, Scannews - and at the same time, UN Photo
*54 Valeria Robecco, ANSA
Consider Denis Fitzgerald then of the Saudi Press agency, in 2012 just a judge of Inner City Press, now as if as a reward an UNCA Executive Committee member. Despite being told of the dangers of raising spurious claims of funding by the Tamil Tigers, Fitzgerald did just that in 2012, demanding for example, "who funds you?" Audio here.
So - a war criminal used UNCA to get Inner City Press thrown out of its UN work space and then the UN, for undermining Guterres (who was also questioned by Inner City Press about Cameroon, and undisclosed financial links with UN briber CEFC China Energy). These people are (war) criminals. We'll have more on this - for now, here's more from Kohona (he does not disclose that he paid UNCA's Pioli money) --
"he published a story headed, 'Fish balls (his term for Sri Lankan fish cutlets) and wine to tempt the journalists'. ... He was also known to exchange information with diplomats at very important missions, some of whom had excellent sources within Sri Lanka. He was also a useful tool to some to embarrass the former Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Subsequently, he began undermining Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
But we mounted a quiet campaign against him within the UN press corps itself with a view to exposing him and even forcing him to reveal his financiers. Information from our own sources was made available to many members of the UN press corps with a view to impugning the credibility of the man. It took a while, but his bravado unraveled when he fell afoul of the President of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), Giampaolo Pioli, who commenced proceedings to take him to court. Then he began to spar with a number of respected journalists who were beginning to approach us for information on the man.
Eventually, he clashed with the Alison Smale, UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, who declared that Lee’s “conduct has consistently breached” the UN’s media guidelines and “does not meet the established professional standards required of all correspondents granted access to United Nations premises.” As a result, his accreditation to cover the UN was withdrawn consistent with the terms of the US – UN Head Quarters Agreement (Agreement Between the United Nations and the United States Regarding the Headquarters of the United Nations, Signed June 26, 1947, and Approved by the General Assembly October 31, 1947). The UN proceeded to evict him from the room that he was occupying and eventually from the UN itself."
What will CPJ, David Kaye, RSF et al do? Watch this site.
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