By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN
UN GATE, Jan 10 – In June 2021 the United Nations published a single line of data about a case of sexual abuse by its personnel or contractors in Mali, without any indication of what was done for the victim or to the perpetrator.
Inner City Press, as it does, asked UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and his spokespeople Stephane Dujarric, Melissa Fleming and others to provide the further information that even under previous UNSG Ban Ki-moon was provided. Now, no answer as of Jan 10, 2022.
On this day, from the US State Department: "The United States commends the strong actions taken by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in defense of democracy and stability in Mali following its Extraordinary Summit on January 9, 2022. We share ECOWAS’s deep disappointment with the transition government of Mali’s lack of action or progress toward organizing elections, as it committed to do following the August 2020 coup d’état. We support ECOWAS’s decision to impose additional economic and financial sanctions." No mention of the useless UN, which has belated denied Inner City Press' Sept 15, 2021 application for access, ignored its own UNAT.
There was no answer, including to a polite letter to Fleming from the law firm of Quinn Emanuel, asking how Inner City Press can end the retaliatory UN ban on it and enter the UN briefing room to ask this and other questions. Video here.
On November 18, having received a Zoom invite to attend the press briefing of the UN mission in Mali MINUSMA, Inner City Press Zoomed in and asked, first in the chat and then live, for
"a status report on the case of UN sexual abuse put on the UN's website in June 2021 - what has been done for the victim? What justice has been meted out?"
MINUSMA's spokesperson Myriam Dessables to her credit, and unlike Dujarric and others he and Fleming have been able to reach and have ordered to censor, allowed Inner City Press to ask. Video here.
She said she will revert with more information, after first inaccurately - perhaps unknowingly - claiming that the UN website has all the information. It has only a single line.
So Inner City Press immediately, as UN/MINUSMA spokesperson Dessables' request, emailed this question to her and Dujarric and Marcia Soares Pinto, Amina J. Mohammed, Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, Tal Mekel, Eri Kaneko, Achim Steiner, Farhan Haq, Florencia Soto Nino-Martinez, Fabrizio Hochschild, Daniela Gross and spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay:
"At today's MINUMSA breifing I asked you for a status report on the case of UN sexual abuse put on the UN's website in June 2021 - what has been done for the victim? What justice has been meted out? You said it is on the UN website in all transparency - but there is only one line: "unspecified... 2021."
Please email me all if-asked information as the UN used to provide under Ban Ki-moon - what was done for the victim, what has been done with the peacekeeper, etc. Thank you in advance - including for your answers on the two military incidents in Mali I asked about."
The military incident including one of Estonian troop in Mali mistaking UK troops, described as working with MINUMSA, as enemies. Ms. Dessables said she had looked it and the UK troops are with the French "BARKHANE" or another mission, not the UN.
And so we published that, and stated that we would publish the answer - or non answer - to the UN sex abuse questions we have posed to Guterres and spokespeople, who continue to Ban Inner City Press.
Now two weeks later, with no answer at all from UN Headquarters, including on the now ongoing sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, on whose Terramar board of directors Guterres' Partnerships official Amir Dossal served as only one of five members, and no answer from new PGA spokesperson Paulina Kubiak, MINUSMA's Spokesperson Dessable to her credit, actually acting like a spokesperson and public servant unlike the others, sent this on December 1: "Good afternoon, • The United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) received allegations of sexual exploitation involving an employee of a contractor in the Mission. • The allegation referred to sexual exploitative relation that resulted in pregnancy and subsequently of birth that allegedly took place over two years relation. • The mission has referred the victim for appropriate assistance in line with the UN’s victim assistance protocols. The victim received the provisions of medical, life supporting material and legal aid. • The Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) is currently conducting an investigation into the allegation to establish facts. The result of the investigations shall be communicated with the mission and New York HQ. Best regards Myriam Dessables Director, Strategic Communication & Public Information United Nations Mission in Mali - MINUSMA ."
We publish it in full and continue to demand full answers from UNHQ which takes the public's money, and runs the UN show. Watch this site.
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