By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell Book
BBC-Guardian UK - Honduras - ESPN NY Mag
UN GATE, May 24 – The United Nations has hit a new low, after its now-gone human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet withheld her report on Xinjiang until the very hour she left, after whitewashing China's genocide against the Uighurs for her whole term.
To replace Bachelet, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres tapped his crony, Volker Turk formerly of UNHCR then a Guterres promoter. (Inner City Press back on July 2 predicted this pro-China move, here).
On May 24, 2023 Turk gave a speech asking for corporate donations to his Office - or, if he is like his Boss Guterres, to himself - by giving examples of what he'd do with it. The words "Uighur" or "Xinjiang" were of course nowhere in the pitch. The lone mention of China was about "civic space;" more space was devoted to the US. And Qatar? Like Cameroon and Haiti, not mentioned. The crony doesn't fall far from the tree.
In November 2022, Volker Turk was entirely silence on Qatar and human rights, including the 7000 migrant workers they killed building stadia for the FIFA World Cup. Some human rights commissioner.
This comes after Qatar welcomed Volker Turk's appointment (photo here), and paid for a large room at the UN in Geneva.
Qatar already bought Antonio Guterres in New York, where its state media Al Jazeera - now with its UN correspondents and alumni singing for the supper defending the corrupt World Cup - worked with Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric to get Inner City Press thrown out, here
On human rights, Inner City Press previously asked Volker Turk about the slaughter in Cameroon of Anglophones by the army of Paul Biya - and he'd never heard of it. Story here.
When Inner City Press published video (here) of Turk's answers about Gramsci, Inner City Press was then blocked from the UN's web site. So he is a cover up man and a censor. Anyone who had put up with Guterres reign of censorship and corruption has no human rights credibility or chops.
As to Bachelet, at the end, in a press conference dominated by scripted questions from Chinese state media in response to which she read from prepared notes, she said she was unable to access what is happening in Xinjiang.
On June 13, Bachelet having served China said she was now leaving. And Guterres praised her: "She has moved the needle in an extremely challenging political context." Yes - she moved his UN's needle even more pro-China. And did nothing about Guterres' ban on Press. Defund the UN.
Some say they are surprised by this outcome. But a fish rots from the head. The head of the UN system is Antonio Guterres, and the reasons for his silence on China's abuses is more sinister.
Before being selected - by China, which like Russia could have vetoed him - Guterres took money from the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon. The China Energy Fund Committee, whose Patrick Ho was convicted of UN bribery involving UN President of the General Assembly, offered top dollar for Gulbenkian's oil company.
Guterres omitted the money he took from Gulbenkian from his financial disclosure form.
And after Inner City Press, which had aggressively reported on Guterres' predecessor Ban Ki-moon from inside the UN, asked about it, Guterres had Inner City Press roughed up and banned from the UN ever since. Very Xi.
In the run up to Bachelet's trip, Inner City Press put written questions repeatedly to Guterres' spokesman Stephane Dujarric, who daily takes three of more questions in his noon briefing from Chinese state media. But to Inner City Press, no answer.
Likewise, when pro bono law firm Quinn Emanuel wrote to Guterres' head of media accreditation Melissa Fleming asking for Inner City Press to be allowed to re-enter the UN and ask its questions, she refused to response, as did the supposed UN Correspondents Association, on whose Executive Committee China has a permanent seat.
So how is it surprising the the UN covers up for China?
But where if the US Administration and US Mission to the UN under Linda Thomas-Greenfield on this? They praise the UN and their work there, amid all the failures and censorship.
There is no accountability mechanism for today's UN. Defund and decamp. Watch this site - and this book by Inner City Press, "Belt and Roadkill." (Also, Genocide Games of Guterres)
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