Antonio Guterres (©wikimedia.org)
By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Periscope
BBC - Guardian UK - Honduras - CJR - PFT
UN GATE, Nov 18 – In the United Nations from which SG Antonio Guterres has banned Inner City Press 869 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 October 31 by UN national staff in Sudan, screwed as the UN and AU close down the failed but cash cow UNAMID mission.
Now, from multiple sources, questions raised by UN staff in connection with a November 18 meeting in the UN Inner City Press is banned from. A sampling:
Can you please address the issue that while the UN has a hiring freeze, vast numbers of exceptions are being provided at all levels, but primarily in favor of senor level posts?
Will the UN financially support staff to be working from home? As we are not able to come to office (at least not 100%), we are forced to work from home. And since I do not have an office space at home, it will require more space/bigger apartment. I can not be expected to continue to sit in the kitchen and work, with a small boy running around. There are also other associate costs, like wifi, use of electricity. Basically these "operational" costs are now transferred to the staff members.
Our new manager insists on attending our unit meetings (because technically he is a member of the unit). Under these circumstances how can staff members officially meet among themselves (without management being present)? Previous managers used to recuse themselves voluntarily but this is no longer the case.
Almost 3 months ago, we were promised that something would be done about violating our privacy and modifying the SGB to prevent OIOS from seizing our personal phones etc during investigations. What has happened since then?
Phase 2 return to office is implemented vastly differently between Departments. Some departments have mandatory return, even without evidence of work being more efficiency and effectiveness gain, and continuous complains from staff of the unnecessary nature of such request from their managers. This uneven way of implementation between Departments and Units within Deparments is creating demoralization. Can this be addressed?
Could you please clarify why it is that even with the hiring freeze being in implementation there are still job openings being advertised on careers.un.org as well as Inspira.un.org ?
There is every time more pressure on staff to return to campus and return to duty stations, while the circumstances have not changed. In the beginning of the pandemic the staff union was very vocal to ensure staff’s safety and health, however this pressure towards the administration seems to have disappeared and weakened over time." Guterres is killing the UN.
The Sudan 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.
***
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