News

Southern Cameroons War: French Cameroun human rights record spiralling out of control

22, August 2018

Southern Cameroons War: French Cameroun human rights record spiralling out of control 0

French Cameroun continues detention of more than three thousand Southern Cameroons citizens and its vicious military campaign currently going on deep within the Ambazonia territory not only shows that Biya’s human rights record as painted by the corrupt UN African structure are just a sham but also that the Biya Francophone regime are almost out of control. French Cameroun under the 85 year old dictator reportedly has the worst human rights record in Africa and the Yaoundé government is playing a game with the European Union and the United States including Canada saying they are working to improve via the so-called National Commission on Human Rights and Freedoms.

The war declared by the ailing Francophone head of state has demonstrated that French Cameroun human rights record, it’s just more of the same and even worse. The French Cameroun army particularly members of the Rapid Intervention Battalion (BIR) are executing women and children in Southern Cameroons towns and villages, which is condemned by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch,  the International Crisis Group and other organizations.

The Acting President of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia, Sisiku Ayuk Tabe and 46 senior aides of his government have been behind bars with no legal representation ever since they were extradited from the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Cameroon Concord News gathered that Francophone public prosecutors with strong ties to the Biya Francophone regime are calling for the death penalty for all Southern Cameroons detainees.

Yaounde has secretly executed several Anglophone human rights activists for supporting separation with French Cameroun. A majority of the Southern Cameroons human rights leaders arrested recently, came on French Cameroun government radars during the teachers and lawyers protests that demanded an end to discrimination against English speaking Cameroonians.

The French Cameroun government has arrested hundreds of Ambazonian women and children and many more have escaped into the bushes as the regime intensifies its crackdown against the people of Southern Cameroons. The United Nations said in a report that some 161, 000 Southern Cameroonians have been internally displaced by the war and that some 50,000 have fled to neighboring Nigeria.

French Cameroun security officials have also intensified security measures in the Southern Zone of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia including the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsular.  The Ambazonian Interim Government under the leadership of Dr. Ikome Sako says it won’t back down on its fight for an independent state for Southern Cameroons.

The French government of President Emmanuel Macron is supporting the Francophone regime in Yaoundé and both sides have been spending billions of Franc CFA on the military in an attempt to crush the Anglophone uprising. They have destroyed Southern Cameroons infrastructures and they are killing hundreds of Southern Cameroons young men and women with little or no strong condemnation from the international community.

By Chi Prudence Asong


EU officially rules out deal on Brexit by October

21, August 2018

EU officially rules out deal on Brexit by October 0

European Union chief negotiator for Brexit Michel Barnier has officially ruled out the possibility that the bloc and the United Kingdom could reach a deal on Brexit during an October summit.

Barneir said after a meeting with Britain’s Brexit minister Dominic Raab on Tuesday that a deal on how the UK will leave the EU would not be completed by the European Council summit in October as previously hoped.

“I’m not going to say October, a few days here, the beginning of November, but not much later than that,” said Barnier during a press conference with Raab in Brussels.

The French diplomat, who has been tough with Britain on the country’s recent proposals for Brexit, said there will be works to do on key issues like the Irish border while the two sides will need time to prepare a political declaration on the future relationship.

Raab was still hopeful a deal would come through during the EU summit although he admitted there remained differences on key issues.

“If we have that ambition, that pragmatism and that energy on both sides, I’m confident we can reach that agreement by October,” said Raab after the meeting with Barnier, adding, “There are still gaps, we’ve had an honest conversation about those.”

The uncertainty about Brexit deepened in July when Barnier rejected key proposals from a plan submitted by British Prime Minister Theresa May earlier that month. May’s so-called white paper also sparked domestic controversies and caused two senior ministers in her cabinet, including Raab’s predecessor David Davis, to resign.

Fears have grown among the public that Britain could face serious shortage of foods and other basic items in case it fails to reach a withdrawal agreement with the EU.

May has said that there are still chances to avoid a no-deal Brexit but she insists that Britain would not accept a bad deal.

Culled from Presstv


Battle For Southern Cameroons: Traditional rulers Flee Violence in Southern Zone

21, August 2018

Battle For Southern Cameroons: Traditional rulers Flee Violence in Southern Zone 0

Dozens of Cameroon’s tribal rulers have fled their palaces in the English-speaking southwest region after armed men pulled the chief of the Balondo people out of church and killed him. Separatists have abducted and killed other chiefs in the region, allegedly for collaborating with the government.

At the Catholic church in Buea, southwestern Cameroon, people gathered to pray on Sunday afternoon for the late chief Stephen Itoh Esoh.

A week ago, gunmen pulled the supreme chief of the Balondo people out of the Baptist church in Ekondo Titi village and shot him dead.

Among those praying was Peter Njumbe, a Cameroon lawmaker. He said if the chief had listened to them, he might still be alive.

The chief refused to run away from Ekondo Titi, said Njumbe. He would not abdicate from his throne because of death threats. He would only abdicate if his own people told him they no longer wanted him and that he should leave the throne, says Njumbe. The chief would not abdicate his responsibilities, he added.

Funeral service for the chief of the Ballong people in Ballong, southwestern Cameroon, March 8, 2018. (M Edwin Kindzeka/VOA)
Funeral service for the chief of the Ballong people in Ballong, southwestern Cameroon, March 8, 2018. (M Edwin Kindzeka/VOA)

 

Strikes and violence erupted in the English-speaking northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon in late 2016, in response to the forced use of French in schools, courts and other public institutions. A separatist movement is pushing for independence under the name Ambazonia.

Chief Itoh is the eighth traditional ruler killed by armed men in the southwest region within the past four months.

Since July, the separatists have abducted seven other chiefs in the southwest and three in the northwest they accused of collaborating with the government. They circulated videos on social media of the chiefs pledging their allegiance to armed separatists, presumably under duress.

One of the abducted chiefs was later found dead, provoking widespread condemnation, while the others were released.

Many traditional rulers have fled the English-speaking regions to avoid becoming targets, according to the government.

Chief Joseph Ebong of Atati village escaped to Nigeria after being threatened with violence. Speaking by phone, he said he will only return to Cameroon when peace returns to English-speaking areas.

“We are appealing to both the national and international community to turn their eye on Cameroon and try to see how they can solve this problem before we shrink into a full-fledged, full-scale war,” Ebong said.

Traditional rulers say Cameroon’s military offers them little protection.

The governor of the southwest region of Cameroon, Bernard Okalia Bilai, is calling on the chiefs to return. He says the military has been deployed to defend the people, including the chiefs.

“They should come back to their homes. The forces of law and order are there to protect them against all acts of terrorism,” Bilai said. “The traditional rulers, we invite them to come back.”

Chiefs from the southwest region meet in Yaounde, Cameroon, Aug. 11, 2018. (M Edwin Kindzeka/VOA)
Chiefs from the southwest region meet in Yaounde, Cameroon, Aug. 11, 2018. (M Edwin Kindzeka/VOA)

 

The attacks on the tribal chiefs have generated widespread criticism of the separatists in Cameroon.

Ebenezer Teba is a member of the elite in the southwestern town of Lebialem. He says the assaults on traditional rulers — custodians of ancestral traditions are unacceptable.

“It is an atrocity that has reached its apex,” Teba said. “Of course, those who are attacking are known. They are those claiming to be fighting for the independence of southern Cameroons. They are attacking traditional rulers because they feel these traditional rulers are giving information to government troops to enable government troops to attack them. So they want all traditional rulers, they are forcing all traditional rulers, to support their course.”

Sociologist Bernard Arrey, however, blames the chiefs. He says they are getting involved in politics and taking sides against the wishes of their people.

“Chiefs are meddling into politics,” Arrey said. “It is not strange to see chiefs treated like common citizens. Chiefs have lost control of their population, they have lost control of their dignity. Most of them are even victims of these fighters because they think that the chiefs are some sort a liaison, they relay information. They are some sort of a sell-out to the government forces.”

The armed separatists have never denied responsibility for the abductions and killings. They have instead issued warnings on social media against any chief collaborating with the government.

Cameroon’s government says it is counting on the chiefs to help end the fighting in the English-speaking region.

The government says hundreds of people, including more than a hundred policemen and troops, have died in violent clashes since January.

Source: VOA


Southern Cameroons War: “Enemies of Ambazonia have faced defeat in Eyumojock and Akwaya”

21, August 2018

Southern Cameroons War: “Enemies of Ambazonia have faced defeat in Eyumojock and Akwaya” 0

A local leader of the Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces charged with the liberation of the Manyu County has highlighted the failure of the Biya Francophone regime and its allies deep within the Buhari administration in the Federal Republic of Nigeria in their push to regain control of the strategic border town of Ekok, observing that the enemies of the Ambazonian people have faced defeat in Eyumojock and Akwaya sub constituencies.

The captain of the Manyu Odeshi Warriors made the remarks on Saturday in a statement issued on the state of the fighting raging in the hinterlands of the Manyu County particularly in the Etoko-Kendem border and in the Ekok- Otu corridor.  The Ambazonian freedom fighter also pointed out that the Southern Cameroons border with Nigeria has turned into a field of defeats for Ambazonian enemies adding, “We ask the Almighty God to take revenge on Biya and Buhari and their acolytes for their crimes and treachery against the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and its powerful Interim Government.”

Cameroon Intelligence Report understands the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime and the Muhammadu Buhari Fulani crime syndicate in Abuja are two regimes that excelled each other in hypocrisy and treachery in order to prove their complaisance to the French government headed by Emmanuel Macron.

The Ambazonia Restoration Force has been defending Southern Cameroons women and children including the Ambazonian nation against a France-French Cameroun-led coalition of invaders.

The coalition, which features several soldiers from France and the Republic of Chad, began the campaign last year, killing more than two thousand Southern Cameroonians. Military planes donated by the United States government to combat the Nigerian Islamic sect, Boko Haram now provides aerial intelligence to the French Cameroun army, while helping out the invading forces.

By Rita Akana in Ekok


Orphanage Pleads For More Support From Bisong Foundation

21, August 2018

Orphanage Pleads For More Support From Bisong Foundation 0

Though visibly grateful for another day of donations from Bisong Foundation, Thursday, August 16, 2018, the Orphelinat Le Bon Samaritain (Good Samaritan Orphanage) in Babete is, like Oliver Twist, asking for more.

After giving thanks for the donation of a washing machine and a flat screen TV set, and the usual donation of school needs towards the start of the school year, the director of the orphanage, situated near Mbouda in the West Region of Cameroon, Mrs Fomekong Tikun Jeanne Sylvie, presented demands for more needs to the foundation which is registered in the United Kingdom as a charity.

“Despite the efforts made to support these children, to provide them with recreational facilities,it remains challenging for us to attain our desired goals,” said Tikun. She therefore pleaded for help in acquiring the following: “A befitting playground and provisions to replace worn out or damaged equipment (beds, mattresses, blankets, water heaters and drying lines.”

(TO HELP BISONG FOUNDATION – A UK CHARITY – IN SUPPORTING THESE ORPHANS AND OTHERS, CONTACT THEM AT: +44 (0) 7956057504 / +44 (0) 7585112424 OR email@bisongfoundation.org.uk)

Presenting the orphanage, Tikun said it was created in 2006 by reverend sisters of the St. Benedict Monastery in Babete who hatched the idea after two newborns were brought to their care within weeks towards the end of 2005. She said the orphanage admits destitute children from ages0-6 years.

In her balance sheet, she saidover the years, 16 children from the orphanage have been fully rehabilitated and have reintegrated their natural families. She praised Bisong Foundation for its help which she said has boosted the morale of the orphans and bolstered them to obtain good results in school.

“Out of the 18 orphans going to school, 15 obtained promotion to the next class, two of them successful in the primary school certificate examination,” she said.

Acknowledging praise by the director of the orphanage, the founding president of the foundation, Bisong Michael said his foundation is also supporting seven other orphanages across three regions of Cameroon. He acknowledged the presence at the ceremony of his friend, Dr Bola Stephan, a Cameroonian also visiting from the UK, whom he said is a benefactor of the Bisong Foundation. He said Bola often mobilises friends and well-wishers to support the foundation’s activities in the UK.

Visibly overflowing with joy at what he saw, Bola said he will report back to those he called his group in the UK. He said, though he would not make any concrete promises, he trustshis “group” will make a significant contribution.

Bisong also welcomed the presence of Joseph Kamga, a former Indomitable Lion and former captain of Union Douala who travelled all the way from Douala for the purpose. Speaking in turn, Kamga said in reference to the founding president and the co-founder of Bisong Foundation: “What gives a man reputation is the works of his good heart.”

Promising his own contribution to the efforts of the foundation, Kamga said if things go as planned, a host of former Indomitable Lions including Joseph Antoine Bell and Roger Milla would accompany Bisong Foundation to the orphanage next year.

Mrs Bisong Hortence Manto launched the presentation of donation items to the kids which included school fees and school needs for all 18 children, health and hygiene needs, foodstuff, toys and snacks.

The Social Affairs delegate, Mrs Ngoupeyou Yomba Solange who personally brought an abandoned newborn baby, now two months old, to the orphanage said the minister of Social Affairs attaches much importance to the kind of support Bisong Foundation was offering the orphanage because such children are often neglected. “Through me, the minister of Social Affairs says ‘thank you’ to Bisong Foundation,” she said.

Bisong Foundation will in the days ahead make a donation to internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Manyemen, Mr Bisong’s village of origin.

The Babete orphanage donation ceremony was preceded by a mass at the local parish. The officiating priest said God rewards those who share with the needy. In a football match with staff of the Babete Monastery, Bisong Foundation won 2-1.

Part two of Bisong Foundation activities in Cameroon this year was at Bamesso, also near Mbouda, native home of Mrs Bisong. For the second year running, the foundation awarded trophies and medals to laureates of the village annual football and handball tournaments after the finals on Saturday, August 18,2018.

Some of the trophies and medals were presented by the minister of Public Works, Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi, an elite of the village and honorary president of the village development association known in French as Comité de Développement de Bamesso (COMDESSO). At the end of the ceremony, the minister saluted Bisong Foundation’s contributions towards development and in alleviating the plight of the underprivileged.

In an exhibition footballmatch earlier that day, Bisong Foundation played a 1-1 draw with the Veterans of Mbouda who opened scores in the first half through their No. 10 player, Awanang Maximilien, alias Musa. Bisong Foundation’s equalizer came in the second half also through their No. 10 player, 16-year-old George Ngonde alias Leonel Messi who is a semi-professional player with a club in Kumba in the South West Region of Cameroon.

By Franklin Sone Bayen


Spanish police treat knife assault near Barcelona as ‘terrorist attack’

21, August 2018

Spanish police treat knife assault near Barcelona as ‘terrorist attack’ 0

A police officer shot dead a man armed with a knife as he tried to attack a police station in the northern Spanish region of Catalonia on Monday, in what authorities are treating as a “terrorist attack”. Police said the man invoked the name of Allah during the assault, which came just days after the first anniversary of a twin attack in Catalonia that killed 16 people.

The man arrived at the closed police station in the town of Cornella de Llobregat near Barcelona at 5:45 am (0345 GMT) and repeatedly pressed the buzzer to be let in, Rafel Comes, a commissioner with the Catalan regional police, told a news conference.

After police allowed him in, the man pulled out a “large knife” and lunged at officers in “a clearly premeditated desire to kill an agent of our force,” Comes said. “The officer used her gun to save her own life,” Comes said, adding the man shouted “Allah” as well as words the police officers did not understand.

“These are enough indication to treat the events being investigated as a terrorist attack.” Anti-terrorism police sources had earlier told AFP the man was a 29-year-old Algerian, but Comes said police still needed to confirm that the Algerian identity papers he carried with him were in fact his.

The police station in Cornella de Llobregat, a working-class town of around 86,000 people, was quickly cordoned off after the attack and the attacker’s body removed, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

‘It was strange’

Police explosives experts searched the man’s flat, which was located just a few hundred metres (yards) from the site of the attack.

Resident Conchi Garcia, a 50-year-old office worker, said the man came to the neighbourhood two years ago, when he moved in with a woman and her two daughters who had always lived in the area. “It was strange that the woman started wearing the veil shortly after he arrived,” Garcia told AFP.

Security has been reinforced at police stations across Catalonia. The incident occurred just days after the one-year anniversary of a deadly jihadist rampage in Catalonia. Sixteen people were killed on August 17 and 18, 2017 when a van drove into crowds on Barcelona’s popular Las Ramblas boulevard and in a knife attack in the nearby resort of Cambrils.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attacks, Spain’s worst since the Madrid train bombings in 2004 when 191 people died and more than 1,800 were injured. Spain has kept its terrorist alert at the second-highest level since 2015.

‘Centre of jihadist activity’

Catalonia, which is home to a significant number of second-generation North African immigrants, has had a long history of Islamic militant activity. Spain’s first Muslim extremist — a member of the Algerian Armed Islamic Group (GIA) — was uncovered in Catalonia in 1995.

Mohammed Atta, the pilot who slammed a passenger plane into one of New York’s World Trade Center towers on September 11, 2001, spent time in Catalonia shortly before the attacks. And in 2008, police foiled a plot targeting Barcelona’s underground trains.

One in four people detained in Spain in relation to extremist Muslim-linked terrorism come from the Catalan province of Barcelona, according to a study published last year by the Real Instituto Elcano, a Spanish think-tank, which called the province the country’s “main centre of jihadist activity”.

The Islamic State group has frequently called on their followers to attack soldiers and police in neighbouring France.

(AFP)


Italy lets migrant ship dock, but fate of passengers unclear

21, August 2018

Italy lets migrant ship dock, but fate of passengers unclear 0

Italy will let its coastguard ship carrying 177 migrants it rescued five days ago dock in Sicily, ending a standoff with Malta, its transport minister said on Monday, though it was not clear when and if the migrants would be allowed to disembark.

The European Commission also said it was working on a solution to share out the migrants aboard the Diciotti with Italy’s EU partners after a request from Italy the previous day. “The Diciotti ship will dock in Catania,” Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli said on Twitter without specifying when. “Now Europe must hurry to do its part.”

But shortly afterwards, Interior Ministry sources said Interior Minister Matteo Salvini had not yet given authorisation for the ship to dock. He was awaiting guarantees that the migrants would go elsewhere. The sources said they would not disembark before then.

Since taking office in June, Salvini and Toninelli have toughened the stance on allowing ships to dock in Italian ports at a time of rising anti-immigration sentiment in Italy. The Diciotti picked up 190 migrants on Wednesday from an overcrowded boat on the high seas.

The coastguard quickly evacuated 13 of them to Italy for emergency medical treatment, but instead of bringing the rest to shore, the Diciotti stayed in international waters while Rome insisted that Malta should take them since the migrant boat had first passed through its search-and-rescue area. But Malta said the migrants had refused its aid because they wanted to reach Italy.

On Sunday, Toninelli said the small island nation should be sanctioned for not performing the rescue.

After more than 650,000 arrivals on Italian shores since 2014, Salvini has repeatedly said the country “will no longer be Europe’s refugee camp”, calling on EU partners to share the burden of the arrivals.

Flows across the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy – one of the main routes to Europe – have tapered off as Libyan factions cracked down on people smugglers, and as the EU bolstered its support for the Libyan coast guard.

But people are still dying at sea and summer is peak season for migrants attempting the crossing, often in packed, unseaworthy boats. Brussels said it was in talks with EU states on which of them would take the Diciotti people in, but it declined comment to say which capitals were involved and when help might be on offer.

(REUTERS)


South Africa inquiry opens into alleged graft under Zuma

20, August 2018

South Africa inquiry opens into alleged graft under Zuma 0

A public inquiry has opened in South Africa, probing alleged corruption under scandal-tainted former president, Jacob Zuma, who is accused of overseeing widespread graft during his nine-year reign.

The inquiry, which could take two years to deliver its findings, is set to hear evidence of allegations that Zuma let ministries and government agencies be plundered for private gain in a scandal known as “state capture.”

Much of the probe is expected to focus on Zuma’s relationship with the Guptas, a wealthy Indian family accused of wielding undue political influence.

An earlier report by a watchdog detailed allegations that Zuma ensured the Gupta family won preferential contracts with state companies, including huge mining deals, and were even able to choose cabinet ministers.

Zuma himself appointed the inquiry in January on the orders of a high court, weeks before he was forced to resign from office as criticism grew from within the ruling ANC party.

Zuma’s alleged involvement in multiple graft scandals damaged the party’s image ahead of elections next year.

His successor President Cyril Ramaphosa has vowed to tackle corruption.

The inquiry will in part establish whether official appointments were “disclosed to the Gupta family or any other unauthorized person before such appointments were formally made,” said inquiry head Raymond Zondo, the country’s deputy chief justice.

South Africa’s Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, head of an investigation commission into corruption allegations at the highest levels of the state, holds a press conference on January 23, 2018 in Midrand. (Photo by AFP)

 

Although the inquiry does not have powers to arrest or prosecute, it can refer matters for possible criminal investigation.

“At the heart of the investigation is whether outsiders influenced government or state-owned enterprises for selfish gain,” said the commission’s lead lawyer Paul Pretorius on the inquiry’s opening day.

State funds looted

Pravin Gordhan, a former finance minister now responsible for state companies, has estimated that around 100 billion rand ($6.8 billion) of state funds may have been looted through corrupt awarding of government tenders.

Gordhan is among those expected to give evidence, along with his former deputy Mcebisi Jonas.

Jonas has alleged he was taken by Zuma to the Guptas’ home in Johannesburg, where Ajay Gupta said he would be appointed finance minister.

When Jonas refused, Ajay allegedly offered him 600 million rand and asked if Jonas had a bag to take away 600,000 rand in cash immediately.

Pretorius said the commission would probe whether Zuma violated the constitution “by facilitating the unlawful awarding of tenders of state-owned enterprises.”

Zondo vowed a thorough investigation and called for members of the public to submit their own evidence, but he expressed disappointment at the lack of cooperation from government officials.

The local Sunday Times said Zuma has been invited to appear, but the commission’s spokesman declined to comment.

Zuma and the Guptas deny any wrongdoing.

“I hope that the inquiry gets to the bottom of how the South African state was captured in the way it was and what can be done to prevent this from happening again,” David Lewis, executive director of South Africa’s non-profit organization Corruption Watch, told AFP.

Zuma, 76, was forced to resign in February when ANC lawmakers turned against him.

The former president also has been charged with 16 counts of graft linked to an arms deal from before he became president.

(Source: AFP)


Bullets that killed Southern Cameroons women and children supplied by France

20, August 2018

Bullets that killed Southern Cameroons women and children supplied by France 0

Intelligence services of the Interim Government of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia have confirmed that bullets and guns used by the French Cameroun army in its genocidal campaign in Southern Cameroons that has claimed the lives of some 2000 people had been supplied by France. The Ambazonian security agents briefed Acting President Samuel Ikome Sako late on Sunday the 19th of August 2018 in the US.

Cameroon Intelligence Report gathered that the Ambazonian leader was provided details including the numbers on the weapon confiscated by restoration forces. Acting President Sako is expected to hold his first international press conference today in Washington DC.  The Francophone dominated army has continued its onslaught in Southern Cameroons sparking outrage from international human rights groups and UN officials.

Late last week, Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces hinted our chief intelligence officer in Buea that guns and bullets recovered from the Cameroon government army showed that it was likely manufactured in France. Yaoundé has demonstrated to the international community that its military action in Southern Cameroons is legitimate.

The French government of President Emmanuel Macron has pushed the world to turn a blind eye on the atrocities being committed by French Cameroun soldiers in Southern Cameroons.  Recent comments by the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji have highlighted the issue of French complicity in the deaths of thousands of Southern Cameroonians.

Recently, hundreds of Ambazonians in Canada took to the streets to condemn the killings and economic hardship caused by the Biya regime war in Southern Cameroons. The French Cameroun army and its CEMAC allies launched a brutal war against Southern Cameroons last year in an attempt to crush the Anglophone uprising.

The Biya Francophone government military offensive initially consisted of helicopter gun-firing campaign, but was later coupled with the deployment of ground forces. The war, however, has so far failed to achieve its goals, thanks to stiff resistance from Southern Cameroons Restoration Forces.

By Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai


Antonio Guterres bans journalist from the UN for his reporting on the genocide in Southern Cameroons

19, August 2018

Antonio Guterres bans journalist from the UN for his reporting on the genocide in Southern Cameroons 0

Matthew Lee is a man of single-minded focus. For years, it served him well as an independent journalist covering the United Nations. But for the last several weeks, he’s been banned from UN Headquarters for, according to the UN, going beyond the pale of acceptable behavior for a reporter.

The United Nations on Friday provided Lee with a letter informing him that the ban would be made permanent. The letter, signed by Alison Smale, UN Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, said 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 has been withdrawn.

“This is censorship pure and simply by [UN Secretary-General] Antonio Guterres who doesn’t like my questions on corruption and Cameroon,” Lee wrote in an email to BuzzFeed News shortly after receiving the letter.

Lee has long taken a different approach to covering the UN than many of his fellow journalists. Last week, many were lauding former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet’s unanimous approval as the new UN high commissioner for human rights. “At UN Guterres Holds Press-less Press Encounter About Bachelet and Human Rights After Sold Out Cameroon,” read the headline on Inner City Press, the website where Lee publishes his reporting.

He’s been covering the United Nations since 2005, and for years was a constant presence in the room where the organization’s spokesperson would brief the press daily. The questions Lee would ask were often esoteric, focusing on issues that were off the news cycle or flying under the radar. The stories he posts are unedited and often extremely discursive, and are generally focused on the nitty-gritty of the way the UN is run, highlighting possible corruption or other alleged malpractice inside the organization.

Lee has constantly tried to push the boundaries of access at the UN, arguing that the business of the UN should be as transparent as possible. That was the case on July 3, when two UN security officers removed Lee from the building. “I said, ‘I’m a journalist what are you doing, I have every right to be here,’ and they said ‘no no no, no you don’t,’” Lee told BuzzFeed News in a phone interview late last month. “So I feel like something is very wrong. Either they knew I had the absolute right to be there and they just didn’t give a damn, or there’s something totally wrong with the UN where they aren’t told what the rules are.”

UN Webcast

While Lee was being evicted and escorted off the premises — he livestreamed the end of the encounter on Periscope — his shirt was ripped.

He’s since written several pieces for Inner City Press calling out one of the officers by name, and alleging that he’d been singled out for his reporting on the way the security force operates.

“It was like they saw an opportunity,” he said. He also described the incident as his being “targeted by rogue security.”

Since then, he’s been banned from setting foot in UN Headquarters.

It was the latest in a long line of confrontations and clashes between Lee and the UN’s staffers.

In 2016, Lee was found in a booth in the press briefing room as members of the UN Correspondents Association (UNCA), of which Lee is not a member, were meeting. That incident saw Lee escorted from the building and told he’d lose access to his (notoriously messy) office in the section of the UN reserved for the media.

He’s been what’s called a “nonresident” journalist ever since. That means that unlike the permanent members of the UN press corps, Lee had to sign in and pass through security every day, and, also, leave the building after working hours are done. It was the latter condition that got him in trouble, according to the UN.

The night he was removed from the building, he was spotted outside a meeting after hours, waiting for an open budget meeting to conclude, he says. Farhan Haq, a spokesperson for the UN, told BuzzFeed News the meeting was closed and not open to the public or press. He said and that Lee also attempted to access another off-limits area that evening.

Lee says, however, that his removal was an attempt to keep the workings of the UN from scrutiny.

“On two recent occasions, Mr. Lee violated [the UN’s] Media Guidelines by attempting to access United Nations premises beyond the scope of his non-resident correspondent status and by confrontations with United Nations Security and Safety officials,” a letter from Smale to the Global Accountability Project provided to BuzzFeed News during Lee’s initial suspension read. “While you have characterized these confrontations as being unprovoked, the relevant facts do not support that characterization,” the letter continued.

Smale has been a frequent target of Lee’s vitriol since his ban first kicked off, as have Haq, Stéphane Dujarric, the spokesperson for Guterres, and Guterres himself.

In an attempt to get back into the building, Lee, who is also a lawyer, filed a complaintwith Guterres that asserts that Smale and Dujarric “engaged in prohibited conduct, including harassment and abuse [sic] authority towards me.” He also urged Smale to recuse herself from the investigation.

The UN’s Department of Public Information and Department of Safety and Security, which led the review, “have been reviewing a number of incidents [related to Lee] over the past two years,” Haq said earlier this month.

It’s “ridiculous that there’s been any efforts to curtail his access,” Haq said. “There’s been times where he’s just declined to understand that doesn’t mean unlimited access.”

While awaiting the final decision, Lee parked at a bus stop on First Avenue, across from the Delegate’s Entrance of the UN, using passing busses for their Wi-Fi. He’s also been working to get his story out, posting nonstop and Periscoping from outside the building in a sort of rolling live shot that he later uploads to YouTube. Last week, he shouted questions at the French mission’s political coordinator about the plight of refugees from Burundi. He was ignored.

Some of Lee’s Periscope videos are less structured than others. In a late-night shot, taken outside Guterres’s residence in early August, he flat-out accused Dujarric of ordering that Lee be “beaten” by the security officers. He has provided no evidence to prove this charge.

In the same video, Lee calls the Department of Public Information “sleazy” and refers to Guterres as “disgusting.” In recent tweets, focused on Cameroon’s lobbying of the UN, he’s added Guterres to the list of people responsible for ordering his ouster. Haq firmly denied that the matter reached up to the Secretary-General’s level.

Culled from BuzzFeedNews



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