BAN REMEMBERS UN STAFF KILLED BY TERRORISTS IN ALGIERS ONE YEAR AGO

BAN REMEMBERS UN STAFF KILLED BY TERRORISTS IN ALGIERS ONE YEAR AGO
New York, Dec 11 2008 9:10AM
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today paid tribute to the 17 United Nations staff members killed by terrorists in Algiers last year on the first anniversary of the attack that took their lives.

"As in so many countries around the world, the UN presence possessed wonderfully varied skills and expertise," he said in a message. "Some cared for refugees; others fought disease. Still others were drivers and support staff. Whatever their unique contributions, all were motivated by the same desire – the desire that forms the very backbone of this Organization – to serve the common, greater good…

"One year after the attack, we still feel the searing pain and irreplaceable loss of the lives cut short on that day.

"Terrorists have taken these noble individuals from us. But they can never extinguish our hopes for global harmony nor our conviction that working together is the only path to a better world."

Mr. Ban also noted that just 20 minutes before the attack on the UN offices, terrorists struck the Algerian Constitutional Court, "inflicting terrible casualties there, too."

The UN staff members were killed when a car bomb destroyed the offices of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and damaged those of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Algerian capital.
Dec 11 2008 9:10AM
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