STAFF UNION COMMITTEE MOURNS FALLEN IN ‘ANNUS HORRIBILIS’ 2003

NEW YORK, 8 January (UN Staff Union) -- The United Nations Staff Council Standing Committee on the Security and Independence of the International Civil Service mourns the many United Nations staff members who paid with their lives while serving the Organization in an “Annus Horribilis” marked by the horrific attack in Baghdad on 19 August.

The worst attack in United Nations history, carried out by a suicide truck bomber against the United Nations headquarters in Iraq at the Canal Hotel, killed the top United Nations envoy, as well as 21 others.  The victims were Saad Hermuz Abona, Reham Al-Farra, Raid Shaker Mustafa Al Mahdawi, Omar Kahtan Mohamed Al Orfali, Leen Assad Al Qadi, Mahmoud u Taiwi Basim, Ranilo Buenaventura, Gillian Clark, Arthur Helton, Richard Hooper, Reza Hosseini, Jean-Selim Kanaan, Christopher Klein-Beekman, Ihssan Taha Hussein, Manuel Martin, Khidir Saleem Sahir, Emaad Ahmed Salman, Alya Sousa, Martha Teas, Sergio Vieira de Mello, Fiona Watson and Nadia Younes.

More than 150 people were injured in the attack -- many receiving serious or debilitating wounds.  On 22 September, a second suicide attack against the United Nations office killed an Iraqi security guard and wounded 19 others.

These were only the most visible strikes against the United Nations in a global environment where United Nations personnel were deliberate targets and the blue flag did not offer protection anymore.  What follows is a list of some the worst incidents of 2003:

-- 16 November-– Bettina Goislard, 29, (France), an aid worker with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is murdered by gunmen on a motorcycle while travelling in a clearly marked UNHCR vehicle through the centre of Ghazni, Afghanistan.

-- 4 August --Satish Menon, 43, (India), a police officer with the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), is shot and killed in a sniper ambush while driving towards the town of Mitrovica.

-- 18 May -- The remains of two brutally murdered military observers, Major Safwat al Oran, 37, (Jordan) and Captain Siddon Davis Banda, 29, (Malawi), serving with the United Nations Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) are recovered from Mongwalu, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

-- 26 April -- A MONUC military observer is killed and another is seriously injured when their vehicle drives over a mine near Bunia, Democratic Republic ofthe Congo.

Kidnappings of United Nations staff also continued throughout the year:

-- 17 June -- Two military observers from Tunisia and Russia,serving with MONUC, are abducted in the town of Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo.  They are released on 21 June.

-- 5 June -- Four personnel from the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) are taken hostage at gunpoint by a group of unknown men while on patrol in the Kodori Gorge.  The four hostages -- two Germans, a Dane and a Georgian –- are released on 10 June, when the kidnappers, after demanding $3 million in ransom, are allowed to leave the area without being arrested.

-- 27 March -- Four Liberian employees of the World Food Programme (WFP), together with many other relief workers, are seized by unidentified combatants.  Three were released, but the fourth one, Velicious Moulton, is still missing.

“The security of United Nations personnel continues to be compromised by numerous incidents of hostage-taking, kidnapping and sexual assault”, says Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his latest report on the safety and security of humanitarian personnel (document A/58/344).  In the year covered by the report (1 July 2002-30 June 2003), more than 258 incidents of assault on United Nations and relief organization personnel were reported, as well as at least 168 incidents of harassment.

According to the Office of the United Nations Security Coordinator (UNSECOORD), 23 United Nations civilian staff members died as a result of malicious acts in 2003; 241 have died since 1992.  The Committee on the Security and Independence of the International Civil Service calls again on all governments and factions to do the utmost to protect United Nations personnel, who came to their country to carry out a humanitarian, selfless task.

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