UN pays tribute to fallen aid workers
The United Nations marked its first World Humanitarian Day yesterday with a tribute to relief workers who often put their lives on the line to deliver urgent aid in global hotspots.
Two Afghan civilian employees of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan were among those killed in a suicide bomb attack on a Nato convoy in Kabul on Tuesday, in a stark reminder of the accelerating toll.
Last year, a record 260 humanitarian aid workers from different agencies and charities were victims of kidnappings and attacks, including 122 who were killed, according to the United Nations.
August 19 is the anniversary of the 2003 truck bomb attack on the UN headquarters at the Canal Hotel in Baghdad.
Twenty-two people including UN envoy and human rights chief Sergio Vieira de Mello were killed there, as they sought to help Iraq rebuild after the US invasion and fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.
"The Canal Hotel bombing rocked the UN system to its core," UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in a poignant tribute to Vieira de Mello, one of her predecessors, and the "selfless, often unrewarding and sometimes dangerous" work of aid staff.
"Killing those who are trying to help others is a particularly despicable crime, and one which all governments should join forces to prevent, and -- when prevention fails -- to punish," she added in a statement to mark humanitarian day.
In the last three years, attacks have risen by 61 percent and the annual average is now almost three times higher than it was nine years ago, the UN said.
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