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UN staffers in Baghdad pay final tribute to colleagues
Jordan Times, Sunday, August 31, 2003
BAGHDAD (AFP) — UN staffers, standing among the ruins of the Baghdad building where 22 people died in a car bomb attack, paid a final tribute to their lost colleagues here Saturday. "It's important that we do this here at the Canal Hotel," which housed the world body's Iraq headquarters, said spokeswoman Veronique Taveau, adding that the ceremony was being held because the bodies of the dead had now all been released.
The event was the latest in a series of funeral and memorial services held in various countries for those who died here on Aug. 19, including UN special envoy to Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello.
About 150 sombre UN employees, some wearing the world body's trademark blue caps, stood at the corner of the building blown away by the blast and listened to De Mello's interim successor, Ramiro Lopes da Silva, as well as prayers by a Muslim imam and a Christian pastor.
"I wish to assure you and the people of Iraq that the United Nations remains engaged in Iraq, in full solidarity with the Iraqi people in this moment of need," said Lopes da Silva.
He stood in front of two wreaths laid on the ground and a banner that read: "The Iraqi people refuse the criminal and terrorist attack on the UN building in Baghdad."
Sheikh Abdul Munim, from Baghdad's Ahmed Rauf Mosque, led prayers for the dead in Arabic, followed by Christian prayers, also in Arabic, apart from the Our Father said in English, read by a pastor from Baghdad's Chaldean Baladiat Church.
Most of those present were Iraqis, with just a handful of expatriate UN staff.
The number of UN staff in Baghdad has been considerably reduced since the bombing, with only about 400 Iraqis and some 120 expatriates remaining, according to spokeswoman Taveau.
"It's good to have the chance to remember the local people," said Tim Healing, a World Health Organisation worker at the ceremony. "There was a lot of publicity for Sergio de Mello, which of course was fine, but there were also a lot of ordinary workers who died."
The United Nations is operating out of prefabricated buildings inside the compound of the Canal Hotel until new premises it has acquired are ready, which is expected to take about a month.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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