Commemoration of the 4th anniversary of the Baghdad Bombing

19 August 2007 –At 10:30 a.m. on Friday 17 August more than 100 staff members gathered outside the main entrance of the Sergio Vieira de Mello Library, located in the Nairobi UN headquarters complex to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Baghdad bombing. The event was organized by UNIC Nairobi on behalf of the UN Office in Nairobi (UNON).

Mr. Achim Steiner, Executive Director of UNEP and Acting Director-General of UNON, read the Secretary-General's Message and also asked for a minute of silence in remembrance of our fallen colleagues. The President of the Staff Union, Mr. Michael Mwangi also made a short speech on behalf of the staff in this duty station. To conclude the event, Eric Falt, Director of UNIC Nairobi, requested that staff who had been given single stem flowers place them in the Pond of Remembrance located just off the main entrance of the Library.

Secretary General's message during the commemoration

The bombing of the Canal Hotel on 19 August 2003 remains one of the UN’s darkest days. Four years on, our hearts remain heavy.

We have lost colleagues before in the line of duty. But this was the first time the United Nations was deliberately targeted on such a massive scale. The bomb detonated at our Baghdad headquarters robbed us of our best and brightest and injured many more, but it also shattered any illusion that the UN’s ideals and impartiality permitted us to operate above the fray in Iraq. The bombers shook us to the very core, yet they could not shake our ideals: our values, our commitment, our resolve; these are all unchanged.

Today, those very ideals, that same resolve, guide our work for peace, whether in Darfur or Dili, in Beirut or Baghdad. This work is our ultimate and lasting tribute to our fallen friends. It is how we honour their memory every day, wherever a blue flag flies.

The Security Council’s recent decision to renew and strengthen UNAMI’s mandate is an opportunity to carry forward the work of Sergio Viera de Mello and his colleagues. Yet I understand the fears and concerns some staff may have about any expansion. That is why I affirm to you today that any such measure remains strictly subject to conditions on the ground – your safety is and always will be a paramount concern. At the same time, the terrorists who struck so cruelly in Baghdad must, one day, be brought to justice. There can be no impunity for such murderers.

On this sombre anniversary, my thoughts go out to the survivors of the Baghdad bombing, and to the families of those who died. And I pay tribute to the brave men and women who continue to serve the United Nations, in Iraq and beyond.

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