UN remembers its dead

The four deaths make it the UNHCR's worst month

United Nations staff around the world have taken part in memorial services, rallies and marches to protest against attacks on unarmed humanitarian workers.

They have also been commemorating four UN colleagues killed this month in Guinea and West Timor.

We're operating in situations where the UN flag is not a guarantee of protection and, in some cases, has even become a cause for attack

Naveed Hussain, UNHCR

They were the latest in what has become the worst series of attacks in the history of the UN refugee agency, the UNHCR.

In Geneva, hundreds of UNHCR staff, led by the high commissioner herself, Sadako Ogata, marched through the city with banners declaring: "Enough is enough".

'More dangerous'

Mrs Ogata said the message was clear - that aid workers could only help refugees in difficult areas if they were alive and safe.

Sadako Ogata urged governments to remember their responsibilities

One banner carried the last email sent by Carlos Caceres, one of the aid workers killed in West Timor, sent to a friend minutes before he died.

It read: "We sit here like bait, unarmed, waiting for the wave to hit."

"We're operating in situations where the UN flag is not a guarantee of protection and, in some cases, has even become a cause for attack. This sitution cannot be allowed to continue," said Naveed Hussain, head of the UNHCR staff council.

At the UN headquarters in New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan joined about 500 staff members who stood for a minute's silence as the organisation's flag was lowered to half-mast.

He promised to improve protection for UN staff, who are calling for a special session of the UN Security Council to discuss the issue.

Mr Annan acknowledged that the UN's operations were becoming more dangerous, noting that in addition to the 15 civilians killed in the service of the UN this year, others had been kidnapped.

Difficult balance

His spokesman Fred Eckhart said that UN personnel had joined marches or commemorative activities in 29 cities around the world.

In East Timor, UN staff remember their colleagues

In West Timor, three aid workers were beaten to death two weeks ago by Indonesia militia gangs, which control many of the camps for the 100,000 or so refugees from East Timor.

Soon afterwards, gunmen in Guinea shot dead one worker and kidnapped another.

The UN is still without news of the kidnapped woman, Laurence Djeya, despite appeals by the UN for governments in the area to work for her release.

The BBC's Geneva correspondent says the attacks highlight the UN's continual dilemma of how to balance the needs of the refugees it cares for with the safety of staff.

Targets

During a remembrance service in Kosovo, UNHCR staff handed a letter to the head of the UN mission calling for improved protection.

They said that they, and other UN staff in Kosovo, had become increasingly subject to attack since the arrival of Nato-led peacekeeping troops there in June 1999.

Some 300 vehicles had been vandalised and staff residence attacked - violence which prompted a spokesperson to describe UNHCR employees there as sitting ducks.

Correspondents say that the rising number of attacks on humanitarian workers in recent years reflects the changing nature of aid, with the rise of internal rather than international conflicts.

Aid workers, once protected by their status, are now often portrayed as parties to the conflicts, making them targets.