Funeral held for slain UN worker

By Crispin Thorold
BBC correspondent in Kabul

Ms Goislard (left) was shot in her car at point-blank range

A French United Nations worker who was shot dead in south-east Afghanistan on Sunday has been buried.

Relatives, UN staff and ministers attended the funeral of 29-year-old Bettina Goislard in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Ms Goislard was killed by motorcycle-borne gunmen while driving in her car in the town of Ghazni, where she worked for the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR.

UNHCR has withdrawn 30 staff from south-eastern Afghanistan after her killing, amid fears for their safety.

At a funeral service in the Italian embassy's chapel, Kabul's only church, family friends and colleagues paid tribute to Bettina Goislard.

They heard readings about the value of charity and service to mankind.

Relief operations suspended

Ms Goislard had been working in Ghazni for over a year and was well-known and well-liked by the locals.

The killings caused great shock in the international community in Afghanistan.

Twenty-eight aid workers, two of them foreigners, have been killed in the country since April, but this was the first murder in an urban centre.

On Monday, the United Nations refugee agency withdrew international staff from four provinces.

The suspension of operations, which will be reviewed at the beginning of December, will affect thousands of refugees.