UNHCR chief condemns Algiers bombing; mourns dead
News Stories, 11 December 2007
GENEVA, December 11 (UNHCR) – UN High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres expressed shock and outrage Tuesday over bombings in Algiers that reportedly killed dozens of people, including two UNHCR staff members, and left several injured.
"It's a tragedy and I want to express my deepest condolences to UN staff, to their families and to the Algerian people – all of whom were victimized by this absolutely intolerable attack," Guterres said in Geneva's UN headquarters.
"I'm terribly shocked by these bombings to both the UN premises in Algiers and to the Constitutional Court. It doesn't make sense at all; it's totally abhorrent," added Guterres, who also called for a minute's silence when he opened an international meeting in Geneva on protecting refugees in migration flows.
A survey of UNHCR staff in Algiers showed that two of the agency's drivers were killed. All other employees were accounted for, but several suffered injuries and trauma from the blast that occurred in a street separating the main UN office from UNHCR's compound.
"The UN is an entity that works for world peace, an entity that tries to be an honest broker, especially when dealing with the humanitarian needs of refugees and other victims of violence and persecution," Guterres said. "This makes this type of attack even more absurd."
UNHCR has had a presence in Algeria since 1976. It presently runs a small office in Algiers, with a normal staff strength of about 12 people. It was not known how many were in the office at the time of the blast.
The refugee agency in 1985 also opened a sub-office in the western Algeria municipality of Tindouf, from which it looks after the aid and protection needs of Sahrawi refugees in four camps.
