UN staff member killed in Ghazni

A staff member of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was shot and killed in the southern Afghan city of Ghazni on Sunday. The death of the French national was the first such incident involving an international staff member of the United Nations since the fall of the Taliban two years earlier. "Shortly before 12:30 today two men on motorcycle drove by a UNHCR vehicle in Ghazni bazaar opening fire on the vehicle. One international staff member suffered fatal wounds and died on arrival at the hospital while the driver, an Afghan national, was shot in the arm. Fortunately his condition is not life threatening," David Singh, a media relations officer for the United Nations Assistant Mission in Afghanistan told IRIN in the Afghan capital, Kabul. According to a statement issued by UNHCR shortly after the attack, Bettina Goislard, a 29-year-old French national, was travelling in a clearly marked agency vehicle with two Afghan colleagues when the incident occurred. Two men on a motorcycle had approached the vehicle and began shooting with a pistol. Goislard and her driver, Abdul Salam Sadid, had both been shot, while a UNHCR field assistant, Ali Mohammad, had escaped unharmed, the statement said. "We are deeply shocked and greatly angered by the senseless murder of Bettina, who was an exemplary young colleague always actively seeking ways to help people in need," Filippo Grandi, UNHCR's Chief of Mission for Afghanistan said. "Her dedication to the Afghan people was truly, truly extraordinary. Her death is a terrible loss to her family, to us and to Afghanistan." And while both attackers have reportedly been arrested, the incident will undoubtedly enhance security concerns among aid workers working in the field in the country. The attack comes less than a week after a car bomb went off at the office of UNAMA in the southern city of Kandahar on Tuesday, injuring a 20-year old Afghan student passing by and slightly injuring a UNAMA guard. Meanwhile, all UN staff in Kandahar [in the south], Gardez [southeast],Ghazni[south] and Jalalabad [east] have been instructed to reduce staff movements and return to their guesthouses while local staff have been instructed to stay in their homes. "This is an interim measure until a proper situation review is done tomorrow," Singh explained. The media relations officer said the government was now providing armed escorts for international staff in those areas. Goislard had worked in Ghazni since June 2002, following other difficult assignments with UNHCR in Rwanda and Guinea. "This is a sad day for us in Afghanistan, where aid workers together with the government and communities have been working hard to help the country and its people, while carefully weighing the security risks," Grandi said. Following Sunday's attack, UNHCR suspended all operations in Ghazni, while in the rest of Afghanistan, agency staff were on stand-by, pending further security measures to be taken.