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UN chief offers condolences to victims in attacks in Afghanistan

03 April 2011 04:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Saturday offered his deep condolences to the countries whose citizens died in anti-UN attack in Afghanistan, according to a UN readout released from the office of Ban’s spokesperson, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Ban, who is visiting Kenya, spoke by telephone with the Prime Minister of Nepal Jhala Nath Khanal, and the Foreign Ministers of Norway, Sweden and Romania to express his deep condolences on the deaths of their citizens in the attack on the UN offices in Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan.

Ban thanked them for their citizens’’ sacrifice in the service of the United Nations and humanity. The thoughts of all at the United Nations were with the families of those killed and wounded in this appalling attack on those seeking to help the Afghan people,said the readout.

Ban told the leaders he had earlier spoken with Hamid Karzai,the president of Afghanistan, who has said there will be prompt investigations to bring those responsible to justice.

The Secretary-General had urged him to carry out that investigation swiftly and thoroughly.

Three international staff and four guards were killed in a deadly attack in the UN mission in north Afghanistan on Friday. The attack followed a protest against the burning of the Muslim holy book Koran by a U.S. pastor in a church in Florida, the United States.

Ban on Friday strongly condemned the attack in northern Afghanistan in which a group of demonstrators entered a United Nations compound and killed a number of UN staff.

"This was an outrageous and cowardly attack against UN staff, which cannot be justified under any circumstances and I condemn it in the strongest possible terms," Ban told journalists in Nairobi, where he is making an official visit. "I extend my condolences to those killed or wounded and their families."