Afghanistan: UN envoy urges investigation of attack on aid workers

Following an ambush against two relief workers in Afghanistan, the senior United Nations envoy to the country, Lakhdar Brahimi, today urged the authorities to find and punish those responsible.

“We were shocked to learn of an attack on two members of the international aid community in Afghanistan,” a spokesman for Mr. Brahimi told reporters in Kabul, calling on the Government “to vigorously pursue this investigation in order to identify the perpetrators and bring them to swift justice.”

The aid workers were “brutalized and physically assaulted at gunpoint” on Friday some 20 kilometres northwest of Kabul, spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva reported. Both received medical care on Friday afternoon and were back at work yesterday.

According to the UN, four armed men driving a private vehicle forced the aid workers to stop their car and drove it to a secondary road before stealing money, equipment and documents. The attackers dispersed after another vehicle entered the scene.

Although the case is under investigation by the Afghan Police, the spokesman voiced particular concern that aid workers, “who are here at the invitation of the Afghan authorities, have been victims of such acts of violence.”

Despite the instability still prevailing in Afghanistan, its national and regional authorities “bear the responsibility for the safety and security of Afghan citizens and their guests – in this case, international aid workers,” the spokesman noted.