Security Council condemns murder of UN aid worker in Afghanistan

Members of the United Nations Security Council today condemned the murder over the weekend of a UN aid worker in Afghanistan.

The Council's President for this month, Ambassador Ismael Abraão Gaspar Martins of Angola, told reporters in New York that Council members hoped the Afghan authorities would find and bring to justice Bettina Goislard's killers.

Ms. Goislard, a 29-year-old French national, had been working for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Afghanistan. She was travelling in a clearly marked vehicle in the city of Ghazni when gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire and killed her.

"The murder was a cowardly act by those who wish to undermine the efforts by the international community to assist the Afghan people in creating a peaceful and suitable and stable Afghanistan," the Council said in a press statement.

Mr. Martins also told reporters that the Council was close to consensus on an approved form of words for a resolution on the Middle East Road Map.

He said consultations on the Middle East had been progressing "quite well," and that he was confident that the text proposed by the Russian Federation would be adopted before the end of this week.