| PHILADELPHIA - August 20 - The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), an international social justice organization, today expressed profound grief at the loss of life, the suffering, and the sorrow resulting from Tuesday’s bombing that reduced the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad to rubble. Published reports indicate at least 20 people were killed, including the UN special representative in Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, and a number of Iraqi civilians. More than 100 were reported wounded.
“This strikes a devastating blow to international efforts to relieve pain and suffering in Iraq,” states Mary Ellen McNish, AFSC general secretary. The Service Committee, along with the British Friends Service Council, won the Nobel Peace Prize for humanitarian efforts during and after World Wars I and II. “We offer our condolences to the families of those who lost their lives, to the Secretary General of the United Nations, to his staff and to the member nations of the United Nations.”
The Service Committee pledges its on-going commitment to support the UN’s mission to build the conditions for and preserve peace. We remain wholeheartedly in sympathy, we sustain our efforts to support its endeavors, and we honor those who set themselves upon the path of this commitment.
The United Nations was established over fifty years ago to uphold human dignity, peace and international security. It emerged out of the rubble of World War II when nation states pledged to unite and live in peace, and resolve their differences by peaceful means. For decades the United Nations has worked to provide an alternative to the rule of force and chaos. That alternative has provided a foundation for many organizations who work on civil society and broad humanitarian concerns around the world.
The Iraq offices endeavored to maintain an ‘open-door’ policy, sustained in part by the UN’s expressed opposition to the war.
“UN efforts can not be shrouded in a ‘bunker mentality,’ ” McNish emphasizes. “Efforts at openness, while necessarily adjusted, must not be abandoned in the face of war. Too much is at stake.”
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