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Annan appalled at journalists` deaths near Kabul
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan strongly condemned the slaying in Afghanistan of four journalists including two Reuters newsmen, a spokesman said.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan strongly condemned the slaying in Afghanistan of four journalists including two Reuters newsmen, a spokesman said.
The UN leader was ''acutely concerned about the safety and well-being'' of civilians in Afghanistan and urged all involved in the conflict in the Central Asian nation to respect international human rights and humanitarian law, spokesman Fred Eckhard said. ''He was particularly appalled by the murder yesterday of four journalists on the road between Jalalabad and Kabul and condemns this act in the strongest possible terms,'' Eckhard told reporters.
The four were killed on Monday when gunmen ambushed their convoy, bringing to seven the number of foreign correspondents killed covering the US-led war in Afghanistan.
Dead were Reuters journalists Harry Burton, an Australian television cameraman, and Azizullah Haidari, an Afghan-born photographer, both aged 33 Spanish journalist Julio Fuentes of El Mundo, and Italian journalist Maria Grazia Cutuli of Corriere Della Sera. Eckhard, speaking at the daily UN news briefing, said each of the four had direct or indirect links with the United Nations, either by covering UN events or through direct personal involvement.
Cutuli had taken leave from her work as a journalist between December 1996 and July 1997 to work as a UN volunteer, monitoring human rights in Rwanda, he said.
Haidari, Fuentes and Burton had all covered conflicts or peacekeeping operations where the United Nations was deeply involved including East Timor, the Balkans, the 1991 Gulf War and Afghanistan.
These were Pierre Billaud of Luxembourg's RTL radio, Volker Handloik, a freelance reporter working for Germany's Stern Magazine, and Johanne Sutton of Radio France International. The United Nations Correspondents Association also issued a statement condemning the journalists' killings.
Bureau Report
The UN leader was ''acutely concerned about the safety and well-being'' of civilians in Afghanistan and urged all involved in the conflict in the Central Asian nation to respect international human rights and humanitarian law, spokesman Fred Eckhard said. ''He was particularly appalled by the murder yesterday of four journalists on the road between Jalalabad and Kabul and condemns this act in the strongest possible terms,'' Eckhard told reporters.
The four were killed on Monday when gunmen ambushed their convoy, bringing to seven the number of foreign correspondents killed covering the US-led war in Afghanistan.
Dead were Reuters journalists Harry Burton, an Australian television cameraman, and Azizullah Haidari, an Afghan-born photographer, both aged 33 Spanish journalist Julio Fuentes of El Mundo, and Italian journalist Maria Grazia Cutuli of Corriere Della Sera. Eckhard, speaking at the daily UN news briefing, said each of the four had direct or indirect links with the United Nations, either by covering UN events or through direct personal involvement.
Cutuli had taken leave from her work as a journalist between December 1996 and July 1997 to work as a UN volunteer, monitoring human rights in Rwanda, he said.
Haidari, Fuentes and Burton had all covered conflicts or peacekeeping operations where the United Nations was deeply involved including East Timor, the Balkans, the 1991 Gulf War and Afghanistan.
These were Pierre Billaud of Luxembourg's RTL radio, Volker Handloik, a freelance reporter working for Germany's Stern Magazine, and Johanne Sutton of Radio France International. The United Nations Correspondents Association also issued a statement condemning the journalists' killings.
Bureau Report