Victims of bombing must ge justice UN

The United
Nations (UN)
yesterday
demanded
that all those arrested in
connection with last Friday’s
bomb blast at the UN Building
in Abuja should be brought to
justice in line with
international practice.
UN Resident Co-ordinator in
Nigeria Mr. Daouda Toure who
made this demand also said
the UN has not been officially
informed of the arrest of
suspects by the Federal
Government.
He said the dead from the
blast is still 23, saying the UN
family in Nigeria is continuing
its efforts to support all the
victims of the blast. He said
the 14 critically injured UN
and non-UN persons have
been evacuated to South
Africa. He insisted that there
was no discrimination
between the UN staff and
others in the evacuation.
Toure declined to mention the
names of the dead, but
maintained that they included
highly qualified staff of the
UN. He said the list would only
be made public after the
death certificates had been
received by the UN.
He said 70 to 80 per cent of
the hospitalised are officials of
the World Health Organisation
(WHO) whose office is on the
first floor of the building.
According to him, procedures
have been put in place to
facilitate travel of the injured
family members to South
Africa. A team of UN doctors,
in collaboration with the
Ministry of Health and Federal
Capital Territory (FCT) are
working with medical
personnel in the clinics and
hospitals where the injured
are being treated in Abuja.
On the arrests, Toure said:
“This is the second time I am
hearing of finding those that
were behind this attack.
Officially, let me tell you that
the UN has not been informed
about any arrest of any sort
nor identity of those that have
been arrested. Therefore, you
will understand that I cannot
comment on that question.
“The way forward is to be
informed of the arrest.
Indeed, we demand that there
should be no impunity so that
those innocent people are not
left to just die. This is
something we demand. It is
international justice. That is
what we are talking about.
But I am not yet aware of
arrests that have happened or
given names of those that
have been arrested.”
On the dead and the UN’s
future in Nigeria, Toure said:
“Their sacrifice will not be in
vain; we will strive to pursue
our work, the work for the
people of Nigeria as
prescribed in the UN Charter.
The UN will continue on its
mission to improve the lives of
poor people, to conquer
hunger, disease and illiteracy
and to encourage respect for
each other’s rights and
freedom.”
He said: “Over the past seven
days, agencies in the UN
Country Team have been
assisting the Nigerian
government in responding to
cholera outbreaks and
providing emergency supplies
to distressed families as a
result of natural or man-made
disasters.”
On the names of the victims,
he said: “We cannot provide
the names of the victims,
unless we have their death
certificates. Highly qualified
people were lost in the blast.
We cannot say now that the
list of casualties is closed. We
will continue to monitor.”
In the next one week, UN
officials will have a temporary
office in Abuja, Toure said.
Giving an insight into the
calibre of people who died in
the blast, the Representative
of UNICEF, Dr. Sumi Sukai, said:
“A person who was giving a
document to another person
that will release the vaccines
that are coming to this
country, vaccines that are life
saving for small children and
in this interaction, they were
hit by the bomb blast. I am
happy to announce that the
vaccines are on their way to
their places.
“We also had colleagues who
were working on nutrition so
that the small children in
northern part of Nigeria, who
are facing some malnutrition
because of disease, poverty in
their family or those that need
therapy.
“The other people we are
mourning work with statistics
office. The statistics of this
country to make sure that the
country has the best
information about what is
happening to children now
and what programme to do in
order to improve their
situation.
“A colleague, who is receiving
treatment in South Africa, is
with a special team called
chain management. He deals
with refrigerators and
equipment that are needed in
order to make sure that the
medicine and vaccine that
they give to children are kept
in a good condition.”
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