UN Chronicle.

The United Nations has lived through a senseless attack that in one instant, on 19 August, took the lives of 19 UN staff members, killed another 3 persons and injured scores more. They were all in Iraq to help its people regain their sovereignty, their independence and their dignity, as well as to provide immediate humanitarian aid to ease the worst aspects of the war's aftermath.

One of those killed was the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Iraq, Sergio Vieira de Mello, who had worked tirelessly in a difficult assignment to help Iraq return to a normal life among nations. It was not the first time Mr. Vieira de Mello and his colleagues had found themselves on a difficult mission: one was in East Timor, now known as Timor-Leste. Its President, Xanana Gusmao, whose country only recently achieved independence with the help of the United Nations, said of Sergio: "Our nation mourns the death of a unique and unforgettable friend. He fought tirelessly for democracy, human rights and sustainable justice for the people of East Timor." He would have continued to do the same for the people of Iraq.

Silent observances and candlelight vigils were organized in memory of family, colleagues and friends who lost their lives or were injured in the terrorist attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad. In New York on 26 August, Secretary-General Kofi Annan joined hundreds of marchers at a service at the Secretariat circle at UN Headquarters to honour them. Members of a number of permanent missions also joined in. In Geneva, hundreds marched from the Pregny Gate to Place des Nations and back. Similar scenes played out at UN offices around the world.

The attack was "a direct challenge to the vision of global solidarity and collective security rooted in the United Nations Charter"--a vision that inspired the Millennium Declaration, adopted at the Millennium Summit three years ago, Mr. Annan said. It is not always safe or easy to work for an organization whose assignments place staff in dangerous situations worldwide.

In 2001, at the beginning of a new century, the United Nations and its Secretary-General were awarded the eighth Nobel Peace Prize presented to the world Organization, its system and staff members "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world". The first for the UN, in 1950, fell at the midway point of the last century, when Ralph Bunche was honoured, for his mediation of the 1949 armistice between warring parties in the Middle East--an assignment he took over following the assassination of his predecessor, Count Folke Bernadotte.

As Ralph Bunche said in accepting his Peace Prize, which he had at first wanted to turn down: "There are many who figuratively stand beside me today and who are also honoured here. I am but one of many cogs in the United Nations, the greatest peace organization ever dedicated to the salvation of mankind's future on earth. It is, indeed, itself an honour to be enabled to practise the arts of peace under the aegis of the United Nations."

In this issue we pay homage not only to the pioneering efforts of Ralph Bunche on the centenary of his birth but also to all the "cogs" in the UN system who have worked, and sacrificed, to bring about a better world.

Read on, and write.