UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday paid tribute to the 17 United Nations staff members killed by terrorists in Algiers, the Algerian capital, a year ago.
"As in so many countries around the world, the UN presence possessed wonderfully varied skills and expertise," Ban said in a message in observing the first anniversary of the bombing of UN headquarters in Algiers.
"Some cared for refugees, others fought disease. Still others were drivers and support staff. Whatever their unique contributions, all were motivated by the same desire -- the desire that forms the very backbone of this organization -- to serve the common, greater good..."
The December 11, 2007 attack claimed the lives of 17 UN staffers -- from Algeria, Denmark, the Philippines and Senegal -- working for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Department of Safety and Security ( DSS), and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
The anniversary observance took place on Thursday at the UN Headquarters in New York, and speakers at the ceremony included UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, who delivered the Secretary-General's message.
Currently, Ban is in Poland to attend UN climate talks.
"One year after the attack, we still feel the searing pain and irreplaceable loss of the lives cut short on that day," he said in the message.
"Terrorists have taken these noble individuals from us," he said. "But they can never extinguish our hopes for global harmony nor our conviction that working together is the only path to a better world."
The UN staff members were killed when a car bomb destroyed the offices of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and damaged those of UNHCR in Algiers.