LETTER FROM MR. FLORES

RAYMOND B. FLORES, UNOG

Dear Colleagues,

It was a great privilege for me to be one of the volunteers to assist with the organization of the Observance of the Fifth Anniversary of the Canal Hotel Bombing. His Excellency, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General was joined by the families of the victims, injured staff and survivors of the attack at the commemorative ceremony honouring the twenty-two perished friends and colleagues.

On Sunday, 31 August 2008, 8 a.m., the volunteers were dispatched between two areas – the hotel lobby and the arrival hall at the airport. Our main task was to provide full assistance to our invitees. Most of us stayed with them at the hotel until 11 p.m. while others had to stay at the airport until 1 a.m. to wait and assist the late arrivals due to delayed flights.

Our main role as volunteers were to ensure that everybody followed the sequence of the programme and assist them to the best we could; to encourage and comfort them as and when necessary; to guide them inside the Palais; to take care of the children below sixteen years old while the parents were attending the closed session. Briefly, our task was to make ourselves available to families of the victims and to the survivors present.

As I look back, the assignment was brief but full of nostalgia and mixed feelings. And yet, I will not forget, not only the emotions of the moment, but more than anything, that we lost not just mere colleagues, but that these men and women who lost their lives or were injured willingly made a great sacrifice for the sake of the peace keeping operations of the United Nations.