2 April 2011 - The top UN envoy for Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, today returned to Kabul from the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, accompanying the bodies of seven colleagues killed in yesterday's attack on the UN's regional operations centre.

Three international staff and four international security guards were killed when a demonstration against a recent burning of the Koran in the United States turned violent and hundreds of people over-ran the UN centre.

The family members of the international staff have been notified by the UN. UNAMA is now in a position to release their names: Joakim Dungel, a human rights officer, from Sweden, Lt Col Siri Skare, from Norway, was a military liaison officer with the mission and Filaret Motco, from Romania, was a political officer.

UNAMA is not yet in a position to release the names of the four international security guards, who were from Nepal, who were also killed in the attack.

At a press conference in the early evening in Kabul, de Mistura condemned the attack, saying the three international colleagues had come to Afghanistan to help the people of Afghanistan, in the cause of peace. And that the Nepali Gurkha colleagues died trying to protect UN colleagues. He said he was shocked by what he had seen in Mazar-e-Sharif.

"This was a demonstration of two to three thousand people. It was planned as a peaceful demonstration, but it was infiltrated by insurgents who carried guns and who manipulated the crowd," said de Mistura. "Afghan police," he added, "were caught by surprise at how quickly the demonstration turned violent."

The march had been planned in advance to follow Friday prayer services, as a peaceful demonstration against the recent burning of a Koran in Florida, USA. But, de Mistura said he was told infiltrators carried weapons, including handguns. After initially marching in the direction of the partially constructed US consulate in the city, the crowd turned towards the UN operations centre, as the city's most prominent symbol of international presence.

"The infiltrators turned violent as the demonstration got close to the UN compound, some started throwing stones, shouting, and some shooting, and a mob broke into the compound." UN security guards, he said, could not and would not fire on civilians.

De Mistura also condemned the act of burning the Koran by a US pastor, the trigger for the demonstration.

"Freedom of speech does not include the freedom to deliberately offend other people's culture, religion and traditions," said de Mistura. "The person that did this must know that there can be terrible consequences, especially when there are 150,000 foreign soldiers and about 10,000 international civilians working here in Afghanistan. What he did provided a trigger, a major trigger here."

In Mazar-e-Sharif, de Mistura met with surviving UN colleagues, the governor and senior Afghan police as well as members of the international security forces.

He said that for now he was ordering the temporary redeployment of 11 international colleagues to Kabul for post-traumatic stress care, since there was currently no longer any operations centre to work from in Mazar-e-Sharif, as offices had been destroyed in the attack. But, he emphasised, the UN would not abandon Afghanistan or Mazar-e-Sharif. De Mistura said that the UN would have to continue to reassess how it can operate in a dangerous environment to ensure that staff can live and work with adequate security.

De Mistura reflected with great sadness on the loss of life of colleagues who had come to Afghanistan to serve the cause of peace. He offered his deepest condolences to the family members and loved ones of all seven colleagues.