GENEVA, Aug 19 (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned, one year after the suicide bombing of its headquarters in Baghdad, that the United Nations may have become a prime target of political violence in what could impede its mission to help the world's people.
Speaking at a ceremony in Geneva to commemorate the August 19, 2003 attack that killed 22 people, including the UN representative in Iraq Sergio Vieira de Mello, Annan pledged to do everything in his power to ensure such a tragedy never happened again.
"The attack on the Canal Hotel was a unique blow for us as an organisation," Annan told the gathering of relatives and friends of those who perished as well as UN staff and other officials, according to a prepared copy of his speech.
It forced the United Nations to address the prospect of not just being hurt due to the dangerous areas where UN staff are deployed but to becoming "in ourselves one of the main targets of political violence," he said.
The suicide truck bombing at the UN's Baghdad headquarters forced the United Nations to reassess its operations in Iraq, which were massively reduced as a result of heightened security fears since the bombing.
The world body is now grappling with how to improve security without impeding its activities, Annan explained.
"Our work is with people. We must be able to get to them and they must be able to get to us," he said, while noting that safety was also imperative.
"How do we operate in places like Iraq and some parts of Afghanistan, where people want and expect us to help ... but some are determined to block our work at any price?" Annan asked.
"We have been working hard to find answers and to correct our own systemic weaknesses," the UN chief said.
"Much has been done but much more is still to be done," he noted.
The UN's presence in Iraq has been cut to a mere handful from some 600 staff before the bombing, while the work that needs to be done -- namely preparing for a national election by the end of January -- remains as daunting as ever.
New UN envoy Ashraf Jehangir Qazi arrived in Baghdad last Friday with a small team, but the United Nations is reluctant to give exact figures of its presence on the ground today due to persistent security fears.
"I assure you that I will always insist on the most stringent precautions for our staff, and do my utmost to keep any such tragedy from again befalling our precious family," pledged Annan.
The secretary general revealed some of the dark times he has suffered during the past year as the overall person in charge of UN staff and their well being.
"For me, the past year has been not only difficult, but also deeply introspective," he said.
"Earlier, we had lived through a war that I genuinely thought could have been avoided. Then I lost 22 wonderful, talented friends and colleagues whom I had sent to Iraq to help deal with the aftermath of that war, to help bring stability and peace -- the greatest yearning of the average Iraqi."
Annan also regretted that no one has been charged with the attack, despite ongoing investigations by the United Nations and the United States.
"However long it takes, I pray that the perpetrators are held to account and do not get away with this cold-blooded murder," he said.