Notice: Undefined index: diario_lector_id in /var/www/diarios_v2/index.php on line 303 Tribute paid to Afghan aid worker - Noticia - - People Three - English Channel
Tributes have been paid to University of Ulster research fellow Dr Jacqueline Kirk.She was one of three female aid workers with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) shot dead in an ambush, along with their Afghan driver, near Kabul.Dr Kirk, 40, was based at the university's UNESCO centre in Coleraine.Professor Alan Smith, chair of the centre, said news of her death had came as a shock."She had an incredible commitment to humanitarian issues and was a wonderfully sensitive and dedicated person," he said.She was a Visiting Fellow at the centre for six months, as part of her time on a post-doctoral research fellowship, in 2005.In her work, she looked at the impact of conflict on vulnerable people, particularly women and children.Speaking to the BBC from his home in Canada, Dr Kirk's husband Andrew said whoever attacked them would have known they were from a humanitarian organisation."They were travelling in white Toyota Landcruisers that were clearly marked as IRC vehicles, as humanitarian vehicles," he said."Their policy was never to travel with weapons in the car so there wouldn't be any doubt that they're a peaceful humanitarian organisation."McGill University in Montreal, where Dr Kirk had recently been appointed Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Education, said it was shocked at her death.Heather Munroe-Blum, Principal and vice-Chancellor, described it as a tragedy."That her life should come to such a brutal end while working to help others makes this an even greater tragedy. This was a cowardly act that deserves widespread condemnation," she said.Dr Kirk had UK and Canadian citizenship and the other two women killed in the attack were a Trinidadian-American and a Canadian.The women were travelling from Gardez in the south-east to Kabul when they were attacked.Programmes suspendedA second Afghan driver was hurt when unidentified gunmen fired on the group as they drove through Logar province.
Words are inadequate to express our sympathy for the families and loved ones of the victims and our devoted team of humanitarian aid workers in Afghanistan George Rupp
International Rescue Committee The bodies were taken to the governor's compound in the provincial capital, Puli Alam.A Taleban spokesman described the aid workers as foreign spies.The IRC has suspended all of its humanitarian aid programmes in Afghanistan, after 20 years of operating in the country.The organisation said it was "stunned and profoundly saddened"."Words are inadequate to express our sympathy for the families and loved ones of the victims and our devoted team of humanitarian aid workers in Afghanistan," said IRC president George Rupp.Conflict experienceDr Kirk, who joined the IRC in 2004 and had been based at its HQ in New York, was brought up in the UK but later moved to Quebec in Canada.She had experience of working with aid organisations in conflict zones including Lebanon, Rwanda, Angola, Ethiopia and south Sudan.Two of the other three victims were named as Nicole Dial, 30, of Trinidad and Tobago, and Mohammad Aimal, 25, from Kabul, Afghanistan, who had worked as a driver for the IRC since 2002.The name of the fourth victim, a Canadian woman, is being withheld at her parents' request.Aid agencies are frequently targeted in the Afghan conflict, with convoys attacked and staff abducted or killed.
