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UN chief calls Orlando shooting "despicable, contrary to UN values"

Xinhua, June 14, 2016 Adjust font size:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wrote to the governor of the U.S. state of Florida and the mayor of Orlando to convey his deepest condolences for the loss of lives and injuries in Sunday's shooting in Orlando, a UN spokesman told reporters here Monday.

In the letter, Ban said that "such violence is despicable, and contrary to the values of equality, peace and mutual respect that underpin the United Nations," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a daily news briefing here.

"At this time of shock and sorrow, he added, the UN stands in solidarity with the families of the victims and with the people of the United States," the spokesman said.

Earlier Monday, the president of the UN General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft, expressed his "anger, outrage and deep sorrow for the victims" killed in the Sunday mass shooting in Orlando.

The General Assembly president, in a separate statement, called the worst mass shooting in U.S. history by a lone gunman "a misguided and despicable act of barbarism."

Also on Monday, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, spoke in Geneva and said that he "condemned with the greatest possible force the outrageous attacks by violent extremists on innocent people, chosen at random, or because of their presumed beliefs, or opinions, or -- as we saw yesterday -- their sexual orientation," Dujarric said.

The deputy UN secretary-general, Jan Eliasson, expressed the hope in Geneva on Monday that the Orlando shooting would not prompt hate crimes, the spokesman said, adding that Eliasson said that "we need to exercise restraint and make sure that we are not provoked."

"The deputy secretary-general said that the intention of those who carry out such attacks is to scare and divide people and that we need to be strong in standing up for our own values and for every human being's equal worth," the spokesman added.

A gunman wielding an assault-type rife and a handgun killed at least 50 people and wounded 53 others in a nightclub in Orlando early Sunday. The Islamic State claimed the responsibility for the attack. Enditem