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Secretary-General Deplores Heinous?ETerrorist Bombings In Chechnya, Saudi Arabia
by Secretary-General Kofi Annan
1:09pm 14th May, 2003
 
13 May ?EUnited Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today deplored the "heinous acts of terrorism" in the Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia over the past 24 hours, declaring that they were against "all decent tenets of religion, against human rights, indeed against humanity."
  
"Terrorism can never be justified," Mr. Annan said in a statement issued by a UN spokesman on the bomb explosions that killed or injured scores on people in northern Chechnya and the Saudi Arabian capital.
  
"Many innocent people, going about their daily lives or asleep in their beds with no warning of what was to come, have lost their lives in cruel ways," the statement added. "The Secretary-General strongly condemns the vicious acts which took place in Znamenskoye and Riyadh."
  
Asked by reporters on his arrival this morning at UN headquarters in New York for his reaction to the bombing in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Annan said: "It is tragic and I'm sorry that so many people lost their lives. These acts must be totally condemned, and I hope this is a wake up call for everyone that terrorism is not over yet and that we must all remain vigilant."

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