He was running back when the shooting began. The provincial governor, district commander and military escort ran away, while two aid workers and the governor's driver screamed off in vehicles. The six UN staff were not so lucky. The three men and three women were lined up against the side of a house and robbed. Then two shots rang out, killing Luis Zuniga, a Chilean working for Unicef, and Saskia von Meijenfeldt, a Dutch logistics officer with the World Food Programme.
Accounts differ on what happened next.
What is clear is that the visit on October 12 last year was one more gruesome and confused example of how UN humanitarian workers are increasingly becoming targets in the war zones they are trying to help. No longer are relief workers angels who perform their duties in isolation and retreat in glory. Over the past decade, the aid business has become an integral part of today's complex emergencies - and UN staff are regularly bombed, held hostage and killed. In 1999 alone, there were 292 reported violent incidents involving UN staff throughout the world, including robberies with violence, physical assault, rape and vehicle hijacking. It is an appalling record.