THE United States is accused of bombing a hospital run by Doctors Without
Borders, leaving 22 dead, as staff describe the "unspeakable" horror of seeing
patients burning in their beds and their colleagues killed.
The US and Afghan governments vowed Sunday to jointly investigate the attack on a
hospital in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, amid accusations that US jet fighters
were responsible for what Doctors Without Borders said was a "sustained bombing" of
their trauma centre. Some top US officials said the circumstances surrounding the incident remain murky, but others indicated the US may have been responsible for the attack which killed 12 staff
and 10 patients including three children.
Army Colonel Brian Tribus, a spokesman for American forces in Afghanistan, said
Saturday that a US air strike "in the Kunduz vicinity" about 2.1 Sam Saturday morning
"may have resulted in collateral damage to a nearby medical facility."
US officials speaking on condition Of anonymity said American special operations forces
advising Afghan commandos in the vicinity of the hospital requested the air support
when they came under fire in Kunduz. The officials said the AC-130 gunship responded
and fired on the area, but US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said it's not certain yet
whether that was what destroyed the hospital.
Meinie Nicolai, president of Doctors Without Borders, also known as Medecins Sans
Frontieres (MSF), has described the attack as an abhorrent and grave violation Of
International Humanitarian Law. "We demand total transparency from Coalition forces. We cannot accept that this horrific loss of life will simply be dismissed as 'collateral damage'
The organisation says that the main central hospital building, housing the intensive care
unit, emergency rooms, and physiotherapy ward, was hit very precisely by a series Of
aerial bombing raids at approximately 15 minute intervals, while surrounding buildings
were left mostly untouched.
According to MSF , pro-Government forces had been informed of the precise location of
the medical facilities. Afghan guards stand at the gate of the MSF hospital after an air strike in the city of The trauma centre on fire. Afghan officials said helicopter gunships returned fire from Taliban fighters who were hiding in the hospital, and AP video footage Of the burned out compound in the east of Kunduz city shows automatic weapons, including rifles and at least one machine gun, on
windowsills.
But MSF communications manager Kate Stegeman said there were no insurgents in the
facility at the time Of the bombing. MSF general director Christopher Stokes said the statement from the Afghanistan government amounts to an admission Of a war crime, and contradicts the initial attempts of the US government to minimise the attack as "collateral damage".
"MSF is disgusted by the recent statements coming from some Afghanistan government
authorities justifying the attack on its hospital in Kunduz. These statements imply that
Afghan and US forces working together decided to raze to the ground a fully functioning hospital — with more than 180 staff and patients inside — because they claim that
members of the Taliban were present." The organisation is demanding an independent investigation and may not be satisfied with an inquiry conducted by the US and Afghan governments.
"Relying only on an internal investigation by a party to the conflict would be wholly
insufficient," Stokes said.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein also called for a swift,
full and transparent investigation. "The seriousness of the incident is underlined by the fact that, depending on circumstances, an air strike on a hospital may amount to a war crime," Zeid said.
"International and Afghan military planners have an obligation to respect and protect
civilians at all times, and medical facilities and personnel are the Object Of a special
protection. These obligations apply no matter whose air force is involved, and
irrespective of the location."
Since fighting broke out on Monday, MSF had treated 394 wounded. At the time of the
aerial attack there were 105 patients and their caretakers in the hospital, along with more
than 80 international and national MSF staff. MSF's hospital was the only facility Of its kind in the north-eastern region of Afghanistan. For four years it provided free high level life- and limb-saving trauma care. In 2014, more than 22,000 patients received care at the hospital and more than 5,900
surgeries were performed. MSF treats all people according to their medical needs and
does not make any distinctions based on a patient's ethnicity, religious beliefs or
political affiliation.Afghan security forces take a wounded civilian man to the hospital after Taliban fighter's attack.
WE SAW OUR COLLEAGUES DYING
MSF nurse Lajos Zoltan Jecs was in Kunduz trauma hospital when the facility was hit by
the aerial bombing raids and said he was woken by the sound Of a big explosion.
"What we saw was the hospital destroyed, burning. I don't know what I felt — just
shock," he said in a statement. "We tried to take a 100k into one Of the burning buildings. I cannot describe what was inside. There are no words for how terrible it was. In the Intensive Care Unit six patients were burning in their beds. "
He said urgent surgery was performed on one of the doctors but he could not be saved,
"unfortunately he died there on the Office table". "The whole situation was very hard. We saw our colleagues dying. Our pharmacist — I was just talking to him last night and planning the stocks, and then he died there in our office." Surgeons work inside the MSF hospital after an air strike in the city of Kunduz. "Some of my colleagues were in too much shock, crying and crying. I tried to encourage
some of the staff to help, to give them something to concentrate on, to take their minds
off the horror. "But some were just too shocked to do anything Seeing adult men, your friends, crying uncontrollably — that is not easy."
He said he has been working there since May and had seen a lot Of heavy medical
situations but it was a different story seeing colleagues and friends impacted.
"These are people who had been working hard for months, non-stop for the past week.
They had not gone home, they had not seen their families, they had just been working in
the hospital to help people and now they are dead. These people are friends, close
friends. I have no words to express this. It is unspeakable. "How can this happen? What is the benefit Of this? Destroying a hospital and so many
lives, for nothing. I cannot find words for this."
'WE WILL GET THE FACTS'
US President Barack Obama said he expected a full accounting Of the circumstances
surrounding the bombing, and that he would wait for those results before making a
judgment. He said the US would continue working with Afghanistan's government and its
overseas partners to promote security in Afghanistan.
US officials who spoke to AP were not authorised to discuss the incident publicly. They
also said the senior US military investigator is in Kunduz but hasn't yet been able to get
to the site because it continues to be a contested area between the Afghans and the
Taliban militants. Carter, speaking to reporters travelling with him on a trip to Spain, said, "The situation there is confused and complicated, so it may take some time to get the facts, but we will
get the facts." Carter said he believes the US will have better information in the coming days, once US and international investigators get access to the hospital site.
Doctors Without Borders issued a statement saying that "all indications" were that the
international coalition was responsible for the early Saturday morning bombing. While
NATO maintains a significant military role in Afghanistan, air strikes are conducted by
US forces It earlier said that three Of the dead were children in the intensive care unit. The charity
also announced it was withdrawing from Kunduz.
"All critical patients have been referred to other health facilities and no MSF staff are
working in our hospital," Stegeman said.
"Some of our medical staff have gone to work in two hospitals where some of the
wounded have been taken," she added
GROWING HUMANITARIAN CRISIS
Meanwhile, street-by street battles continued between government forces and Taliban
fighters and officials warned of a looming humanitarian crisis for civilians trapped in the
city. The Taliban briefly seized Kunduz last week before the government launched a
counteroffensive, and sporadic battles continue as troops attempt to clear remaining
pockets of militants. Shops are shuttered because of ongoing fighting and roads made impassable by mines planted by insurgents.
Thousands of civilian residents remain trapped inside the disputed city Militants
blocked and mined roads as soon as they entered Kunduz to prevent people from leaving
and to thwart a government assault. Local television showed live footage of police
officers handing bread to children, one of whom said he had not eaten for three days.
The deputy head Of the Afghan National Disaster Management Authority, Aslam Sayas,
said he was aware of the growing humanitarian crisis inside Kunduz.
"We are waiting for the security situation to improve to give us an opportunity to reach
those needy people," he said. Afghan security forces inspect the site of a US air strike in Kunduz city, north of Kabul, An Afghan soldier raises his hands as a victory sign, in Kunduz city, north Of Kabul,
Afghanistan on Friday.
Saad Mukhar, the Kunduz provincial public health director, estimates that more than 70
people have been killed and more than 500 wounded in the city since the fighting began.
"I'm afraid that if this situation continues, we will not be able to help our patients
because right now we are facing a serious, drastic shortage Of medicine," he said.
The Taliban's brief seizure of Kunduz marked the insurgent group's biggest foray into a
major urban area since the 2001 US-Ied invasion ended their rule.
Afghan forces have been struggling to combat the Taliban since the US and NATO shifted
to a support and training role at the end of last year, officially ending their combat
mission in the war-torn country.
Acting provincial Gov. Hamidullah Danishi said most of the insurgents had fled the cityand that those still standing their ground appeared to be what he called "foreigners,"
non-Afghans who have been boosting Taliban forces in the north Of the country for some
months. Officials have said that many of them are from Central Asian states, members of
the Islamic Movement Of Uzbekistan.
Danishi said that 480 Taliban fighters had been killed as Of Friday, and around 300
wounded. He put casualties among Afghan security forces at between 30 and 35 killed or
wounded.
Response: In this article it is reporting the bombing of a hospital in Afghanistan allegedly by the U.S. This bombing was claimed to happen because Taliban militants were claimed to be seen inside the building. The director of MSF is requesting an independent investigation (excluding the Afghan and U.S governments) so that nothing can be hidden. The author of this article is trying to get the reader to sympathize with the hospital workers as well as the civilians living in Afghanistan. He did this by using multiple witness testimonies throughout the article, as well as vividly described the situation that the Afghan civilians are living in. He also used statistics and numbers of deaths in the bombing and how many people the hospital had saved in the past year to create a picture of the unnecessary devastation done to these people. The town where the hospital is located is continually riddled with fighting and warfare, and the civilians cannot leave the town due to landmines planted in the roads. The biggest issue with this situation is the vague answers that the U.S government is giving MSF and if the bombing was purposeful is would be classified as a war crime. From the information given, I agree with the author in that the hospital seems to be purposefully targeted (one witness claims the other building around the hospital had minimal damage done) which I would consider morally wrong because of the fact that they killed innocent people and targeting hospitals is against the laws set out by the Geneva Convention.
Citation: "Doctors without Borders demand independent investigation after hospital bombed in Afghanistan." 5 Oct. 2015. News Limited. 5 Oct. 2015. <http://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/doctors-without-borders-demand-independent-investigation-after-hospital-bombed-in-afghanistan/story-fnh81ifq-1227557305679>
No comments:
Post a Comment