Petition urges probe into US air strikes on hospital

Published Oct 20, 2015

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Angela Makamure

JOHANNESBURG: The international medical humanitarian organisation Doctors Without Borders or Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has launched a petition urging global citizens to call on President Barack Obama and the US to consent to an independent investigation into the air strikes on MSF’s trauma hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on October 3.

MSF called for an investigation by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission (IHFFC) into the repeated US air strikes on the hospital, which killed 12 MSF staff members and 10 patients, and wounded more than three-dozen people. The IHFFC is the only permanent body set up specifically to investigate violations of humanitarian law.

Now that the IHFFC has formally offered its services, MSF is calling for the Obama administration to consent to a probe into the bombing. Consent is required before an impartial truth-seeking investigation can be launched.

The attack completely destroyed the hospital, cutting off access to emergency trauma care for hundreds of thousands of people in northern Afghanistan, representing a grave violation of international humanitarian law.

“Respect for the laws of war is what protects our staff and patients in conflict zones throughout the world,” said Dr Mohammed Dalwai, MSF Southern Africa president.

“There must be an independent and impartial investigation to establish the facts of this horrific attack. We call on southern Africans to support our petition pushing for US consent to the IHFFC investigation without delay.”

Consenting to the inquiry is a critical step for Obama to demonstrate the US government’s commitment to the Geneva Convention, and that US forces recognise and respect medical facilities as protected spaces under international humanitarian law.

“Our petition has already gathered 200 000 signatures worldwide within just four days. And now we are aiming to reach an initial figure of 300 000 signatures, equalling the population of Kunduz itself. This would be a way to recognise all those who lost access to the only emergency trauma care centre in all of northern Afghanistan,” said Dalwai.

The precise GPS co-ordinates of the four-year-old MSF hospital in Kunduz were provided to US and Afghan authorities in Washington and Kabul in the days prior to the bombing, and the hospital contained nearly 200 patients and staff at the time of the attack.

Investigations have been launched by the US, Nato and the Afghan government, but it is impossible to expect parties involved in the conflict to carry out impartial investigations of military actions.

The preservation of health facilities as neutral, protected spaces depends on an independent investigation. Otherwise, MSF and other humanitarian organisations could not work in conflict zones. MSF could not deliver the care so many people desperately need.

MSF’s appeal is neither focused solely on the events in Kunduz nor directed only at the US. It is directed at all nations and all parties to conflicts, and it is an opportunity for all to reaffirm their commitment to humanitarian law, to the right of organisations like MSF to provide medical care independently in conflict zones, and to reaffirm the effort to bring at least some humanity to the worst of circumstances.

The petition can be signed at http://chn.ge/1X8aU3c

l Makamure is Press Officer for MSF SA

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