Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Médecins_Sans_Frontières_to_leave_Afghanistan

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<http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1270916,00.html>

> Médecins Sans Frontières to leave Afghanistan

>

> Sarah Left

> Wednesday July 28, 2004

>

> Relief agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today

> said it was

> abandoning its work in Afghanistan after 24 years

> following the

> " unprecedented " murder of five of its workers last

> month.

>

> MSF has had an almost constant presence in the

> country throughout the

> Soviet occupation and the subsequent war, the

> Taliban's repressive

> regime, and the US-led war to oust the Taliban and

> target al-Qaida.

>

> However, the agency - which has 80 international

> staff and 1,400 local

> employees working on projects in 13 provinces - has

> found itself unable

> to continue because of the deteriorating security

> situation.

>

> MSF today angrily blamed the Afghan government for

> failing to protect

> aid workers, and US forces for " co-opting "

> humanitarian relief

> programmes for its own ends. More than 30 aid

> workers have been killed

> in Afghanistan since the beginning of 2003.

>

> " After having worked nearly without interruption

> alongside the most

> vulnerable Afghan people since 1980, it is with

> outrage and bitterness

> that we take the decision to abandon them, " Marine

> Buissonnière, MSF's

> secretary general, said in a statement.

>

> " But we simply cannot sacrifice the security of our

> volunteers while

> warring parties seek to target and kill humanitarian

> workers.

> Ultimately, it is the sick and destitute that

> suffer. "

>

> The five MSF workers, who had been in a clearly

> marked vehicle, were

> shot dead in the north-western province of Badghis

> on June 2. Their car

> was found riddled with bullets and embedded with

> shrapnel from a grenade.

 

>

> MSF said government officials had presented it with

> credible evidence

> that local commanders carried out the attack, but

> added that the

> government had neither arrested those believed

> responsible nor publicly

> called for their arrest.

>

> Following the killings, MSF suspended much of its

> work in Afghanistan

> pending the outcome of the investigation.

>

> " The lack of government response to the killings

> represents a failure of

> responsibility and an inadequate commitment to the

> safety of aid workers

> on its soil, " the agency said in its statement.

>

> Police initially arrested 13 people over the

> killings, but the Badghis

> police chief, Amir Shah Naibzada, today said that

> all had been released.

> " We're still trying our best to find out who did

> this, " he added.

>

> The agency had also been frustrated in its efforts

> to remain impartial

> by both Taliban militants and the US forces seeking

> to suppress them, a

> situation that made aid workers into targets.

>

> A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the

> killings on the

> grounds that aid organisations such as MSF work for

> US interests - a

> claim MSF strenuously denied.

>

> The agency also claimed the US-led coalition in

> Afghanistan had

> " consistently sought to use humanitarian aid to

> build support for its

> military and political ambitions " .

>

> It cited a leaflet distributed by US-led forces in

> southern Afghanistan

> in May that told locals they would need to give

> troops information about

> the Taliban and al-Qaida if they wanted to keep

> receiving humanitarian

> assistance.

>

> US and Nato troops are running a string of so-called

> provincial

> reconstruction teams across Afghanistan. Soldiers

> are providing basic

> healthcare, digging wells and doing other work

> normally carried out by

> civilians.

>

> Aid groups have long expressed concern that the

> military was blurring

> the lines between relief work and soldiers' efforts

> to persuade local

> communities to provide intelligence on militants'

> movements.

>