Obama Apologizes to MSF Over Kunduz Bombing
by VOA News October 07, 2015
U.S. President Barack Obama has called the president of Doctors Without Borders to 'apologize and express condolences' after a U.S. airstrike on the group's hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz killed 22 patients and staff.
'In this case, there was a mistake and it's one that U.S. owns up to,' White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday.
Doctors Without Borders, (Médecins Sans Frontières) has called for an international humanitarian fact-finding commission to investigate the U.S. airstrike.
Established in 1991 under the Geneva Conventions, the commission is the only permanent body whose goal specifically is to investigate violations of international humanitarian law, but it has never been used.
Joanne Liu, the international president of Doctors Without Borders, said it is time to activate this fact-finding tool.
"The facts and circumstances of this attack must be investigated independently and impartially, particularly given the inconsistency in the U.S. and Afghan accounts of what happened over the recent days,' she stressed. 'We cannot rely on internal military investigation by the U.S., NATO and Afghan forces."
Her comments came a day after U.S. Army General John Campbell, who heads the NATO-led coalition in Afghanistan, told a congressional committee that U.S. forces were responsible for 'mistakenly' hitting the hospital.
Liu says letters were sent Tuesday to the 76 signatory countries of the commission to sponsor an inquiry. She says the assent of only one country is needed and the United States and Afghan governments must give their consent to trigger the probe.
Hospital targeted
MSF Switzerland General Director Bruno Jochum said the hospital was targeted 'without doubt,' with four or five strikes coming in less than an hour and none of the surrounding buildings being hit.
'We're not talking about the random bomb or the random bullet that basically creates damage in one of our facilities,' he said. 'We're talking about the methodic destruction of the main building of the hospital offering intensive care and trauma care to patients.'
Jochum said the hospital well was known to everyone in the area and had been operating for four years. He highlighted the importance of investigating the attack, saying that allowing a country to get away with such an act sends a message 'to all armed groups that this can happen.'
Campbell told lawmakers that Afghan forces requested the airstrike on the MSF hospital because Taliban insurgents were firing from the facility, and that U.S. forces acted after reviewing the request.
'To be clear, the decision to provide aerial fire was a U.S. decision made within the U.S. chain of command,' Campbell said. 'A hospital was mistakenly struck. We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility.'
Commission's work
According to Liu, the commission's role is only to establish and clarify facts. She says it is not a legal body and cannot determine whether a war crime has been committed. She calls this a preliminary investigation in a much longer process.
Liu says the space in which humanitarians can operate in war zones is under threat. She says it will not be possible for Doctors Without Borders and other medical workers to continue their activities in countries such as Syria, South Sudan and Yemen if they are not safeguarded.
"If we let this go as if it was a non-event, we are basically giving a blank check to any country who is at war and conflict and telling them, 'You know what, you can do whatever you want, because actually nothing is happening; you are not being held accountable for anything,' she says.
Fresh fighting
Meanwhile, fresh fighting broke out Tuesday in Kunduz, belying days of government claims its forces have evicted the Taliban and recaptured the beleaguered city.
Afghan security forces and insurgents clashed in the provincial capital's central square.
Authorities warned that food and other aid cannot get through to the city in northern Afghanistan. The United Nations says all international aid groups have left Kunduz.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, says its fighters staged an assault on Afghan forces in the early morning and fighting was continuing in several parts of the city.
Insurgents had briefly overrun Kunduz a week ago in a surprise offensive, but Afghan forces wrested back the control three days later and have since claimed to have flushed out Taliban militants.
Insurgents have also captured several districts in two nearby northern provinces and Afghan forces are battling to regain control of the lost territory.
Lisa Schlein contributed to this report from Geneva
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