- Relief agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) today said
it was abandoning its work in Afghanistan after 24 years following the
"unprecedented" murder of five of its workers last month.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- MSF's decision came as a bomb exploded in a mosque in
the south-eastern province of Ghazni, where people were registering for
Afghanistan's forthcoming elections.
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- The US military said four Afghans and two UN workers
were killed in the blast, while an injured UN worker was flown to Bagram
airbase for treatment.
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- At least eight election workers have already been killed
in a string of attacks this year.
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- 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.
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- "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
BuissonniËre, MSF's secretary general, said in a statement.
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- "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."
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Following the killings, MSF suspended much of its work
in Afghanistan pending the outcome of the investigation.
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- "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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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".
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited
2004
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- http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1270916,00.html
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