As US Dodges Hospital Bombing Probe, Aid Group Calls Global Silence 'Embarrassing'
One month after the U.S. bombing of a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Afghanistan killed at least 30 people and wounded dozens more, the Obama administration refuses to submit to an independent inquiry while the aid group charges that the lack of global outcry over the incident has become deafening.
“Yet today, as we mourn the killing of our staff and patients, none of the 76 countries have stepped forward to show their support for an independent investigation by the Humanitarian Commission,” said MSF-USA executive director Jason Cone at a commemoration in New York City’s Union Square on Tuesday. “No state has been willing to stand up for the Geneva Conventions and the laws of war.”
More than 415,000 people have signed onto a petition backing this demand.
The memorial in New York City was one of several such events taking place worldwide on Tuesday under the banner “Even War Has Rules.” Other vigils took place in London, Edinburgh, Brussels, and Johannesburg.
Noting that recent attacks in Kunduz, as well as in Yemen, “are not isolated cases,” MSF-UK executive director Vickie Hawkins on Tuesday declared that “the protection of health facilities in conflict zones has been eroded.”
She continued:
This tragic and wanton destruction not only affects MSF. It affects the millions of people who are caught up in conflict and all too often, it is patients, doctors, paramedics and support staff who pay the highest price.
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Since 1949, the Geneva Conventions have obliged warring parties to protect the wounded and sick, without discrimination and in respect of the rules of medical ethics. They bring some humanity to an otherwise inhumane situation. Is there a concerted effort to rewrite these rules of war?