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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Charitable Organization Suspends Operations in Afghanistan |
| 2004-06-05 |
| From Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has suspended all of its operations in Afghanistan as of 3 June after five of its staff were killed in the northern Afghan province of Badghis a day earlier .... "For the time being our activities will be suspended nationwide," MSF acting head of mission in Afghanistan, Samuel Hauenstein, said in Kabul. MSF staff in Afghanistan are being moved to safer areas of the country. MSF has been working in Afghanistan since 1979. The organization is currently working in 12 provinces with around 80 expat and 1,400 local staff giving primary health care and support to provincial and regional hospitals. In a statement released on 4 June, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that at least 32 aid workers have been killed in Afghanistan since March 2003 and the neo-Taliban have been implicated in many of these attacks. Commenting on the five workers killed on 2 June, John Sifton, an Afghanistan researcher for HRW, said, "These were people who had devoted themselves to helping and healing Afghans," adding that attacks against "relief workers directly harms the millions of Afghans who rely on humanitarian aid for their food and health." HRW called on the neo-Taliban to cease attacks on civilians and humanitarian staff and denounced neo-Taliban leaders for suggesting that such attacks were justified. |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |