kayhan.ir

News ID: 19119
Publish Date : 05 October 2015 - 20:10

Call for Inquiry After Hospital Blown Apart

KUNDUZ (Antiwar) - Doctors Without Borders is calling for an independent investigation of the deadly bombing of its hospital in the city of Kunduz, which it says is no longer operational.

Aerial bombardments blew apart the medical facility about the time of a U.S. airstrike early Saturday, killing at least 22 people, officials said. The blasts left part of the hospital in flames and rubble, killing 12 staffers and 10 patients - including three children - and injuring 37 other people, the charity said.
As the United States said it was investigating what struck the hospital during the night, the charity expressed shock and demanded answers, stressing that all combatants had been told long ago where the hospital was. Doctors Without Borders says that no one inside the hospital was reporting fighting and that a completely independent investigation is needed.      
"Under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed, MSF demands that a full and transparent investigation into the event be conducted by an independent international body," said Doctors Without Borders, which is known internationally as Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF. "Relying only on an internal investigation by a party to the conflict would be wholly insufficient."
The bombing was a violation of international humanitarian law, the organization said. It added that MSF international staff member were evacuated to Kabul and critical patients were sent to other facilities. "The MSF Afghan staff who were not killed are either being treated in health facilities in the region or have left the hospital," the organization said.
The bombardments continued even after U.S. and Afghan military officials were notified the hospital was being attacked, the charity said.
The NATO mission in Afghanistan has issued a statement saying it had directed a "preliminary multinational investigation known as a Casualty Assessment Team."
"We anticipate having the results of this initial assessment in a matter of days. Additionally, the U.S. military has opened a formal investigation, headed by a General Officer, to conduct a thorough and comprehensive inquiry," it said.
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, UN high commissioner for human rights, strongly condemned the attack and said that it was essential to ensure that any investigation of it is "independent, impartial, transparent and effective."
"This deeply shocking event should be promptly, thoroughly and independently investigated and the results should be made public," he said, according to a UN statement issued Saturday. "The seriousness of the incident is underlined by the fact that, if established as deliberate in a court of law, an airstrike on a hospital may amount to a war crime."