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Doctors Without Borders Speaks Against US Humanitarian Aid© Press Release
These are copies of press releases from Doctors Without Borders. They do not reflect the opinions of the author of the Public Health Issues column or of Suite 101. This is presented for information only. As a side note, Doctors Without Borders has been featured in this column previously. They are a humanitarian organization without any political affiliation stated.
Dropping a few cases of drugs and food in the middle of the night during air raids... is virtually useless and may even be dangerous. Press Release Paris, Oct 8, 2001: Yesterday the American and British forces launched air strikes on Afghanistan following the massacre of 6,000 people in New York and Washington on September 11th. This attack was accompanied by what is described as a 'humanitarian' operation, designed to gain public support for these bombings. This is not a humanitarian operation. It is part of a military campaign designed to gather international approval of the attacks led by the United States. Dropping a few cases of drugs and food in the middle of the night during air raids, without knowing who is going to collect them, is virtually useless and may even be dangerous. What sense is there in shooting with one hand and distributing medicines with the other? How will the Afghan population know in the future if an offer of humanitarian aid does not hide a military operation? Furthermore, the confusion between military and humanitarian operations only increases the danger for already complicated humanitarian action, limiting even further the possibilities of intervention. Médecins Sans Frontières therefore rejects the idea of a humanitarian coalition alongside the military coalition, as requested by president Bush and Prime Minister Blair, and calls for the imperative necessity of independent humanitarian action. Press release, Islamabad, Oct 8, 2001: The international medical aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), which has been working in Afghanistan since 1979, today cast doubt on the so-called 'humanitarian airdrops' by US and British military forces, which have accompanied the military strikes against Afghanistan over the last 24-hours. Such action does not answer the needs of the Afghan people and is likely to undermine attempts to deliver substantial aid to the most vulnerable. MSF's Dr Jean-Hervé Bradol, speaking from Pakistan, explained that the so-called 'humanitarian' action, was in fact a purely propaganda tool, of little real value to the Afghan people. Moreover, the deliberate adoption by the military of a 'humanitarian' purpose, was likely to cause real problems for truly independent non-governmental aid organisations who are less likely to be perceived as impartial actors in the future. Go To Page: 1 2
The copyright of the article Doctors Without Borders Speaks Against US Humanitarian Aid in Public Health Issues is owned by Press Release. Permission to republish Doctors Without Borders Speaks Against US Humanitarian Aid in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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