Apologies are not enough
President Barack Obama has done the right thing by apologizing to Médecins sans Frontières for a “mistaken” U.S. military airstrike that destroyed the MSF field hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, last weekend and killed 22 medical staff and patients. But apologies, even rare presidential ones, are not enough.
The attack, which came without warning, was a horrific assault on a facility protected by the Geneva Conventions that govern the laws of war. Some have likened it to a war crime. The U.S. had an obligation to protect the place, not raze it. Even in the anarchy of war, MSF staff and other humanitarian workers must be shielded from attack, not made targets.
Obama’s apology must serve as the springboard to a full, impartial investigation, generous reparation and measures by the military to prevent another such tragedy. As a signatory to the Geneva rules, the U.S. has an obligation to do all in its power to make things right.
Obama has promised MSF International president Dr. Joanne Liu that U.S. military officials will carry out a “transparent, thorough and objective” investigation. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Afghan government are also looking into the attack. That’s good as far as it goes. But it leaves the military investigating itself. MSF is pushing, understandably, for a fully independent investigation under the Geneva Conventions rules.
Conservative Leader Stephen Harper’s government or its successor should lend support to that request. Canada is a state party to the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission that was created to carry out such investigations, and we should urge the commission to offer its services in this case. Hopefully the U.S. and Afghans would agree. Alternatively, the White House should strike a credible civilian panel to get to the bottom of things.
Washington should also move swiftly to help MSF rebuild the shattered facility and to compensate the victims generously.
The airstrike came on Oct. 3, six days after the Taliban attacked Kunduz. Afghan forces near the hospital had been fighting to drive them back out, with the help of a U.S. special forces team. The Afghans asked the U.S. troops to call in air support. But MSF insists the Taliban were not firing from inside the hospital compound. Even if they had been, the U.S. was obliged to use the minimum force to dislodge them.
The attack was carried out by an AC-130 gunship, one of the air force’s deadliest assets, which can bristle with missiles, heavy rapid-fire cannon and bombs. During the assault on the hospital, which was well-known to the U.S. military and had been operating for years, MSF pleaded with Afghan and U.S. officials to call off the attack, to no avail. The150-bed trauma centre was pounded so hard during repeated strikes over an hour that it was gutted.
Six of the hospital’s105 patients were burned in their beds. Afghan doctors, nurses and staff were mowed down where they worked. One doctor died on an office desk serving as a rigged-up operating table. In all12 MSF staff and10 patients were killed. Nineteen more members of the MSF team were injured, along with18 others. MSF says 33 are still missing and the death toll could rise.
The hospital’s destruction leaves tens of thousands of Afghans with no advanced medical care. MSF staff treated more than 22,000 patients last year, and carried out 6,000 surgeries.
The trauma centre should be rebuilt, better than before. With assurance that it won’t be targeted again.
A full, impartial investigation must be held into a U.S. attack on an Afghan hospital that left at least 22 dead