US president Barack Obama has apologized for the U-S airstrike in northern Afghanistan that bombed a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders. But the medical charity says the international community is not fully aware of the depths of the dangers of aid work in conflict zones.
Our colleague Mike Walter in Washington has talked with Joanne Liu, the International President of that N-G-O in Switzerland via Skype. She told us how difficult it is for health care workers to operate in war zones, and how significant their work is.
"I went back and looked at some of the past dangers you've faced...after attacks on aid workers in Kandahar...you suspended efforts in the clinic there in 2003...in 2009 a clinic near Khost was destroyed...in June of 2004, 5 aid workers were killed in an ambush in Northern Afghanistan..the Taliban claimed responsibility....I don't think people know the depths of the dangers of aid work in Afghanistan...any thoughts at all after all of this of just pulling out altogether?"
"Well I think there has been over the last few years a bit of erosion about the respect of this medical space and what allows humanitarian aid workers to work in the conflict zones and what gives access to the population. So it is important to reaffirm that we are abiding the Geneva convention, because otherwise....So I think like Syria, Yemen and Ukraine, it is important today to give the signal that at the protected working environment in the conflict zone are supported by the international community," Liu said.
From 1997 to 2003 Afghanistan had the second highest total of aid workers killed...just how dangerous is this work...and why do people continue risking their lives to do it?
