KABUL: Medical charity MSF said on Sunday it had shut down operations in the Afghan city of Kunduz after a fatal US air strike on its hospital and called for an independent investigation into what it termed a war crime.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said 22 people were killed, some of whom burned to death in their beds as the bombardment continued for more than an hour, even after US and Afghan authorities were informed the hospital had been hit.

It is the only medical facility in the whole north-eastern region of Afghanistan that can deal with major war injuries. Its closure, even temporarily, could have a devastating impact on local civilians.

“The MSF hospital is not functional anymore. All critical patients have been referred to other health facilities and no MSF staff are working in our hospital,” Kate Stegeman, a spokeswoman for the charity, said.

The charity condemned the abhorrent bombings, demanding answers from US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan.

“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,” MSF general director Christopher Stokes said.

MSF said Afghan and coalition troops were fully aware of the exact location of the hospital, having been given GPS coordinates of a facility which had been providing care for four years.

It added that despite frantic calls to military officials in Kabul and Washington, the main building housing the intensive care unit and emergency rooms was “repeatedly, very precisely” hit almost every 15 minutes for more than an hour.

Afghan officials said militants were using the hospital building as a position to target Afghan forces and civilians. But MSF denied any combatants were present in the facility, adding that “not a single member of our staff reported any fighting inside the hospital compound prior to the air strike”.

MSF said some 105 patients and their caregivers as well as more than 80 international and local MSF staff were in the hospital at the time of the attack. The dead included 12 MSF staff and 10 patients, among them three children.

US President Barack Obama offered his “deepest condolences” for what he called a “tragic incident”.

“The Department of Defence has launched a full investigation, and we will await the results of that inquiry before making a definitive judgment as to the circumstances of this tragedy,” he said.

But MSF’s Stokes said: “Relying only on an internal investigation by a party to the conflict would be wholly insufficient.”

Our correspondent in New York adds: Top United Nations officials condemned what they called a ‘tragic’ and ‘inexcusable’ air strike on the MSF hospital in Kunduz.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement that hospitals and medical personnel were explicitly protected under international humanitarian law. He called for a thorough and impartial investigation into the attack in order to ensure accountability.

Nicholas Haysom, the secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan, said that hospitals accommodating patients and medical personnel should never be the object of attack.

Published in Dawn, October 5th , 2015

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