2004-12-20 - 2:48 a.m.
"Humanitarian aid has become politicized," according to Nicolas de Torrente, executive director of MSF USA. "We could not push back these forces — the people who attacked us and those who assimilated us. We had no other choice."
There is an article in this weeks New England Journal of Medicine that talks about why MSF(Doctors without Borders) pulled out from Afghanistan and Iraq. The above quote is from that article. These doctors from MSF are freaking gutsy but the US military operation is tying the coalition forces to their humanitarian aid. There is an instance of the US army handing out flyers with a picture of food that says the Humanitarian aid will stop if the people don't start turning in members of "terrorist" organizations.
How disgusting. and disheartening. MSF says that many times the people in Afghanistan could not tell the difference between military clinics and their clinics.
I think We wish to Inform you that tomorrow you will be killed with our families by Philip Gourevitch established that in Rawanda during the genocide humanitarian aid organizations like the Internat'l red cross that didnt take sides did more harm than good. They allowed the Hutu government to propagate the violence some more.
So the roots of violence are not getting addressed and these international aid organizations are starting to be seen as aiding and abetting the military operation. and hence the increased violence directed towards these organizations.
so when we see a picture of the CARE director in absolute fear and Tony Blair and George W. are portrayed as shaking their heads with sad faces it is hypocritical and far more complicated
and the picture of the evil terrorists going after innocent aid workers doesnt delve into the complexity of the US govt jepordizing the safety of all aid workers by using them in the fight to transform "hearts and minds"
s
