Afghanistan: When One Nobel Peace Prize Bombs Another

Both President Barack Obama and Doctors Without Borders have been honored with the Nobel Peace Prize. Through a twist of fate, and while Obama is president, the U.S. military bombed the hospital of the doctors’ organization in Kunduz, Afghanistan, an “accident” which Doctors Without Borders alleges is a war crime and for which it is asking that an immediate international investigation be conducted.

The American bombing of the hospital in Kunduz constitutes an “attack on the Geneva conventions,” the president of the organization, Joanne Liu, stated in Geneva. And while emphasizing that Doctors Without Borders “cannot rely on internal military investigations,” she asked for “an investigation into the Kunduz attack by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission,” a permanent body established under the Geneva Conventions.

The complaints by the organization were immediately backed up by U.S. Gen. John Campbell, commander of the NATO force in Afghanistan, who stated that American soldiers “did not follow” the rules applying to air strikes when the bombing occurred at the Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz.

According to a report by The New York Times, “under the rules, airstrikes are authorized to kill terrorists, protect American troops and help Afghans who request support in battles.” But for the air strike in Kunduz, during which at least 22 people were killed at the Doctors Without Borders hospital, General Campbell stated in private discussions that “the Special Operations Forces most likely did not meet any of the criteria.”

The American general admits that the Special Operations Forces which conducted the air strike could not see the target on which their Afghan counterparts were requesting a strike.

Gen. Campbell explained yesterday to members of Congress that the Doctors Without Borders medical center was bombed by mistake during a U.S. air strike that was requested by the Afghans, but was decided by the American chain of command. The Afghan soldiers had reported that there were Taliban fighters inside the hospital.

The Doctors Without Borders organization was outraged by these statements, stating that there was no mistake since they had sent the coordinates of their hospital to the U.S. forces, and also to the Afghan army, so that such an incident could be avoided. Three investigations are already under way; one American, one Afghan and one led by NATO.