By Andrea Germanos, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 4-30-2016
Photo: Twitter
“Unacceptable.”
That’s the reaction from 27-year old Hamdullah to the Pentagon’s announcement Friday that the U.S. military’s deadly airstrike on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan did not amount to a war crime.
His uncle was among the 42 people killed in the October 3, 2015 strike. Continue reading
By Nadia Prupis, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 3-18-2016
Kunduz clinic staff scramble to treat injured patients after the October bombing. (Photo: MSF)
Human rights groups said the Pentagon’s disciplinary actions against U.S. military personnel for the October bombing of a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan were both “an injustice and an insult.”
The Department of Defense announced late Wednesday it would issue “administrative punishments” against 12 service members responsible for the disastrous bombing that resulted in the deaths of 42 patients and staff—but would not file any criminal charges. Continue reading
By Nadia Prupis, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 12-21-2015
The bombing in October killed at least 42 patients and staff. (Photo: MSF)
There is “strong” evidence that the U.S. military attack on a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan two months ago constituted a criminal act, and should be investigated as such, Human Rights Watch said Monday in a letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter (pdf).
“The attack on the MSF hospital in Kunduz involved possible war crimes,” said the advocacy group’s Washington director Sarah Margon. “The ongoing U.S. inquiry will not be credible unless it considers criminal liability and is protected from improper command influence.” Continue reading
By Lauren McCauley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 12-9-2015
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)delivered over 540,000 signatures on Wednesday to the White House echoing the organization’s call for an independent investigation. (Photo: MSF-USA/ Twitter)
Wearing white lab coats, workers with the international humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders and their supporters on Wednesday delivered boxes and boxes of petitions to the White House gates bearing the signatures of more than half a million people who are reiterating the call: “Even war has rules.”
In the more than two months since the U.S. military bombing of a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, the Obama administration has thus far refused to respond to the medical charity’s demand for an independent investigation. Continue reading
By Robert C. Koehler. Published 10-15-2015 by Common Dreams
American Special Forces in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, January 1, 2014. (Photo: US Army/Sergeant Bertha A. Flores)
“The Pentagon said on Saturday that it would make ‘condolence payments’ to the survivors of the American airstrike earlier this month on a hospital run by Doctors Without Borders in Kunduz, Afghanistan, as well as to the next of kin of those who died in the attack.”
Such a small piece of news, reported a few days ago by the New York Times. I’m not sure if anything could make me feel more ashamed of being an American.
Turns out the basic payout for a dead civilian in one of our war zones is . . . brace yourself . . . $2,500. That’s the sum we’ve been quietly doling out for quite a few years now. Conscience money. It’s remarkably cheap, considering that the bombs that took them out may have cost, oh, half a million dollars each. Continue reading