MSF calls for independent commission on Kunduz hospital attack

President Barack Obama apologized to Doctors Without Borders on Wednesday for the American air attack that killed at least 22 people at its hospital in Afghanistan, and said the USA would examine military procedures to look for better ways to prevent such incidents.

191-a-19-(Josh Earnest, White House press secretary, at news conference)-“in the future”-White House press secretary Josh Earnest says the president apologized to Doctors Without Borders leader Dr. Joanne Liu for the airstrike”.

Since 2011, tens of thousands of Afghan men, women and children have received life- and limb-saving treatment at a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders in the Taliban-controlled city of Kunduz.

While the United States, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Afghanistan are already investigating the tragedy, for which the United States has taken responsibility, MSF wants an impartial inquiry to clear up the “inconsistencies between the U.S. and Afghan accounts” of the incident.

Earnest disputed claims the airstrike amounted to a war crime, saying there is no evidence “that this was anything other than a bad, tragic mistake”.

“We reiterate our (request) that the USA government consent to an independent investigation led by the worldwide Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to establish what happened in Kunduz, how it happened, and why it happened”, Liu said.

The October 3 airstrike came as Kunduz was under siege by the Taliban. “We will hold those responsible accountable, and we will take steps to ensure mistakes are not repeated”.

She said that the IHFFC was “the only permanent body set up specifically to investigate violations on an global humanitarian law”. The dirty little secret of aerial warfare is that innocent people die, especially in urban areas.

But on Wednesday, Mr. Earnest said the president had chose to issue the formal apology in the wake of testimony from the top general in Afghanistan before a congressional committee.

A day earlier, the White House had stopped short of an apology, waiting to learn more even while acknowledging the attack was a US mistake.

It has been suggested that the question of prior warning could be the factor which decides whether the USA contravened rules of war, as a 2015 Pentagon manual on adherence to rules of war explicitly requires it.

First, almost USA 10,000 troops would remain in the country temporarily, and second, they would be permitted to shoot under certain circumstances, including counterterrorism operations and to protect American and Afghan forces. We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility.

The Afghan Ministry of Defense said on Sunday Taliban fighters had attacked the hospital and were using the building “as a human shield”, which the medical group denied, while pointing out it would be a war crime not to treat the wounded. It now appears that U.S. forces were not facing direct attack from the Taliban. This MSF hospital was the only high-level trauma care center in northeastern Afghanistan, but the attack has left it no longer operational.

“We can not rely on only internal military investigations by the USA, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Afghan forces”, she said.