Kunduz MSF Hospital Attack

**At ContactsForLess.ca, we pride ourselves in being a company that is unlike all others out there. We donate 51% of our profits to the non-profit organization that is out there helping our planet. We are very proud to support Doctors Without Borders MSF with 51% of our profits. However, as a result of this horrible attack on their hospital in Kunduz, we have decided to make Doctors Without Borders the highlighted group of the month for November. You will still be able to donate 51% of our profits to the non-profit organization of your choice, however Doctors Without Borders will be the “default” group for the month of November. Let’s all do what we can in helping Doctors Without Borders continue their mission in providing medical-aid to those areas that need it most. Our donations to Doctors Without Borders for November are in tribute to those victims of this horrible tragedy**

Kunduz MSF (Doctors Without Borders) Hospital Attack

On October 3rd, the compound of the Doctors Without Borders MSF Hospital, located in the city of Kunduz, was destroyed in a U.S. airstrike.

The trauma hospital was bombed during a firefight between the Taliban and government troops, which the U.S was helping Afghan forces in retaking the city after insurgents overran it on September 28th. According to Associated Press reports, American special operations analysts were investigating the MSF hospital compound because they believed it was being used by a Pakistani operative to help coordinate Taliban activity. These U.S. analysts knew that this facility was a medical hospital established and run by the non-profit relief organization, Doctors Without Borders. Though it’s unclear if this information got to the commanders who unleashed the AC-130 gunship on the MSF hospital.

The extensive, repeated and precise destruction that the hospital faced are not indicative of this attack having been a mistake. The bombing of the MSF facility went on for more than an hour despite MSF’s effort calls to Afghan, NATO and U.S. forces to call the attack off.

Christopher Stokes, general director of Doctors Without Borders, has opened an independent inquiry regarding this so-called “mistake.” In an interview with Associated Press, he said he wanted a “clear explanation” about this incident since all evidence so far was pointing to a grave breach of international humanitarian law, therefore calling it a war crime.

As more information has unfolded about the bombing on the MSF hospital in the city Kunduz, MSF has denied that there were any armed Taliban within their facility at the time of the attack. According to MSF policy, they treat government troops and insurgent combatants equally. Nevertheless, hospitals are regarded as protected sites during war times according to humanitarian law.

A Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization, Doctors Without Borders MSF, has called for an investigation to be done by the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission. However, this commission will need the cooperation of both Afghanistan and U.S. to proceed in the investigation.

Until what happened on October 3rd in Kunduz can be fully understood, we cannot guarantee that another attack as unacceptable as this will not occur again. The reality of the fact is that those U.S. bombs hit a huge hospital full of wounded patients and MSF staff. The US military remains responsible for the targets it hits, even though it is part of a coalition. At the end of the day, there is no justification for an attack such as this one.

“Under International Humanitarian Law hospitals in conflict zones are protected spaces. Until proven otherwise, the events of last [October 3rd] amount to an inexcusable violation of this law. We are working on the presumption of a war crime.” – Dr Joanne Liu, President, MSF International.