Emergency in Afghanistan: Raiding a Hospital

[stephinrome]

Emergency is a national treasure here in Italy. They got over 400,000 signatures of support on their online petition in just over a week. They've treated over 3.6 million people in war torn countries over the last 15 years. Here's the English version of their web site:
http://www.emergency.it/index2.php?ln=En

This particular hospital is right between Marjah and Kandahar.


Raiding a Hospital
Emergency in Afghanistan

By MICHAEL LEONARDI

On the 10th of April a hospital operated by the Italian Non Governmental Organization Emergency in Lashkar-gah in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan was attacked and shut down by Afghan police and Afghan secret service in cooperation with the British military, who secured the perimeter outside of the hospital. The surgical center was entered by Afghan armed forces who then went directly to a storage closet where they identified several boxes that contained suicide vests, grenades and other armaments. Three Italian staff members were arrested along with six Afghan members of the hospital staff.

The role played by the Italian based medical relief agency Emergency in Afghanistan has been the antithesis of NATO’s war for peace onslaught on the Afghan population. Emergency established a presence in Afghanistan in 1999 and operates three surgical centers, a maternity clinic and a network of 28 health centers in Afghanistan. Emergency is neutral and has a policy of treating all victims of war regardless of what side they may be affiliated with. Emergency’s surgical center for victims of war in Lashkar-gah has treated over 66 thousand people since it began operating in 2004.

After a week of wild accusations from the Afghan authorities and in the British media, condemnations of Emergency by elements of the Berlusconi government, and a mass mobilization in Italy on behalf of Emergency and their clear stance against the war, the three Italians were freed on Sunday the 18th of April. The Karzai government cited lack of concrete evidence as a the motive for the release of the Italians, but it is now being stated by some elements of the Afghan negotiating team that the Italian government promised to stop the operation of Emergency’s hospital in Lashkar-gah in exchange for the Italians’ release.

Read the rest at: http://counterpunch.com/leonardi04192010.html