| Aid agency offers hope of Afghan return The Associated Press
07/30/2004
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KABUL - A medical relief agencypressed ahead yesterday with its plan to leave Afghanistan because of deteriorating security, but offered hope of a swift return to dismayed government officials. Medecins Sans Frontieres said two days ago that it was quitting because the government had failed to act against a warlord suspected in the June 2 slaughter of five of its staff, illustrating how violence has impeded humanitarian aid. Hamid Karzai, the pesident, said he regretted the decision and insisted his government was "fully committed" to investigating the killing. A UN spokesman said it also hoped MSF would return soon. But Huub Verhagen, head of mission, said Karzai's assurances were insufficient. "We hope there will actually be a good follow-up" in the investigation, Verhagen said. "People have always expressed their willingness, but it never came to action." In another setback, MSF's appeal to the Taliban to recognise its neutrality fell on deaf ears. "Some NGOs like MSF say they are helping the Afghan people but behind they are supporting US policy, they are spies," said Abdul Hakim Latifi, a purported Taliban spokesman. "We'll give them no guarantees."MSF's 80 foreign staff were yesterday unplugging computers in its main Kabul office and preparing to leave. The red-and-white logos of the agency, which had been in Afghanistan for 24 years, were already gone. Many programmes have been handed to the government and other relief groups in a pullback to be completed next month. A hospital in the capital, for instance, has passed to the health ministry with three months' supply of drugs. The group will nevertheless pay rent on its headquarters "to have an easy possibility to come back", Verhagen said. The killing of five MSF staff in north-western Badghis province was the deadliest for any international aid agency since the fall of the Taliban, and brought to more than 30 the toll of relief workers killed since March last year. Latifi claimed responsibility at the time, but MSF officials said the interior minister told them a former local security chief had ordered the killings in protest at being ousted. MSF also accused the US military of making relief workers targets by running its own aid projects in an attempt to win over ordinary Afghans. APA medical relief agencypressed ahead yesterday with its plan to leave Afghanistan because of deteriorating security, but offered hope of a swift return to dismayed government officials. Medecins Sans Frontieres said two days ago that it was quitting because the government had failed to act against a warlord suspected in the June 2 slaughter of five of its staff, illustrating how violence has impeded humanitarian aid. Hamid Karzai, the pesident, said he regretted the decision and insisted his government was "fully committed" to investigating the killing. A UN spokesman said it also hoped MSF would return soon. But Huub Verhagen, head of mission, said Karzai's assurances were insufficient. "We hope there will actually be a good follow-up" in the investigation, Verhagen said. "People have always expressed their willingness, but it never came to action." In another setback, MSF's appeal to the Taliban to recognise its neutrality fell on deaf ears."Some NGOs like MSF say they are helping the Afghan people but behind they are supporting US policy, they are spies," said Abdul Hakim Latifi, a purported Taliban spokesman. "We'll give them no guarantees."MSF's 80 foreign staff were yesterday unplugging computers in its main Kabul office and preparing to leave. The red-and-white logos of the agency, which had been in Afghanistan for 24 years, were already gone.Many programmes have been handed to the government and other relief groups in a pullback to be completed next month. A hospital in the capital, for instance, has passed to the health ministry with three months' supply of drugs. The group will nevertheless pay rent on its headquarters "to have an easy possibility to come back", Verhagen said. The killing of five MSF staff in north-western Badghis province was the deadliest for any international aid agency since the fall of the Taliban, and brought to more than 30 the toll of relief workers killed since March last year. Latifi claimed responsibility at the time, but MSF officials said the interior minister told them a former local security chief had ordered the killings in protest at being ousted. MSF also accused the US military of making relief workers targets by running its own aid projects in an attempt to win over ordinary Afghans. APA medical relief agencypressed ahead yesterday with its plan to leave Afghanistan because of deteriorating security, but offered hope of a swift return to dismayed government officials. Medecins Sans Frontieres said two days ago that it was quitting because the government had failed to act against a warlord suspected in the June 2 slaughter of five of its staff, illustrating how violence has impeded humanitarian aid. Hamid Karzai, the pesident, said he regretted the decision and insisted his government was "fully committed" to investigating the killing. A UN spokesman said it also hoped MSF would return soon. But Huub Verhagen, head of mission, said Karzai's assurances were insufficient. "We hope there will actually be a good follow-up" in the investigation, Verhagen said. "People have always expressed their willingness, but it never came to action." In another setback, MSF's appeal to the Taliban to recognise its neutrality fell on deaf ears. "Some NGOs like MSF say they are helping the Afghan people but behind they are supporting US policy, they are spies," said Abdul Hakim Latifi, a purported Taliban spokesman. "We'll give them no guarantees." MSF's 80 foreign staff were yesterday unplugging computers in its main Kabul office and preparing to leave. The red-and-white logos of the agency, which had been in Afghanistan for 24 years, were already gone. Many programmes have been handed to the government and other relief groups in a pullback to be completed next month. A hospital in the capital, for instance, has passed to the health ministry with three months' supply of drugs. The group will nevertheless pay rent on its headquarters "to have an easy possibility to come back", Verhagen said. The killing of five MSF staff in north-western Badghis province was the deadliest for any international aid agency since the fall of the Taliban, and brought to more than 30 the toll of relief workers killed since March last year. Latifi claimed responsibility at the time, but MSF officials said the interior minister told them a former local security chief had ordered the killings in protest at being ousted. MSF also accused the US military of making relief workers targets by running its own aid projects in an attempt to win over ordinary Afghans. APA medical relief agencypressed ahead yesterday with its plan to leave Afghanistan because of deteriorating security, but offered hope of a swift return to dismayed government officials. Medecins Sans Frontieres said two days ago that it was quitting because the government had failed to act against a warlord suspected in the June 2 slaughter of five of its staff, illustrating how violence has impeded humanitarian aid. Hamid Karzai, the pesident, said he regretted the decision and insisted his government was "fully committed" to investigating the killing. A UN spokesman said it also hoped MSF would return soon. But Huub Verhagen, head of mission, said Karzai's assurances were insufficient. "We hope there will actually be a good follow-up" in the investigation, Verhagen said. "People have always expressed their willingness, but it never came to action."In another setback, MSF's appeal to the Taliban to recognise its neutrality fell on deaf ears. "Some NGOs like MSF say they are helping the Afghan people but behind they are supporting US policy, they are spies," said Abdul Hakim Latifi, a purported Taliban spokesman. "We'll give them no guarantees." MSF's 80 foreign staff were yesterday unplugging computers in its main Kabul office and preparing to leave. The red-and-white logos of the agency, which had been in Afghanistan for 24 years, were already gone. Many programmes have been handed to the government and other relief groups in a pullback to be completed next month. A hospital in the capital, for instance, has passed to the health ministry with three months' supply of drugs. The group will nevertheless pay rent on its headquarters "to have an easy possibility to come back", Verhagen said. The killing of five MSF staff in north-western Badghis province was the deadliest for any international aid agency since the fall of the Taliban, and brought to more than 30 the toll of relief workers killed since March last year. Latifi claimed responsibility at the time, but MSF officials said the interior minister told them a former local security chief had ordered the killings in protest at being ousted. MSF also accused the US military of making relief workers targets by running its own aid projects in an attempt to win over ordinary Afghans.
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