6 oktober 2015

Meanwhile in Afganistan -Om nyhetsrapportering

A fire burns at the Doctors Without Borders trauma center in Kunduz, Afghanistan, early Saturday. Doctors Without
Borders / Medecins Sans Frontieres




Mellan klockan 2.08 och 3.15 lokal tid på lördag morgon den 3 oktober 2015 utsattes Läkare Utan Gränsers sjukhus i Kunduz, Afganistan, för en serie bombräder.Det stora sjukhuset har funnits där i fyra år. Bart Janssens, ansvarig för Läkare utan gränsers insatser:


"Vi har flera gånger försett alla krigets parter med sjukhusets exakta GPS-koordinater. Så vi förstår verkligen inte och vi accepterar definitivt inte att det här avfärdas som "oavsiktliga skador på civila mål".

Läkare Utan Gränser 
"Läkare Utan Gränser är en medicinsk humanitär organisation som räddar liv och lindrar nöd där vi behövs mest. Vi bistår människor som drabbats av kriser, krig och naturkatastrofer oavsett politisk åsikt, religion eller etnisk tillhörighet.Vi arbetar ofta på platser som sällan får internationell uppmärksamhet och våra fältarbetare möter ofta människor som utsatts för våld, övergrepp och försummelse. Läkare Utan Gränser har till uppgift att höja rösten om de övergrepp och de missförhållanden vi ser och att vara en katalysator för förändring."
Läkare Utan Gränser gjorde betydande insats redan t.ex i Biafra och Rwuanda var först på plats i Västafrika förra året för att starta kampen mot ebola. Det tog månader innan de lyckades få WHO och regeringar att inse allvaret i epidemin och sätta in resurser. Organisationen har fått mycket uppskattning och belönades 1999 med Nobels fredspris som ett erkännande av dess medlemmars kontinuerliga insatser med att erbjuda läkarvård i akuta kriser, samt att höja medvetenheten internationellt om potentiella humanitära katastrofer.




Doctors Without Borders :


“This attack is abhorrent and a grave violation of International Humanitarian Law,” said Meinie Nicolai, MSF President.
We demand total transparency from Coalition forces. We cannot accept that this horrific loss of life will simply be dismissed as ‘collateral damage’.”From 2:08 AM until 3:15 AM local time today, MSF’s trauma hospital in Kunduz was hit by a series of aerial bombing raids at approximately 15 minute intervals.The main central hospital building, housing the intensive care unit, emergency rooms, and physiotherapy ward, was repeatedly hit very precisely during each aerial raid, while surrounding buildings were left mostly untouched.


Horrific loss of life

Patients burned to death in their beds

“The bombs hit and then we heard the plane circle round,” said Heman Nagarathnam, MSF Head of Programmes in northern Afghanistan.

“There was a pause, and then more bombs hit. This happened again and again. When I made it out from the office, the main hospital building was engulfed in flames.

"Those people that could had moved quickly to the building’s two bunkers to seek safety. But patients who were unable to escape burned to death as they lay in their beds.” Coalition knew hospital location.

The bombing took place despite the fact that MSF had provided the GPS coordinates of the trauma hospital to Coalition and Afghan military and civilian officials as recently as Tuesday 29 September, to avoid that the hospital be hit.
As is routine practice for MSF in conflict areas, MSF had communicated the exact location of the hospital to all parties to the conflict.
In the aftermath of the attack, the MSF team desperately tried to save the lives of wounded colleagues and patients, setting up a makeshift operating theatre in an undamaged room.















“This attack is abhorrent and a grave violation of International Humanitarian Law,” said Meinie Nicolai, MSF President.

We demand total transparency from Coalition forces. We cannot accept that this horrific loss of life will simply be dismissed as ‘collateral damage’.”
From 2:08 AM until 3:15 AM local time today, MSF’s trauma hospital in Kunduz was hit by a series of aerial bombing raids at approximately 15 minute intervals.
The main central hospital building, housing the intensive care unit, emergency rooms, and physiotherapy ward, was repeatedly hit very precisely during each aerial raid, while surrounding buildings were left mostly untouched.
and physiotherapy ward, was repeatedly hit very precisely during each aerial raid, while surrounding buildings were left mostly untouched.

Horrific loss of life
Patients burned to death in their beds  “The bombs hit and then we heard the plane circle round,” said Heman Nagarathnam, MSF Head of Programmes in northern Afghanistan.
“There was a pause, and then more bombs hit. This happened again and again. When I made it out from the office, the main hospital building was engulfed in flames.

"Those people that could had moved quickly to the building’s two bunkers to seek safety. But patients who were unable to escape burned to death as they lay in their beds.” Coalition knew hospital location.

The bombing took place despite the fact that MSF had provided the GPS coordinates of the trauma hospital to Coalition and Afghan military and civilian officials as recently as Tuesday 29 September, to avoid that the hospital be hit.
As is routine practice for MSF in conflict areas, MSF had communicated the exact location of the hospital to all parties to the conflict.
In the aftermath of the attack, the MSF team desperately tried to save the lives of wounded colleagues and patients, setting up a makeshift operating theatre in an undamaged room.









Var överraskande nog bland de första tydlig i sin rubricering:
U.S. Airstrike Kills 19 at Doctors Without Borders Hospital in Afghanistan U.S. is investigating bombing that has prompted condemnation from U.N. and humanitarian groupsKABUL—A U.S. airstrike in the Afghan city of Kunduz killed at least 19 people at a hospital run by international medical-aid organization Doctors Without Borders early Saturday, prompting condemnation from humanitarian groups and the United Nations.




skriver om hur många mainstream- tidningar var allt annat än tydliga med uppgiften vem bombade ett sjukhus med intensivvård och pågående operationer. Vi har ju fått läsa i några år nu att Nato lämnar sitt uppdrag i Afganistan.





CNN and the NYT Are Deliberately Obscuring Who Perpetrated the Afghan Hospital Attac


"We’re bravely here to report that these two incidents perhaps coincidentally occurred at “about” the same time: There was a hospital that blew up, and then there was this other event where the U.S. carried out an airstrike. As the blogger Billmon wrote: “London 1940: Civilians throughout the city were killed at about the same time as a German air strike, CNN reports.”



The entire article is designed to obfuscate who carried out this atrocity. The headline states: “Air attacks kill at least 19 at Afghanistan hospital; U.S. investigating.” What’s the U.S. role in this incident? They’re the investigators: like Sherlock Holmes after an unsolved crime.

The article in the NYT’s Sunday print edition illustrated the pains the paper was suffering to avoid framing the story as what it was: a U.S. airstrike on a hospital. This is what readers of that paper saw on Sunday morning:"




In fairness, this is a modest improvement from the day before, as it at least constitutes an acknowledgment that there are some people in the world who are blaming the U.S. for what happened — but none who are at the New York Times of course! That led Kade Crockford, in exasperation, to offer this obvious editorial suggestion:








U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, say a U.S. military AC-130 gunship had been operating in the area, firing at Taliban targets after receiving a request for support from U.S. special operations forces advising Afghan troops.
The U.S. military has said American forces carried out an air strike in Kunduz city at 2:15 a.m. local on Saturday.
"The situation there is confused and complicated. So it may take some time to get the facts but we will get the facts and we will be full and transparent about sharing them," Carter said.
Carter refused to speculate on what occurred but stressed that the United States would hold accountable "anybody responsible for doing something they shouldn't have done."


Al Jazeera English

Låter alla parter, även talibaner komma till tals:" På grund av de rådande militärä förhållanden vårdades inga av våra soldater på MSF trauma center"


Afghan forces, backed by NATO special forces and US air strikes, have been going from house to house in Kunduz in a bid to flush Taliban fighters out of the city.

"Sources inside the city are reporting heavy clashes between the Taliban and the Afghan army. There is no set front line between the two sides, so the fighting is from street to street at the moment."People inside the city are suffering. There is a shortage of food, water and electricity," our correspondent said.

The Taliban's offensive in Kunduz, their biggest tactical success since 2001, marks a major blow for Afghanistan's Western-trained forces, who have largely been fighting on their own since last December.

"MSF urgently seeks clarity on exactly what took place and how this terrible event could have happened," MSF said.

After the attack, the medical charity urged all parties involved in the violence to respect the safety of health facilities, patients and staff.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said that no Taliban fighters were present in the hospital at the time of the air strike.

"We condemn the bombing on the hospital. It was an attack carried out on innocent people." Zabiullah told Al Jazeera.

"Our mujahidin [fighters] were not treated at the MSF trauma centre due to prevailing military conditions. Such attacks by US forces have taken place in Afghanistan for years now. This very attack has once again exposed the ruthless colors of the invaders to the Afghans," he added.
US-led NATO forces ended their combat mission in Afghanistan last December, though a 13,000-strong residual force remains for training and counterterrorism operations.
But there has been an escalation in air strikes by NATO forces in recent months despite the drawdown."

Sammanfattning och slutsats:

Få tidningar, informerar tydligt ,vad alla parter, som sätts i samband med den här katastrofen, har att säga till om saken: NATO ,USA, officiella regeringskällor i Afganistan, Läkare Utan Gränser, talibaner, människor som bor i trakten. Hur många hade hört om det här, om sjukhuset inte hade haft personal från väst?!


För inte inte så länge sedan var det standard i demokratiska länder att rapportera nyheter från alla parter, när det gällde konflikter och meningsskiljaktigheter i världspolitiken. Även de mediakällor, som uppger sig vara neutrala och oberoende, har slutat rapportera synpunkter från alla parter i världspolitiken. Som läsare gäller det att vara medveten om förändringen och söka sig till flera olika källor. Vi har tillgång till Google- översättare och flera andra språkverktyg. Utanför mainstream finns det massor med kanaler, som skriver propaganda och rena lögner för att främja enskilda gruppers ekonomiska och politiska intressen. Men även individer och organisationer (som Läkare Utan Gränser), som ideellt försöker bredda nyhetsflödet, och informera missförhållanden och brott mot mänskliga rättigheter för dem som annars inte blir hörda .




Amerikansk militär rammade grindarna till Läkare utan gränsers (MSF) sjukhus i Kunduz i Afghanistan med hjälp av en stridsvagn i förra veckan, uppger USA:s försvarshögkvarter Pentagon.