Doctors Without Borders Spurns Pentagon Offer of Money to Repair Bombed Hospital

MSF Says Policy Is Not to Take Government Money

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has announced that it is rejecting a Pentagon offer to pay for the reconstruction of the Kunduz, Afghanistan hospital that a US warplane bombed last month, an attack which killed at least 30 civilians.

MSF says that it is a matter of policy for the nonprofit not to accept government money for its operations in Afghanistan, and that it intends to continue that policy. Tensions between the Pentagon and MSF since the attack, however, were likely also a factor.

In a statement, MSF General Director Christopher Stokes reiterated that all the information seen so far makes it “hard to understand” how the Pentagon continues to maintain that the attack was some sort of “mistake.” MSF maintains the attack was deliberate, and subsequently a war crime.

The Pentagon said shortly after the attack that they intended to pay for the repairs and to make “condolence payments” to the families of slain civilians. The Pentagon also promised to pay for additional repairs after smashing the hospital with an armored vehicle.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.