MSF says does not trust US probe into air attack on Afghan hospital

The medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has called for an independent inquiry into a deadly US airstrike on a hospital in the northern city of Kunduz, saying it has no confidence in a unilateral probe by the US military.

"Under the clear presumption that a war crime has been committed, MSF demands that a full and transparent investigation into the event be conducted by an independent international body," MSF General Director Christopher Stokes said in a statement on Sunday.

"Relying only on an internal investigation by a party to the conflict would be wholly insufficient," he added.

The US military launched a probe into the incident on Saturday. President Barack Obama said the Pentagon has launched a "full investigation" into the deadly air strikes.

He said he expected a "full accounting of the facts" and would then make a definitive judgment.

MSF leaves Kunduz

The medical aid group, also known as Doctors Without Borders, withdrew its staff from Kunduz.  

"The MSF hospital is not functional anymore. All critical patients have been referred to other health facilities and no MSF staff are working in our hospital," MSF spokeswoman Kate Stegeman said on Sunday.

"I can't confirm at this stage whether our Kunduz trauma center will reopen or not," she added. 

The charity has strongly denounced the assault as "abhorrent and a grave violation of international law." It has also demanded answers from the US-led military alliance in Afghanistan. The attack left 22 people, including 12 MSF staffers, dead.

'Afghans to suffer' 

Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in a statement on Sunday expressed serious concerns over the attack against health workers.  

"Such attacks against health workers and facilities undermine the capacity of humanitarian organizations to assist the Afghan people at a time when they most urgently need it," ICRC said.

On Saturday, the MSF said the aerial assault continued for more than half an hour after US and Afghan military officials in Kabul and Washington were first informed.  

Patients were burned to death 

Heman Nagarathnam, the head of MSF programs, said those patients unable to move were burned to death during the assault. “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.”

US airstrike may amount to war crime

Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, the UN human rights chief, said on Saturday that the attack on the MSF medical center was "utterly tragic, inexcusable, and possibly even criminal."

"This deeply shocking event should be promptly, thoroughly and independently investigated and the results should be made public," al-Hussein said in a statement, adding, "The seriousness of the incident is underlined by the fact that, if established as deliberate in a court of law, an airstrike on a hospital may amount to a war crime."

MSF's withdrawal comes as Kunduz is grappling with a humanitarian crisis, with thousands of civilians caught in the crossfire between Afghan government forces and Taliban militants. At least five dozen people are known to have died and 400 to have been wounded in the past week's fierce fighting.

Afghanistan is gripped by insecurity nearly 14 years after the United States and its allies invaded the country in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. 

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