Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 3 October, the Medecins Sans Frontieres hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan was subjected to a prolonged air attack by US forces, with horrifying casualties among staff and patients: 22 people died, including 12 MSF staff. MSF General Director Christopher Stokes said:

We reiterate that the main hospital building, where medical personnel were caring for patients, was repeatedly and very precisely hit during each aerial raid, while the rest of the compound was left mostly untouched.

The laws of war prohibit the intentional targeting of civilian hospitals. The location of the hospital was well known to the authorities. Confusingly, the story from Washington changed a number of times, including alleging that US forces were under fire in Kunduz, which was subsequently corrected to say there had been no threat to US troops, and that the Afghan government had requested the bombing.

President Barack Obama has offered an apology to MSF, saying the hospital had been 'mistakenly struck'. However, no further explanation has been forthcoming. The US has said it will conduct its own investigation and provide an accounting of the facts. However, MSF is pushing for an international investigation into the incident, which it believes is a war crime. MSF International President Joanne Liu has said:

It is unacceptable that the bombing of a hospital and the killing of staff and patients can be dismissed as collateral damage or brushed aside as a mistake.

The Geneva conventions enshrine the absolute principle that civilians are not legitimate targets of war, yet civilians continue to die in terrible numbers, with little or no accountability. It is especially serious that aid workers have also been killed. I urge the Australian government to support an independent international investigation into this incident.