By Marc DuBois, Executive Director, MSF UK
The murder of Gayle Williams in Kabul has again drawn attention to the tragic muddle of aid and politics. The Times editorial, Praying in Aid, points to the Taleban’s “malign” purpose in trying to destabilise the Afghan Government by forcing aid and other supportive NGOs out of the country. However, the issue is more complicated: in Afghanistan Western forces cause problems for humanitarian NGOs by exploiting aid to achieve their own objectives.
“Humanitarian assistance” becomes a tactic of war where the dominant military strategy is to win the hearts and minds of the local people. Whether a soldier in disguising himself as an aid worker or Western government funding of NGOs in places where they are also militarily engaged, the resulting perception of those on the “other” side is that we doctors and nurses are enemies. This increasingly blurred line between military and humanitarian action drives our efforts to explain and demonstrate real independence from political or military agendas.
In places like Afghanistan, a vicious circle forms. Fearing attacks, NGOs operate primarily in areas controlled by Western forces. This compounds the suspicion that assistance is partisan rather than impartial and neutral. So does the nature of some NGOs’ work. The “goodness” of the NGO cause – promoting democracy, empowering women, or proselytising religion – does not make it a humanitarian one. The difference is that nobody should view suturing a wound or feeding a child as political activities.
The challenge for NGOs is to mitigate the risk of the tragic incidents, through improved security management, to be sure, and by rebuilding the belief that we are there for the simple, compassionate purpose of delivering assistance to people in the heart of crisis. We cannot do this alone. Those who enter a country for political, military economic or religious purposes must clearly separate their mission from the one to alleviate suffering.