Unacceptable bombing of hospitals in Kunduz

It is a fact that all the world’s major powers and regional proxies create false intelligence reports that justify wars that are illegal, unethical and profoundly tragic. Throughout recorded history, major combatants have bombed and shelled hospitals and medical institutions.

The US bombing of a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, is tantamount to a war crime. A military assault on a medical facility, where people go to heal not only adds to the spiralling body counts, it also creates mortality figures that will never appear in the mainstream media.

Pregnant women in hospitals die in these air assaults. One wonders when did foetuses become enemy combatants? According to the International Humanitarian Law (IHL), hospitals are protected sites. According to Geneva Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War: ”The protection to which civilian hospitals are entitled shall not cease unless they are used to commit acts harmful to the enemy.”

The Geneva Convention also requires “a reasonable time limit” for allowing an evacuation. If a hospital is used to launch weapons under IHL, it can only be targeted when there is an imminent strike originating from the location. Even storing caches of weapons do not meet international laws stringent threshold for firing on humanitarian sites.

The Kunduz hospital had given their GPS co-ordinates to all the warring factions on numerous occasions. If this tragic strike was an accident, then why was it prolonged for 45 minutes? It is imperative that all peace loving people call for an end to all wars raging across this turbulent planet.

— The reader is a South African based in Johannesburg