Doctors Without Borders is seeking an investigation by a special international commission into the U.S. airstrike that hit one of its hospitals in Afghanistan, a top official with the aid group said.
The group — also known as Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF — has repeatedly said it believes the bombing Saturday, which killed 22 people in the embattled city of Kunduz, was a war crime.
“Today, we say, ‘Enough,'” MSF International President Dr. Joanne Liu said at a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday, announcing that the organization wants the International Humanitarian Fact-Finding Commission to look into the attack.
“This was not just an attack on our hosipital,” Liu said. “It was an attack on the Geneva Conventions.”
The commission was established to clarify the facts in allegations of war crimes in order to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law during armed conflicts.
It was officially set up in 1991 under an addition to the Geneva Conventions, which form the basis of international humanitarian law, regulating the conduct of armed conflict. It’s not a tribunal and doesn’t return a verdict.
The United States is not one of the states that have recognized the commission, which has never been called upon before.
The top commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John Campbell, said Tuesday that the MSF hospital had been struck by mistake.
“We would never intentionally target a protected medical facility,” he told the Senate Armed Services committee.
Campbell confirmed that it was a “U.S. decision” to provide air fire following a request for support from Afghan forces near the Doctors Without Borders medical facility.
