Medicines Without Borders faces challenges of Border security challenges!

www.eastafricaforum.net http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79181

Imagine doing medicine without border activities in North America or Europe or China etc.?

This will be a serious diplomatic security and an all out international challenges. First, the qualifications, accreditation and contract with Federal, Regional and local authorities, etc.

I wonder what type of contract these people sign when they enter into respective developing countries. Are they there to really provide the much needed medical care or to fuel crisis as MSF has done consistently in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Imagine, if Ethiopia tried to do what they are doing in Switzerland?

Switzerland does not even give Visa to Ethiopians or is rather very strict as they might ask about the Millions of dollars still languishing in their banks.

Yet, they can send such James Bond Type of Activists under the cover of MSF to Ethiopia and create headlines of terror all the time.

I wonder where their hippocratic oath of first do no harm has gone, all the same here is MSF in its true colors again

Do we really need an MSF in Ethiopia?

Please share your views and perspectives

with regards

Dr B



IRIN July 10, 2008 ETHIOPIA:

MSF halts operations in Somali region NAIROBI - Médecins Sans Frontières Switzerland (MSF-Swiss) has withdrawn from Fiiq, Somali region, saying repeated administrative hurdles and intimidation had prevented it from providing medical care to vulnerable populations.

"Over the six months of our intervention, our medical teams could only work for 10 weeks in Fiiq town and five on the periphery of the town where the most important needs are," Hugues Robert, who heads the Ethiopia programme in Geneva, said in a statement. "It significantly reduces the medical impact of our action."

A senior Ethiopian official, however, denied the claims.

"They did not face any problem," the official, who requested anonymity, told IRIN in Addis Ababa. "They might have their own double agenda. Otherwise there was no intimidation or administrative hurdles from our side.

"If there was intimidation, they would not have stayed for the last six months."

MSF-Swiss said despite an agreement signed with Ethiopia's federal authorities, its staff had not received the necessary work permits and could only be on-site for short periods.

Despite severe malnutrition rates in some villages, the charity added, only 84 children suffering from malnutrition had been helped. "In addition, over the past six months, MSF mobile teams have only been able to give medical consultations to 677 patients in the most affected rural area around Fiiq, while many more patients would have been expected.

"The authorities' attitude towards humanitarian organisations has translated into recurrent arrests of MSF Switzerland staff without charge or explanation," it added. "Despite continuous attempts to improve the working relations with the authorities, our organisation can only regret the absence of any room to bring independent and impartial assistance."

The government official said disagreements had arisen with the charity. "The region has a right to monitor whether they conduct their operations according to the agreement they reached [but] they do not want our close monitoring," he said.

Among other activities, the official added, the charity had refused to give information about its patients, had failed to seek clearance to move operations from one area to another and at one time, landed a plane in Fiiq without notifying anyone.

"We did not arrest any MSF expatriate staff," he told IRIN. "Five national staff of MSF are in detention. We do not know the reasons behind their arrest but if a citizen is found to be a criminal, a government has a right to arrest [them]."

According to the official, MSF Greece, Belgium and Holland were still operating in the region.

Clashes between government troops and the rebel Ogaden National Liberation Front, related disruptions to trade, transport and social services along with limited access for aid agencies have compounded the humanitarian situation in the area.

http://africa.reuters.com/country/SO/news/usnL10012925.html

Clash brews as Somali rivals vie to rescue Germans

Thu 10 Jul 2008Abdiqani Hassan and Hussein Ali NurBOSASSO/HARGEISA, Somalia, (Reuters) - Troops from two feuding regions of remote northern Somalia were bracing for a possible showdown on Thursday as they compete to rescue four German tourists held hostage there by pirates.

The Germans -- two men, a woman and a child -- were kidnapped in Yemen 17 days ago. They are now held in thickly wooded mountains near Las Qoray town, in a disputed region between Somaliland and Puntland.

"We have surrounded the pirates," Gurey Osman Salah, the Somaliland commander in Las Qoray, told Reuters by telephone.

"We will not allow anyone near the area and we will not hesitate to use force."

The move has angered the Puntland authorities, who withdrew their forces last week in order to avoid a clash with Somaliland troops, after local elders called for space to negotiate with the pirates and persuaded both sides to pull back.

International recognition has so far eluded both breakaway enclaves, and security experts say officials on both sides think rescuing the Germans would help their cause.

In Puntland's busy port city of Bosasso, residents said fighters were now preparing for redeployment, raising fears of a battle. Elders who tried to negotiate with the kidnappers were said to have withdrawn to Baran, south of Las Qoray.

"The troops have tested their weapons. We are preparing a force to be sent to Las Qoray," a senior Puntland police officer told Reuters. He declined to be named.

Somaliland and Puntland, which are relatively peaceful compared with the rest of chaotic Somalia, have fought over the disputed regions on their border in the past, and the leftovers of war still pose a risk to the people.

In Puntland's administrative capital Garowe, witnesses said at least four children died on Thursday and seven others were wounded when a boy found an old hand grenade and threw it onto a pitch where other boys were playing football.