POST
PRODUCTION
SCRIPT
FOREIGN
CORRESPONDENT
2016
Afghanistan
– Surgical Strike
30
mins 41 secs
©2016
ABC
Ultimo Centre
700
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Australia
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9994
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Australia
Phone: 61 2 8333 4383
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Précis |
It had a very particular “VOO-PAH” sort of noise. It
vibrated in your chest. I waited for this moment of clarity or my life
flashing before my eyes, the moment I’d seen on TV shows. It was just
overwhelming fear. – Australian doctor
Kathleen Thomas |
|
|
It was the instant in which an American AC-130 gunship
pumped the first of 211 artillery shells into the MSF-run hospital in Kunduz,
Afghanistan, last October 3. |
|
|
The whole building – the glass, the ceiling, the iron –
everything collapsed – Afghan doctor
Esmatullah Esmat |
|
|
Horrifically wounded patients screamed for morphine.
Hospital staff frantically triaged the maimed. At the end of it all, amid
smouldering ruins, 42 patients, family and medical staff were dead, and 37
wounded. |
|
|
My brother and my sister are always crying. Nothing will
compensate for the loss of my father
– Samiullah, son of a patient killed on the operating table |
|
|
People here were telling me that they will not bomb the area.
But they did bomb – father of three
year old girl Shaesta, who had been recovering from a leg amputation |
|
|
So why did the Americans attack? Was it anything to do
with MSF’s strict neutrality policy that saw it treat wounded Taliban just
like any other patients – a policy deeply resented by Afghanistan’s military?
And have charity-run hospitals like MSF’s now become “fair game” in the
world’s conflict zones? |
|
|
In Surgical Strike
survivors, including Australian Kathleen Thomas, relive the terror and chaos
inside the hospital as it was pounded by the gunship. |
|
|
And what of the aftermath?
What is the public to make of shifting explanations from the US military
which apologised for “a tragic mistake” but rejected calls for an independent
inquiry or war crimes investigation? |
|
Green thermal night vision/
Ground controllers/night vision gear watching night sky/ Large explosions on ground |
Music
|
00:00 |
Thomas 100% |
DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: “It had a very particular ‘VOO-PAH’ sort of noise. It
vibrated in your chest, it vibrated the whole building. If they’re going to
bomb me, we’re going to die and that’s... that will be the end”. |
00:32 |
TEXT:
2.08 am October 3, 2015. Kunduz, Afghanistan. A US AC-130 gunship attacks a
hospital run by international humanitarian group ‘MSF’ – Medecins Sans
Frontieres. |
Music
|
00:42 |
Thomas 100% |
DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: “It was just overwhelming fear. |
00:58 |
Stills. MSF staff in shock
huddled in corner/Surgeons around wounded on kitchen table. |
They
were calling out my name and begging for morphine. ‘Dr Kathleen, |
01:00 |
|
Dr
Kathleen, please, please give us some morphine’. |
01:05 |
Ambulance drives
away/burning hospital |
And
so I certainly |
01:08 |
Thomas 100% |
considered,
you know, doing what they do in the movies, calling my loved ones and saying
I love you and I’m, you know.... Sorry”. |
01:13 |
Dr Esmat standing in bombed
hospital building |
DR
ESMAT: “When we run out they target us and they shoot us. And when we
returned back, there was nothing. Just there was… bones on the beds”. |
01:26 |
General Nicholson press
conference |
GENERAL
JOHN NICHOLSON: “I grieve with you for your loss and suffering, and humbly
and respectfully ask for your forgiveness”. |
01:45 |
Still. Bombed hospital |
DR
JOANNE LIU: [MSF President at UN Security Council] “Medicine |
01:52 |
Dr Liu at UN Security
Council |
must
not be a deadly occupation. |
01:55 |
Still. Body on table under
debris |
Patients
must not be attacked or slaughtered in their beds. |
01:59 |
Dr Liu at UN Security
Council |
Stop
these attacks!” |
02:04 |
Stills. Bombed hospital
building |
DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: “It’s just all a big blur of horrendous grief at what had
been done and just an inability to understand or even try and |
02:06 |
Thomas 100% |
think
why this would have happened”. |
02:17 |
Hospital corridor/Bombed
hospital. TITLE: Surgical Strike |
Music
|
02:20 |
Thomas 100% |
DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: “My name is Kathleen Thomas. I am an Australian-trained
doctor, who’s currently working in intensive care as a trainee and I’ve just
recently returned from Afghanistan on my first mission with MSF”. |
02:29 |
Kunduz GVs. SUPER:
Kunduz, Afghanistan |
DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: “Kunduz, is a province in a city in the north of
Afghanistan. It was a stronghold for the Taliban for a long time. As the US
has pulled back, the Taliban have begun to exert some more control in the
area. When I |
02:42 |
Thomas 100% |
arrived
in Kunduz my counterpart from whom I was taking over was at the airport with
all of his luggage and we had about a five minute handover on the tarmac |
03:05 |
Still. Thomas and MSF
doctors smiling |
where
he was supposed to tell me everything about my job. Clearly it was a very
brief handover. |
03:14 |
Archival. Kunduz Trauma
Centre |
The
Kunduz Trauma Centre, which was also referred to as KTC, was a very busy
hospital. It was a ninety-three bed facility which had a busy emergency
department where they saw over a hundred patients per day. |
03:22 |
Thomas 100% |
Every
day, we would see numerous patients come in with different |
03:44 |
Archival. Kunduz Trauma
Centre |
horrific
injuries, traumatic amputations of legs, arms, big chunks of bodies taken
out, and then on top of that there would be lots of penetrating trauma, so
gunshots to the chest, lots of head trauma. |
03:48 |
Thomas 100% |
My
job there was the supervisor of the intensive care unit and the emergency
department. |
04:07 |
Stills. Thomas and MSF
doctors |
In
the emergency department there were eleven Afghani doctors and in the ICU
there were five to six Afghani doctors. So my role was to supervise them
clinically and also to teach them. |
04:12 |
Thomas 100% |
MSF
worked extremely hard and they did ongoing discussions with all the local
parties to ensure that everyone knew who we were, what we were, that we would
treat everyone equally |
04:27 |
Exterior of Trauma Centre.
‘Emergency Room’ signage. ‘No weapons’ signage |
and
that within the walls of our hospital, it was a safe zone for either side of
the conflict. On top of that, they have a very strict no weapons policy
within the hospital. So that is clearly displayed outside |
04:40 |
ARCHIVAL. MSF doctor with
patient |
and
every person or patient that enters the hospital is checked by security”. |
04:54 |
TEXT:
September 27-28, 2015 |
Music
|
05:00 |
Kunduz GVs. Night. |
|
05:06 |
|
DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: “I believe it was Sunday night, |
05:14 |
Thomas 100% |
we
noted that there was a lot of heavy artillery being fired and that was coming
probably from the Afghan military |
05:16 |
Night view across Kunduz |
and
that was happening throughout the whole night. But about two o’clock in the
morning is |
05:23 |
Thomas 100% |
when
all of us in the house were awoken by the sounds of warfare that we had never
heard before. |
05:28 |
Shot from vehicle. Kunduz.
Night |
The
Taliban, during the Eid holiday, had made their way disguised into the city
and some of them were taking refuge in people’s houses. When this |
05:34 |
Thomas 100% |
attack
to take over Kunduz happened, they kind of emerged from within the city, as
opposed to coming from outside the city. |
05:46 |
Taliban propaganda
video. Taliban celebrating |
|
05:55
|
|
So
they were able to quickly overwhelm the |
06:05 |
Thomas |
Afghan
forces who were based in the city and force them to retreat and I believe
they retreated to the airport – |
06:08 |
Taliban propaganda video.
Taliban congratulating one another |
but
certainly within, you know less than twenty four hours, twelve hours maybe,
the city was in the control of the Taliban”. |
06:14 |
Audio/video montage of
international coverage... intercut with Taliban propaganda video. |
CNN:
“Afghan security forces stretched to the limit as the Taliban seize control
of most, if not all, of Kunduz, storming the town from three sides at dawn”. |
06:25 |
|
ABC
RADIO: “For the first time since the Taliban was overthrown in Afghanistan
fourteen years ago, the militant group has retaken a major centre”. |
06:34 |
|
CNN:
“The losses in Kunduz reflecting poorly on the NATO trained government forces
and embarrassing the Afghan President, Ashraf Ghani. Both sides they say
taking casualties”. DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: “We had over |
06:43 |
Thomas 100% |
130
patients arrive within a few hours of, on the first day. So we were
completely overwhelmed. |
06:56 |
Still. Patients on floor in
corridors |
They
were all over the emergency department, spilling into the hallways, and the
ED doctors and the surgeons and the nursing staff were all just doing the
best that they could to get through and prioritise the patients that needed
help more urgently than others”. |
07:02 |
TEXT:
US Special Forces rush to assist Afghan troops. At Kunduz Police HQ they are
surrounded by Taliban fighters. Over four days and nights, 22 US airs trikes
are called in. |
|
07:18 |
Looking into sky over
hospital compound |
Music
|
07:38 |
Thomas 100% |
DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: “The co-ordinator of the hospital at the time had
interactions with the Taliban who came in and essentially announced that they
had taken control of the city, that they were now in charge of the city and
wanted to just establish a relationship with us. From what I understand they
were quite respectful at the time. They acknowledged our rules and never
disobeyed them. |
07:53 |
View of Kunduz. Dusk.
Super: |
Music
|
08:13 |
|
DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: The day before the
attack, that evening there was a lull, and that was the first time there had
been a real big lull in the conflict. |
08:18 |
Thomas 100% |
It
just seemed like everything had sort of calmed down and I noticed that there
were even kids flying kites. |
08:27 |
Time lapse of city skyline
dusk to darkness |
|
08:32 |
|
Because
it was calm, it was my first night that was calm, and I decided I needed to |
08:38 |
Thomas 100% |
take
that opportunity and get some sleep. |
08:43 |
Doctor working |
I
checked in with the emergency department, checked in with the intensive care
department and then came back to |
08:46 |
Thomas 100% |
where
we were sleeping which was in the safe room. |
08:53 |
Stills. Safe room / Medicos all sitting on carpets
sharing meal |
The
safe room is a room that normally functions as a meeting room. I think it’s
made of some of reinforced concrete, so maybe fifty to a hundred metres from
the main building itself. |
08:55 |
Thomas 100% |
Midnight
was the last time I was outside and I remember thinking, ‘Wow, it feels
really calm’. |
09:07 |
Thermal vision |
Music
|
09:12 |
|
DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: About two o’clock we
were very rudely awoken by an extremely loud sound. |
09:16 |
Thomas 100% |
It
was nothing like we had heard before and I think at this point we had heard a
lot of close bomb blasts and other explosions – but this was completely
different. |
09:21 |
Green thermal vision. Super:
Training video |
|
09:31 |
|
All
I could hear from one of the |
09:43 |
Thomas 100% |
nurses,
and I could hear him absolutely hysterical, just yelling through the phone,
crying, sobbing, you know, incomprehensible pretty much, but certainly
screaming that there were injured patients”. |
09:44 |
Still. Hospital exterior.
Blast in b/g |
|
09:56 |
Reconstruction. Guilhem on
smart phone at night. TEXT: In Kabul, MSF Director Guilhem Molinie is
immediately alerted. He urgently contacts US military officers. |
|
10:02 |
|
GUILHEM
MOLINIE: [MSF Director] “It took us around ten minutes to understand that we
were attacked by a plane and as soon as it was clear, then I started to
contact the NATO, because they were the first possible army that would have
deployed war planes”. |
10:10 |
TEXT
EXCHANGE: |
GUILHEM
MOLINIE: “The initial response of NATO or US was a bit difficult to
understand who I was talking with, was surprised”. |
10:25 |
Still. Burning hospital |
DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: “We opened the door and that was the most memorable moment
for me, looking up and seeing |
10:45 |
Thomas 100% |
this
figure standing at the door, who was essentially, who was a nurse from the
ER, I recognised him immediately. His left arm had been almost completely
amputated and was just hanging by a small thread of tissue. He had, he was
covered in debris which looked like dust. All of his clothes were in tatters.
He had major injuries all over his arms, his face was bleeding and there was
a big piece of metal sticking out of his back”. |
10:54 |
Still. Burning hospital |
Music
|
11:23 |
Thermal vision. Gunship
firing shells. TEXT: The gunship fires 211 shells at the
hospital – without interruption – then departs. |
|
11:28 |
Thomas 100% |
DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: “I think it lasted about an hour, from what I can remember,
from about two to about three”. |
11:35 |
TEXT:
The Pentagon claims the attack lasts 30 minutes and 8 seconds. |
Music
|
11:39 |
Stills. Hospital staff
traumatised huddled on floor. |
DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: “At some point three was, patients started arriving in the
safe room. I think, yeah, the gunship must have left at this point. |
11:45 |
Thomas 100% |
Most
of them were being carried by other staff members and as they all came
through, it was just one after the other, after the other of staff that I
knew, which was just extremely shocking. |
11:53 |
Stills. Thomas and other
surgeons working on casualties on the safe room |
Most
of them were being carried by other staff members and as they all came
through, it was just one after the other, after the other of staff that I
knew, which was just extremely shocking and within minutes, the whole room
that we were in was totally full and |
12:04 |
|
overflowing
and there were patients lining up. I didn’t want to keep dry-retching, like I
had earlier, now it was just about okay, what’s the next step? How do we get
out of here and what are we going to do with all these patients and these
dead bodies? Suddenly we heard that there was an |
12:08 |
Thomas 100% |
ambulance
outside ready to take patients. So we began identifying who was the most
urgent, who needed to be transferred immediately. |
12:25 |
Still. MSF staff at
ambulance |
We
carried them outside and loaded them into the ambulance who then drove them
to the nearest hospital. It was daybreak. The sun was just, just starting to
come up. |
12:32 |
Thomas 100% |
That
was the first time I left time I left the building was when I was carrying,
helping to carry out some of the injured survivors and at this point is when
I saw the hospital itself”… [very upset] Sorry. |
12:42 |
Aftermath of bombing.
Smoking ruins of hospital |
Music
|
13:05 |
|
JEREMY
FERNANDEZ: [ABC newsreader] “The United Nations says the bombing of a
hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz may constitute a war crime. The US
President has offered his deepest condolences in what appears to have been an
American air strike”. |
13:22 |
TEXT:
14 MSF staff, 24 patients and 4 carers are killed. 37 others are wounded. |
Music
|
13:36 |
Dr Esmat walking through
ruins of hospital |
DR
ESMATULLAH ESMAT: “My name is Dr Esmat, I’m a general surgeon – and five
years ago I joined with MSF. |
13:46 |
|
We
were busy in surgery. We hear sound of blasting and we said, ‘What happened?’
Then we hear another sound and then the whole building, the glasses, the
iron, everything was collapsed. It was continuous bombarding. |
13:58 |
|
One
doctor, two nurse, one cleaner, who died in front of us in this place. This
department, this is our ICU (Intensive Care Unit). All eight patients die. |
14:17 |
|
And
when we returned back, there was nothing. Just there was bones on the beds.
No one was able to run out from the ICU from the whole building because when
we run out they target us and they shoot us”. |
14:33 |
Dr Esmat walking
into safe room |
“And
some of our staff was in this room”. We did primary first aid. |
14:56 |
Still. Doctors tending
injured in safe room |
We
had a small kit in this area. We used this kit but it was not enough for the
whole patients. |
15:09 |
Dr Esmat in safe room and
around hospital |
It
was very bad time. We cannot forget this time. And at that time there was a
patient. He was on the table and he was under anaesthesia. They were busy in
this room then it was targeted by an airplane. You can see the big hole in
the wall. Then everything was fallen down on them. |
15:19 |
Stills. Dead patient on
table |
The
patient was not able to go out because he was under anaesthesia. After some
while he died on the table”. |
15:50 |
Photo. Baynazar. TEXT OVER: |
Music
|
16:05 |
Mother and daughter weeping
by grave. TEXT: The US offers compensation: $3,000 to each of the
wounded. $6,000 for each person killed. Baynazar Mohammad is survived by a
widow and four children. |
|
16:13 |
Baynazar’s
family at home |
|
16:35 |
|
SAMIULLAH:
[Baynazar’s eldest son] “It’s getting harder and harder for us. My brother
and my sister are always crying. We just live. We received 400,000 Afghanis
as compensation. |
16:37 |
|
Nothing
will compensate for the loss of my father. My father had a special place in
our family”. |
16:51 |
Helmet-cam footage. Taliban
out of Kunduz. TEXT: It takes 2 weeks for Afghan and US troops
to recapture all of Kunduz. The battle is reported around the world. |
Music
|
17:00 |
|
EURO
NEWS: “Amid reports of up to 200 insurgents being killed, heavy fighting is
said to be continuing on the outskirts of the city. A fully victory would
mark a huge relief for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani who faced calls for his
resignation over the loss of Kunduz”. |
17:13 |
Interior Ministry press
conference. |
Music
|
17:31 |
Spokesman at press
conference |
INTERIOR
MINISTRY SPOKESMAN: “10 to 15 terrorists were hiding in the hospital last
night and they came under attack. Well, they are killed, all of the
terrorists were killed. But we also lost doctors. We will do everything to
make sure that doctors are safe and they can do their jobs”. |
17:39 |
Thomas 100%. Super: |
DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: [MSF] “I mean that was absolute bullshit. There was no
fighters in the hospital, there was no one armed in the hospital. There was
certainly no Taliban that were using it as some sort of base. So it was clear
that that information was a blatant lie”. |
17:57 |
US general to Kunduz town
hall surrounded by heavily armed US special forces. TEXT: The
official US explanation changes 4 times in the first 4 days. |
Music
|
00:18 |
Allegations
emerge that Afghan troops provided false intelligence, prompting the attack.
But the US takes full responsibility, apologising for “a tragic mistake”. |
|
18:21 |
General Nicholson. Super: |
GENERAL
JOHN NICHOLSON: “As Commander, I
wanted to come to Kunduz personally and stand before the families and the
people of Kunduz to deeply apologise for the events which destroyed the
hospital and caused the deaths of the hospital staff, the patients and their
family members”. |
18:38 |
Tanks and artillery |
DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: “The fact that the Afghan military and the US changed the
story multiple times in the first few days really set off alarm bells for me
and I think everyone involved. It’s very difficult to then believe what they
released, when you’ve already got this, |
18:57 |
Thomas 100% |
this
background of a story that was changing and was completely inaccurate”. |
19:13 |
TEXT:
In the months leading up to the air strike, MSF’s neutral role in treating
Taliban wounded angered Afghan security forces. |
|
19:18 |
Molinie. Super: |
GUILHEM
MOLINIE: “We had some peaks of tension because of the conflict we were
treating everybody – so ex-combatant from the government, ex-combatant from
the Taliban so obviously when we had to, for example, to cross the front
lines, we had some moments of tension with ambulances that were stopped and
searched”. |
19:28 |
Government troops on hill
overlooking Kunduz. TEXT: |
|
19:52 |
Driving sequence with Police
Commander |
|
20:02 |
Super: |
|
20:05 |
|
MOHAMAD
KAZIM: “The good thing about MSF was that they provided treatment to all the
public, especially ordinary civilians who are really vulnerable, the victims
of war, the civilians who’ve been wounded or involved in traffic accidents. |
20:09 |
|
But
we oppose that they were treating the Taliban. But this is up to them –
that’s their agenda. It’s not up to us to judge them. But most of the enemy
casualties received treatment at the MSF hospital. And now there is a massive
MSF clinic in Chardara (near Kunduz) and they provide treatment for all the
Taliban casualties”. |
20:28 |
Votel enters Pentagon press
conference. TEXT: The Pentagon. |
Music
|
21:01 |
Votel address press
conference |
GENERAL
JOSEPH VOTEL: “Today, US Central Command is releasing the results of the
investigation |
21:08 |
Super: |
into
the strike on the Doctors without Borders Trauma Centre, in Kunduz City,
Afghanistan”. |
21:12 |
TEXT:
Of the 3000 page investigation, just 700 heavily redacted pages are released. |
|
21:17 |
|
GENERAL
JOSEPH VOTEL: “Importantly, the investigation concluded that the personnel
involved did not know they were striking a medical facility. |
21:24 |
|
I
want to emphasise that the trauma centre was a protected facility and was on
a “No Strike” list. Our forces did not receive fire from the trauma centre
during the incident, nor did the investigation find that insurgents were
using it as a base for operations”. |
21:31 |
Thermal vision. Gunship |
Music
|
21:46 |
TEXT:
The report details a cascade of failures. |
|
21:51 |
TEXT:
MSF repeatedly provided the GPS co-ordinates of the hospital. |
|
21:57 |
TEXT:
But the AC-130 took off without loading data flagging the hospital on a
“No-Strike” list. |
|
22:03 |
Super: Training video |
GENERAL
JOSEPH VOTEL: “Their ability to receive this information while in flight was
lost when one of their satellite radios failed. The aircraft was fired on by
a surface to air missile, and subsequently moved several miles away from the
city centre”. |
22:11 |
TEXT:
The National Directorate of Security HQ was overrun by Taliban fighters. A US
ground controller ordered an attack on the building. |
|
22:27 |
TEXT: But the gun ship’s targeting system
malfunctioned. For an hour the crew questioned if they were looking at the
correct target – |
Music
|
22:41 |
TEXT OVER BLACK: then
opened fire. |
|
22:59 |
Google map showing location
of National Directors of Security building and MSF Kunduz |
GENERAL
JOSEPH VOTEL: “The intended target was an insurgent-controlled site which was
approximately 400 metres from the Doctors Without Borders Trauma Centre. The
aircrew mistakenly believed that the trauma centre was the Taliban control
building”. DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: “It was a very, very clearly marked building but it was also
a building that was a unique structure in terms of the rest of the city. |
23:04 |
Thomas 100% |
If
it was a series of mistakes this was a series of reckless decisions that were
made on all levels, including at a very, very high level and if that’s the
case, then to me, that’s gross negligence and I believe that gross negligence
could potentially constitute as a war crime”. GENERAL
JOSEPH VOTEL: “The investigation concluded |
23:29 |
Votel addresses press
conference |
that
certain personnel failed to comply with the rules of engagement in the law of
armed conflict. However, the investigation did not conclude that these
failures amounted to a war crime. |
23:52 |
|
The
label war crimes is typically reserved for intentional acts – intentionally
targeting civilians or intentionally targeting protected objects or
locations. The investigation identified 16 US service members whose conduct
warranted consideration for appropriate administrative or disciplinary
action, including a general officer. The actions |
24:03 |
|
included
suspension and removal from command, letters of reprimand, formal counselling
and extensive retraining”. |
24:24 |
Shots of UN in New York |
Music
|
24:31 |
TEXT:
MSF rejects the neutrality of the US military investigation. |
|
24:35 |
|
DR
JOANNE LIU: [President MSF] “They have done an investigation, they have done
an internal investigation, a military investigation. |
24:41 |
Liu 100%. Super: |
We
wanted an impartial independent investigation. We strongly believe that you
cannot be the perpetrators as well as the judge and the jury”. |
24:46 |
Shots of UN in New York. TEXT:
2015, 75 MSF-supported facilities in conflict zones were attacked. |
|
24:54 |
TEXT: MSF
President Joanne Liu addresses the United Nations Security Council. |
DR
JOANNE LIU: “In Afghanistan, the |
25:00 |
Liu addresses UN Security
Council |
Central
African Republic, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen, hospitals are
routinely bombed, raided, looted or burned to the ground. Medical personnel
are threatened, patients are shot in their beds”. |
25:07 |
AMC footage.
Aftermath/rescue efforts air strike on Syrian hospital. |
Music
|
25:33 |
TEXT: Yemen 2015. 59 attacks against 34
hospitals. Source: UN. |
|
25:53 |
Liu addresses UN Security
Council |
DR
JOANNE LIU: “You are charged with protecting peace and security. Yet, four of
the five permanent members of this Council have, to varying degrees, been
associated with coalition responsible for attacks on health structures over
the last year. These include the NATO-led Coalition in Afghanistan, |
26:09 |
|
the
Saudi-led Coalition in Yemen, the Russia-backed, Syrian-led Coalition. You
therefore must live up to your extraordinary responsibilities and set an
example for all states. I repeat: stop these attacks”. |
26:38 |
TEXT:
The UN Security Council unanimously passes a resolution condemning attacks on
hospitals and medical staff in war zones. |
Music
|
27:03 |
Liu addresses UN Security
Council |
DR
JOANNE LIU: “The discussion here today cannot amount to empty rhetoric. This
resolution cannot end up like so many others, including those passed on Syria
over the past five years – routinely violated with impunity”. |
27:11 |
Ruins of hospital |
[discussing
Kunduz] “We haven’t resumed our work in Kunduz and we are not able to take a
decision today because we’re not able to |
27:31 |
Liu 100% |
get
the guarantee that people will respect our medical facility. So we will not
reopen until we are able to strike this deal with all the stakeholders in
northern Afghanistan”. |
27:41 |
Shaesta on rug with mother
and father. TEXT: 3 year old Shaesta survived the attack on
MSF Kunduz. She was recovering from a leg amputation after an air strike on
her home. |
Music
|
27:56 |
Azmarai |
AZMARAI:
[Shaesta’s father] “The doctors have all left. The doctors told us you can’t
get medicine – you’ll have to go somewhere else. You can go to (the city of)
Mazar e Sharif”. |
28:10 |
Shaesta |
ANISA:
[Shaesta’s mother] “Imagine how she’s suffering when she sees other girls.
She is frustrated. The other kids are walking. Now she’s lost weight because
she’s sick – the last few days she’s seen other girls running around… she’s
crying and they pick her up”. DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: “One of the great frustrations I have now, and MSF has, is
that |
28:20 |
Thomas 100% |
we
now have a situation where in Kunduz there is no functional trauma centre in
all of northern Afghanistan. We know that patients now cannot access the care
that they need. They’re having to travel to Kabul in order to access the same
care, and patients are most certainly dying because they cannot get to care
quick enough”. |
28:46 |
Shaesta with her mother |
AZMARAI:
[Shaesta’s father] “I’ve borrowed money from people. I’ve sold my wife’s ring
and bangles and I’ve collected about 230,000 Afghanis to get my daughter to
Pakistan. |
29:06 |
Azmarai |
I’m
just a street-seller – a labourer – this was the only hospital that was
helping the poor people in the area”. |
29:25 |
Baynazar’s
family at home/Shaesta/Dr Esmat |
DR
KATHLEEN THOMAS: “They’re still suffering a lot and, you know, I have the
privilege of being able to come back to a country where it’s safe and
peaceful and I have no major drama in my life and these guys are left behind.
They’re, they’re stuck there. |
29:40 |
Thomas 100% |
They
can’t leave, they can’t get on a plane and be evacuated to safety. They have
to deal with the ongoing consequences of this conflict”. |
29:59 |
Father carries Shaesta
through damaged MSF compound towards exit |
Music
|
30:05 |
Damaged hospital |
|
30:17 |
|
Producer
- Mark Corcoran Executive
producer - Marianne Leitch abc.net.au/foreign ©
ABC 2016 |
30:41 |