Every Nation Backing This War—Including US—Must Answer for Hospital Bombing: MSF

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/12/04/every-nation-backing-war-including-us-must-answer-hospital-bombing-msf

From the United States to the United Arab Emirates, every country backing the Saudi Arabia-led military campaign against Yemen "bears responsibility" for Wednesday's bombing of a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in southern Yemen, a spokesperson for the medical charity told Common Dreams.

"We feel it is their responsibility to ensure that their fighter jets avoid medical facilities," Karline Kleijer, MSF operational manager for Yemen, said over Skype from Amsterdam.

Kleijer confirmed that the MSF-operated medical center, located in the southern city of Taiz, was hit despite the fact that MSF had repeatedly communicated its precise GPS coordinates to the Saudi-led coalition. What's more, Kleijer revealed that the charity had called the coalition earlier on the day of the bombing to express concern about "two air strikes a few hours earlier that were also close to our hospital."

Yet hours later, the hospital was bombed, wounding nine people, at least two of them MSF staff and a four-year-old child. As of Friday, at least one of those people had died, but Kleijer did not know the identity of this person. "We are still collecting the facts and trying to understand the context a bit more around the air strikes," she said.

Meanwhile, the Saudi coalition released a statement on Friday, published in the state-run Saudi Press Agency, which claimed that the alliance will launch an investigation to "verify whether the news is true." The statement added that aid groups need to have "beforehand coordination" and "remain away from the places where the Houthi militias are present."