Medecins Sans Frontieres to pull out of Afghanistan because of risk of further Attacks by BBC World News 10:42pm 28th Jul, 2004   28 July, 2004    Aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres says it will pull out from Afghanistan because of the killing of five of its staff and the risk of further attacks. The group said in a statement it was also unhappy with a government inquiry into the 2 June deaths.    The statement accused US-led forces in Afghanistan of using humanitarian aid for "military and political motives".    The Nobel prize-winning agency has continued to operate through the country's upheavals for 24 years. The BBC correspondent in Kabul, Andrew North, says the decision of MSF (Doctors without Borders) is sending shockwaves through the country's aid community. Some experts say the move will have a knock-on effect on other aid groups. Phil Halton, manager of an organisation that offers security advice to aid agencies, told the BBC that he was not surprised at MSF's move as the number of aid staff killed this year was already double last year's total.    MSF said in a statement: "Today's context is rendering independent aid for the Afghan people all but impossible." That refers to the attack in north-west Afghanistan in June in which three European and two Afghan staff died. A Taleban spokesman said it had carried out the attack, saying the MSF staff were working for American interests.    Police arrested 13 people but all were later released and investigations are continuing. MSF said the Afghan government's failure to conduct a "credible investigation" had affected its decision to leave.    The BBC's Andrew North says its statement also refers to the fact that humanitarian workers have increasingly become the target of violence in the country, something that never happened even during the worst periods of factional fighting in the 1990s.    Militants have been blamed for attacks that have killed more than 30 aid workers since March last year. MSF is known for operating in some of the most dangerous parts of the world. In Afghanistan it has 80 foreign and 1,400 Afghan staff to provide independent humanitarian aid. Its decision to pull out will force all humanitarian organisations to question the level of risk they are willing to demand of their staff, analysts says.    Some aid groups believe security forces have been blurring the lines between relief work and attempts to gain intelligence on the militants. But on Wednesday the US military rejected suggestions it might be endangering aid staff..
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