UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. Security Council came under sharp criticism Wednesday for its failure to implement a resolution aimed at protecting medical facilities and staffs in conflict zones from Syria to Yemen and Afghanistan.
The United Nations' most powerful body had a meeting on health care in armed conflict that by coincidence began just hours after two hospitals on rebel-held Aleppo, Syria, were bombed, highlighting the lack of action to protect them.
Joanne Liu, president of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, blamed the failure on "a lack of political will -- among member states fighting in coalitions, and those who enable them." She told the council that the failure is evident in hospital attacks since the resolution's adoption in May that have left civilians in war with "less, if any, access to lifesaving medical care."
"Many attacks ... are brushed off as mistakes," Liu said. "We reject the word 'mistake.' We denounce the deliberate and systemic failure of states to avoid attacking hospitals and to appropriately control their conduct of hostilities."
In both Syria and Yemen, four of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council "are implicated in some way in these attacks," she said, a reference to Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom and France.
Liu cited the destruction of a Doctors Without Borders hospital that killed 19 people in Abs, Yemen, in early August, an attack carried out by the Saudi-led coalition. It was the fourth such attack on a Doctors Without Borders facility in the country. A week later, a hospital supported by the medical charity in Idlib, Syria, was destroyed in repeated airstrikes, killing four hospital staff members and nine patients and cutting off medical care to 70,000 people.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon implicitly accused Syria and its ally Russia of committing war crimes in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo in Wednesday's Aleppo hospital attacks. He said what was happening in the city, the target of a Syrian government offensive backed by Russia, is worse than "a slaughterhouse."
"Let us be clear: Those using ever more destructive weapons know exactly what they are doing. They know they are committing war crimes," he said.
Ban also urged international action and accountability, stressing that since May "there has been no letup." In addition to attacks on health care facilities in Syria and Yemen, he cited a suicide attack on Pakistan's Sandeman Provincial Hospital in August that killed more than 70 people.
The U.N. chief urged the Security Council to take "decisive steps" to protect health care centers and medical staffs. These include ensuring that laws and weapon sales respect the provision of medical care in conflict, that parties to conflict take precautions to protect medical staff and facilities, that those responsible for violating international law are prosecuted and punished -- and that people and communities affected by attacks receive reparations.
Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador, Evgeny Zagaynov, told the council that Syria and Russia are being blamed for "the majority of strikes on civilian facilities in Syria" -- including Wednesday's hospital bombings in Aleppo -- without any independent investigation and verification.
He said similar unacceptable incidents have resulted from "the destabilizing policy carried out by the U.S. and its allies." He cited last October's U.S. military attack on a Doctors Without Borders trauma hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz which killed 14 staff members and 28 patients and caretakers, noting that while the U.S. took responsibility, those responsible are still at work.
A Section on 09/29/2016