
After one week of detention without any formal charge, Afghan authorities have released three Italians from the medical charity Emergency. They were arrested along with six Afghans for allegedly plotting to assassinate Gulab Mangal, governor of the Helmand province.
The release was announced Sunday (April 18) following public and diplomatic pressure from Italy and beyond.
Although details of the incident are far from clear, the public outcry that followed the arrests raised urgent questions about the security of aid workers in Afghanistan and beyond.
“If the message that it is possible to arrest aid workers and to send them to jail without official charges get across, this will be not just an Emergency’s problem,” said Cecilia Strada, Emergency’s president, during a demonstration organized in Rome Saturday. “Aid workers have to feel protected. This is a very serious issue that can put the work of thousands of humanitarian operators at risk all over the world.”
A controversial case
On April 10, in the surgical center of Lashkar-gah, Afghan police and secret service agents arrested nine members of Emergency, an Italian NGO that has treated 2.5 million patients since 1999 and runs three hospitals and 28 first aid posts in the country. Among the three arrested were Italian citizens: Marco Garatti, Matteo dall’Aira and Matteo Pagani.
The NGO learned about the detention through a news report.
“No Afghan authorities or representatives from the international coalition have contacted us to explain the reasons for this detention,” Emergency said the day of the arrests. Afghan authorities declared to have found weapons and suicide bomb vests inside the hospital. In a news conference Mangal, Helmand’s governor, accused Garatti of taking a $500,000 bribe from the Taliban to kill him.
NATO denied any involvement, although an Associated Press video showed soldiers of the coalition – to which Italy contributes with about 3,000 troops – accompanying Afghan forces in the hospital.
The surgical center, which hosted 200 staff, was shut down by Afghan authorities and the patients dismissed or transferred. International aid workers moved to Kabul. The fate of Emergency’s local employees remained largely unclear.
“For days we hadn’t got any information,” Alessandro Bertani, Emergency’s vice president, told Devex April 14. “We didn’t know the charges and or where our colleagues were detained. We asked that the code of criminal procedure be followed; a lawyer should have been immediately appointed. Italy supported the development of the Afghan judiciary system, we just wanted them to complied with it.”
The public reacted: An Italian online petition asking for the aid workers’ release reached around 400,000 signatures (http://www.emergency.it/appello/firme.php ). Last Saturday, tens of thousands demonstrated in Rome. In Afghanistan, in the Panshir region, where Emergency still operates, 11,000 people signed the petition.
The release
The three Italians were released Sunday after a diplomatic push whose details remain obscure. The incident has refocused attention on the security of aid workers in the Middle East and beyond.
The Afghan governments declared that its investigation showed the innocence of Emergency’s workers, but that the plot to kill Helmand’s governor was real.
“This is the result of an intense diplomatic activity conducted with discretion,” Franco Frattini, Italy’s minister of foreign affairs, said at a press conference Sunday.
The release came with a price.
“The Afghan government asked for a formal engagement of the Italian government in prosecuting Emergency’s workers in Italy in case of new charges or if the Afghan authorities flesh out previous accusations,” Frattini explained.
Meanwhile, Emergency’s lawyers are following the case of the six Afghan employees, amid conflicting news reports about their fate.
Security concerns
Gino Strada, Emergency’s founder and executive director, has called the Afghan government’s accusations “grotesque.”
“Someone tried to discredit Emergency and failed,” Strada told reporters the day after the arrests were made. “There are directives behind this operation: This is not purely Afghan. Why this war against Emergency? Emergency’s hospital is an inconvenient witness.”
Emergency has had a rocky relationship with Afghan authorities. It was one of the few international NGOs that operated in the country under the Taliban regime, and has been vocal about what it sees as humanitarian missteps of local and international forces.
It is hard to predict how the incident will impact the the large community of humanitarian relief and development workers in Afghanistan and beyond. Cecilia Strada suggested it could represent a serious precedent, generating anxiety among aid workers, affecting the recruitment of operators and the work of organizations in regions where they are essential.
Event though they may have to rely on government intervention at times, and despite little progress to eradicate corruption or intimation, aid groups can developed strategies to prevent some security issues.
“Emergency’s structures are among the safest in the area thanks to our neutrality and independence,” Bertani told Devex, citing “strict protocols” to screen staff and external hospital visitors.
Still, he acknowledged, “this does not mean that we can avoid cases of corruption or the occurrence of intimidation” – which, according to Bertani, may explain the alleged presence of weapons inside the Lashkar-gah hospital.
“We really would like to know the truth, but this is a circumstance that can occur in any part of the world,” he said. “On the other hand, to assure the safety of people on our grounds, we arranged security screenings. This is the best we can do.”
At hospital entrances, Emergency staff screens all visitor; no weapons may be brought inside.
“Of course, these are not military bases, but hospitals,” Bertani said, adding: “We also carry out strict screenings at the recruitment stage, when we hire personnel.”
Another crucial point for international organizations is to develop strong relationship with local authorities.
“We work in a country only with the clear approval of the government and we treat all patients regardless of any political or religious affiliation,” Bertani said. “We signed agreements with the Afghan government that define our role and what we do. In some cases, this relationship is closer: Recently, we signed a protocol for the training of medical personnel in Kabul.”
The future of the Lashkar-gah center relies now on the will of Afghan authorities and on the cooperation between Emergency and the Afghan Ministry of Health. The NGO denies claims that the Italian staff were released on the condition of the hospital’s shut-down.
“Our aid workers were freed because they are innocent,” Emergency proclaimed April 19.