A12 Afghanistan afghanistan from A1
had spent several days adminis- tering eye care to impoverished villagers. They were traveling un- armed and without security guards, Frans said. The dead are thought to in- clude the team’s leader, Tom Lit- tle, an optometrist from New York who had worked in Afghani- stan over the past four decades.
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SUNDAY, AUGUST 8, 2010 10 aid workers killed on mission in Afghanistan
Little, a fluent Dari speaker, had been thrown out of the country by the Taliban in 2001 during a crackdown on Christian aid groups. Three of the victims are thought to be women, including Karen Woo, a British surgeon who had written on her blog about the possible risks of trav- eling to the area. Two of the Afghans were un- harmed.
The group is registered as a
Christian nonprofit organization. Although its members do not shy away from this affiliation in this conservative Muslim country, Frans and others said they do not proselytize. In their work since 1966 on health and economic de- velopment projects, under King Zahir Shah, the Russians, the mu- jaheddin government and the Tal- iban, Frans said, “all along we’ve
been known as a Christian or- ganization. That has been a non- issue.” “This is truly a bedrock institu- tion in Afghanistan,” said Andy M.A. Campbell, the Afghanistan country director for the National Democratic Institute. “They have been around for decades.” Others who have worked with the group described it as cultur- ally sensitive to the Muslim val-
ues of Afghanistan and staffed by foreigners committed to long- term development work in the country. “This is not a Mickey Mouse organization,” said a per- son who has worked for and eval- uated the organization’s projects in the past. The Taliban has targeted for- eign aid workers in the past but such attacks are relatively rare, and insurgents have allowed some aid groups safe passage into areas they control. In August 2008, gunmen killed three wom- en from the International Rescue Committee and their Afghan driv- er in Logar province. Four years earlier, 11 Chinese road workers were shot to death in Kunduz province.
Among the confusing aspects
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of the attack was why the Taliban, if indeed responsible, chose to summarily execute the team, rather than hold its members hos- tage, which it has done in many other cases to bargain for money or other concessions. In July 2007, the Taliban seized 23 South Korean missionaries driving in a bus from Kandahar to Kabul. Two of the hostages were killed before the South Korean government ne- gotiated the release of the others. The medical team was return- ing from several days of treating eye problems and administering dental care in the Parun Valley of Nurestan. Unable to reach the iso- lated valley by road, they aban- doned their three Land Rovers and hiked with pack mules for miles through a pass in the 16,000-foot mountains. The exact timing of the attack remained unclear Saturday. The deputy police chief in Badakh- shan, Gen. Sayid Hussain Safari, said insurgents might have fol- lowed them on their return hike and attacked as they reached their vehicles. When Frans last heard from the group members, on Wednesday, they had already crossed into Ba- dakhshan, he said. They had driv- en that way to avoid a southern route they considered too danger- ous, he said. One of the Afghans, who lived in Jalalabad, left the group to make his own way home and was unharmed.
Safari said 10 gunmen sur- rounded the medical team, shot the victims with AK-47s, and ran- sacked their belongings from the vehicles. Of the 11 people at the scene of the shooting, only one survived, an Afghan driver named Saifullah. He told police that the gunmen led him on a long march uphill as he recited the Koran and prayed to be spared. “He swore to God and said that
I’m a true Muslim. That’s why they trusted him and released him,” Safari said. But his escape has raised suspi- cion among some close to the medical team that he might have been involved in orchestrating the attack. Saifullah, who remains in the custody of district police, has not yet been interrogated by the provincial authorities and
WOO PHOTO BY BRIDGE VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS; LITTLE PHOTO BY
British surgeon Karen Woo and the team’s leader, optometrist Tom Little from New York, are among those thought to be dead.
on
washingtonpost.com Tracking the war
For a photo timeline of the war in Afghanistan, go to
washingtonpost.com/world. 0 MILES TURKMEN.
Mazar-e Sharif
Herat IRAN Kandahar AFGHANISTAN
Kunduz Baghlan Kabul
Baghlan Kabul
200 UZBEK.
Medical team killed in attack
TAJIK.
BADAKHSHAN PROV.
TOM LAPOINT/ALBANY TIMES UNION
PAKISTAN GENE THORP/THE WASHINGTON POST
could not be reached for com- ment.
Other accounts of the killing
conflicted slightly with Safari’s version. Frans said police in Ba- dakhshan told him that the group was shot at while driving. “We’ve only heard what we’ve heard from the police in Badakhshan,” he said. “The cars were sprayed with bullets, the people were pulled out and robbed of everything they had.” The team members were ap- parently aware that they were go- ing into difficult territory. Woo, the British surgeon, who had been working on a documentary about her time in Afghanistan, had written on a Web site that “the trek will not be easy.” “The expedition will require a lot of physical and mental resolve and will not be without risk but ultimately, I believe that the pro- vision of medical treatment is of fundamental importance and that the effort is worth it in order to assist those who need it most," said Woo, who was engaged to be married.
Badakhshan is a scenic prov- ince far from the insurgent hot spots in southern and eastern Af- ghanistan. But insurgents have become more prevalent there and in other northern provinces over the past year as they have shifted to areas with fewer NATO troops. Military officials have said the area is also an important point for manufacturing heroin and trans- porting it out of Afghanistan.
partlowj@washpost.com
Special correspondent Javed Hamdard contributed to this report.
OMAR SOBHANI/REUTERS
An Afghan rides past the International Assistance Mission in Kabul. The aid team lost contact with the office two days before the attack.
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