2010 Badakhshan massacre
2010 Badakhshan killings | |
---|---|
Location | Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan |
Date | 6 August 2010 |
Attack type | Shooting |
Deaths | 10 |
On 5 August 2010, ten members of International Assistance Mission (IAM) Nuristan Eye Camp team were killed in Kuran wa Munjan District of Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan.[1][2] The team was attacked as it was returning from
The identity of the attackers is unknown. When news of the killings broke, both
The attack was the deadliest strike against foreign aid workers in the
Background and context
Badakhshan province borders
The publicity on the massacre and its aftermath coincided with the publication of the 2010 Mid-Year Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict of the
Ambush
The team, which included a doctor, a dentist and an optometrist, was returning to Kabul after providing eye care to villagers in Parun valley in
Victims
There was a total of 10 victims:[9][26]
Mahram Ali
Mahram Ali, aged 51 years,
Cheryl Beckett
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Cheryl Beckett, aged 32 years,[27] was an aid worker and translator, from Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, and an Indiana Wesleyan University graduate; she had been in Afghanistan for six years and specialized in nutritional gardening, maternal health and child care.[30][31]
Daniela Beyer
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Daniela Beyer, aged 35 years,[27] from Chemnitz-Wittgensdorf, Germany, was a linguist and translator in German, English and Russian who also spoke Dari and was learning Pashto.[32][33]
Brian Carderelli
Brian Carderelli, aged 25 years and from Harrisonburg, Virginia, United States,[27] was a civilian contractor, and a professional freelance videographer who had worked with various Afghan development and humanitarian organizations in Afghanistan.[34][35][36] Carderelli had been working for the International School of Kabul, and documenting aid work done by the IAM and other groups.[35] A statement released by his family said that Carderelli "loved people and was particularly concerned for the poor".[35][36] He was a lifelong member of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Harrisonburg,[35] and a 2009 graduate of James Madison University and was approaching the one year anniversary of his service in Afghanistan.[35][36] According to his family, "Brian quickly fell in love with the Afghan people and culture and hoped to stay within the country for another year",[35] and was compiling a photographic and video album entitled "The Beautiful – It's Not All War."[35][36]
Thomas Grams
Thomas Grams, aged 51 years,[27] of Durango, Colorado, United States, friend of team leader Tom Little, began to work in dentistry for impoverished children about 10 years before his death, via Denver-based agency Global Dental Relief (GDR).[27][37] One of native twin brothers and dentists from Park Rapids, Minnesota,[38] Grams left their "thriving" private general dentistry practice in Durango in 2007 to join GDR full-time,[27][37][39][40] going first to Nepal ("trekk[ing]... halfway up... Everest, carrying dental equipment by yak"[27]),[37] and then several times to Afghanistan, initially as a volunteer, and later as team leader.[37][38][40] Significant Afghanistan efforts included providing free dental care in the village Wardak, "negotiat[ing] the etiquette of the burka" to found a Kabul dental clinic (employing a local female dentist),[27][39] and participating in English teaching at a local school.[39] "[U]nassuming and modest," Grams was described by the IAM as "one of our favorit[e]" aid workers.[37]
Jawed
Jawed, known by this single name, aged 24 years,[27] from Panjshir, Afghanistan, was a civilian contractor that had been at the Eye Hospital of the Afghan Ministry of Public Health in Kabul, and was given leave to serve as the team cook at its Eye Camp.[41] This was not his first service with IAM, where he cooked and helped with dispensing eyeglasses; per the IAM, "Jawed had been on several eye camps into Nuristan in the past, and was well loved for his sense of humor",[41] and was known for providing his collection of music tapes for weddings and parties.[27] The principal breadwinner for his wife, three young children, and extended family,[27][41] Jawed had been excited about the $20 per day in overtime that he was earning on the medical outreach trip.[27] Jawed's brother Abdul Bagin described his killers as "infidels; not human, not Muslims... [killing] without any judgment, without any trial".[27]
Glen D. Lapp
Glen D. Lapp, aged 40 years,[27] was a nurse and executive assistant from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States, and a part of Community Mennonite Church of Lancaster.[42] Lapp was a medical volunteer with the IAM and its partner, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).[42] He was serving as manager of IAM's provincial Ophthalmology program, and as an executive assistant for IAM in Afghanistan,[42] and had been in Afghanistan for two years.[43] Lapp was an alumnus of Eastern Mennonite and Johns Hopkins Universities, and had assisted the MCC in the weeks following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, with regular prior nursing work Lancaster, Supai, Arizona, and New York City.[42]
Tom Little
Tom Little, aged 61 years,
Dan Terry
Dan Terry, aged 64 years,[27] was from Wisconsin, United States, who served as liaison with local communities, aid organizations, and the government; he had performed relief work in Afghanistan since 1971, following in his father's footsteps who had worked for IAM as the executive director. He is survived by his wife, three daughters, their spouses and five grandchildren.[47][48]
Karen Woo
Karen Woo, aged 36 years,[27] daughter of a Chinese father and English mother,[49] was a general surgeon from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, UK,[3][37] trained at St Mary's Hospital, London and formerly with the English healthcare organisation Bupa.[50] Woo's work involved helping pregnant women, in an area with a high global infant mortality rate.[citation needed] After her death, Woo's family stated that "although very spiritual, she did not really believe in organised religion" and that her motivations were purely humanitarian.[51][52] Woo was engaged to be married at the time of her death.[2]
Survivors
The only two survivors of the eye camp team were Said Yasin and Safiullah, both Afghan. Said Yasin had left the team several days earlier and returned to Kabul by another route,[26] whereas Safiullah was spared after reciting verses from the Koran.[53]
Responsibility
The local officials initially stated that the motive was robbery, but after interviewing witnesses they changed their view and said that Taliban was responsible. Earlier claims of the Taliban were refuted by Qari Malang, the representative of the Western Nuristan Taliban. He said that commanders from Nuristan had not carried out the killings and they had launched an investigation to find out who had. "We shall inform you of the results when it is concluded. We regret these killings and strongly assert that this is not the work of the Taliban who will never do harm to genuine aid workers… as soon as we manage to apprehend those responsible for this act, we shall subject them to whatever punishment our laws prescribe."[7] Dirk Frans, executive director of the IAM in Kabul, doubted whether the local Taliban were behind the attack,[59] in contrast to a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton which directly blamed the Taliban for what she described as a "despicable act of wanton violence.". In her reaction on 8 August 2010, she stated: "We condemn in the strongest possible terms this senseless act. We also condemn the Taliban’s transparent attempt to justify the unjustifiable by making false accusations about their activities in Afghanistan. Terror has no religion (...), they have shown us yet another example of the lengths to which they will go to advance their twisted ideology."[60][61]
Reactions
In the weeks following the attack a senior Taliban leader, Qari Malang (the representative of the Western Nuristan Taliban) stated "We have checked the facts regarding these foreigners, and our people in the area have confirmed that they were bona fide aid workers and had been providing assistance to the population. Furthermore, we have learnt that among the killed foreigners, was Dan Terry, who had a long history of helping our people, including in Kunar and Laghman provinces and that he had previously provided welfare assistance to the families of those civilians martyred in bombardments… We pass on our condolences to the families of those killed."[7]
After the massacre, the IAM stated that they had no plans to leave Afghanistan.[62] US Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation into the attacks according to a spokesman from US embassy.[62][63]
Former Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah who is a physician himself and trained with Tom Little deplored the killings and called the attackers "enemies of the Afghan people."[64]
United Nations
Australian foreign minister
See also
- For photographs of individual victims, and human interest details, see Shaila Dewan & Rod Nordland, 2010, "Slain Aid Workers Were Bound by Their Sacrifice," The New York Times (online), August 9, 2010, accessed 4 January 2014.
- 2007 South Korean hostage crisis in Afghanistan
- February 2010 Kabul attack
- Death of Linda Norgrove
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External links
- Dr Karen Woo's Blog
- Video: British medic 'killed in Afghanistan' named, ITN News
- Video: Aid workers' bodies under identification process in Afghanistan, Al Jazeera English