Chhattisgarh govt bars the way for doctors without borders

Bans Nobel Peace prize-winning Medecins Sans Frontieres from Naxalite-hit Dantewada district

Alleging that Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), an international medical and humanitarian movement, was providing medical aid to Naxalites, the Chhattisgarh government has ordered the organisation to withdraw from the insurgency hit Dantewada district in Bastar.

District Collector K R Pisda said that MSF has been barred because its doctors are treating Naxalite. “Our investigations have revealed that Maoist insurgents who were injured in encounters with the security forces were being treated by MSF doctors,” he said. “MSF was asked not to provide medical aid to Naxalite cadres, but they didn’t heed our advice.”

Police officials said MSF teams weren’t reporting their daily movement plans in the area. Health secretary P Ramesh Kumar said such permission was a “mandatory requirement.”

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An MSF spokesperson said the humanitarian organisation maintained strict neutrality in providing medical treatment in camps for displaced people in Dantewada. MSF has 15 doctors and about 50 paramedics to run health services in the insurgency-hit area. MSF also supports a feeding centre in Dornapal Salwa Judum camp and has two bases in Sukma and Dantewada.

Apart from Chhattisgarh, MSF is present in Manipur, Nagaland and Kashmir. MSF won the Nobel peace prize in 1999 for providing health care in disaster and conflict-affected zones.