Viewpoint: 'Our concerns are the civilians'

Viewpoint: 'Our concerns are the civilians'

The BBC World Service's World Today programme is speaking to a number of Nobel Peace Prize winners to gauge their views on the war in Iraq.

MSF says humanitarian action must be independent

Rafael Vilasanjuan is the International Secretary of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). MSF won the peace prize in 1999 for their humanitarian work in Kosovo, and have been in Iraq since before the war helping civilians.

Even at war there is a certain space of humanity to be preserved for innocent people.

Our concerns are the fact that the civilian population - the innocent people who are living or suffering this war - should have a secure space, should have secure places to which they can go to secure their lives.

Also humanitarian actors, independent humanitarian actors, need to have open and free access to these populations.

That's a key element to be sure that even inside the countries they have a certain space for the assistance and protection of the population who could not escape the conflict.

But today I think that what is really at risk is the independence of humanitarian action.

A key principle that enables the MSF to work today in Iraq, in Baghdad to be specific, is that our activity is not linked at all to any military development or to political aims of either warring party.

In that sense we have seen lately this increasing tendency, even by the politicians, to include humanitarian action in the military efforts, in the military coalition.

And we are clear on that. We say "No, be careful. We are completely different. We should be independent. We should remain independent".

Because at this time if we get this blurring line, confusing the roles of the different actors, we are no longer valid for the purposes we were created for.

In addition to that we risk the lives of our people and we are perceived as spies in so many of the countries in which we want to work, and this is a risk, a threat, in itself.

Today the situation we are facing even in Iraq is that aid vehicles are being looted, supply lines closed, and this has allowed humanitarian aid to descend to practically the minimum - so just the survival of the fittest, which is not our aim.

Our aim is to clearly cover the gap which is created at the time of war.

So if Iraq shows us one thing clearly, it's that humanitarian action in and independent manner - really perceived as independent - is today at least as valid as it has been during the last century.

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