On Monday, the International Assistance Mission (IAM), a Christian NGO whose 10 member medical team was ambushed and killed on Friday, paid tribute to their fallen aid workers and pledged to continue their work in Afghanistan.
IAM has been working in Afghanistan since 1966 and presently has a staff of fifty foreign volunteers and five hundred local Afghans operating seven different Afghan provinces.
"It's devastating for everybody,” executive director Dirk Frans of IAM said of the killings. “Still, I don't think it's actually going to stop our work. We've been here all those years, and, God willing, we'll continue.”
When confirming the names and details of the ten aid workers who were killed, the IAM statement said that:
“We want to pay tribute to each of our colleagues who died, to their commitment to serve the Afghan people. Those who have known them and seen them at work can do nothing put pay the highest tribute to them. Over the next few days and weeks, there will no doubt be many news articles about the lives of these individuals. They will speak for themselves.”
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the murders, claiming that IAM were proselytizing and spying for Western military forces. IAM categorically denies this charge, saying in a statement that:
“IAM is a Christian organization – we have never hidden this. Indeed, we are registered as such with the Afghan government. Our faith motivates and inspires us - but we do not proselytize. We abide by the laws of Afghanistan. We are signatures of the Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NGOs Disaster Response Programmes, in other words, that, 'aid will not be used to further a particular political or religious standpoint.' But more than that, our record speaks for itself. IAM would not be invited back to villages if we were using aid as a cover for preaching. And in particular, this specific camp led by Tom Little, a man with four decades experience in Afghanistan, has led eye camps for many years to Nuristan – and was welcomed back every time.”
In other news, aid agencies are concerned that Taliban’s claiming responsibility for the killings reflects a change of emphasis signaling increased hostility towards foreign NGO’s and aid organisations.
The New York Times has reported that the killings of the Nuristan Eye Camp Expedition brought to 17 the number of aid workers killed in Afghanistan this year, with another 19 abducted, according to the Afghan NGO Safety Office.