British aid worker Jacqueline Kirk was shot dead on the road south of Kabul in August(Andrew Kirk/Canadian Press/AP)
Analysis: Growing Threat To Foreign Aid Staff
-- Times Online
-- Times Online
Times Defence Editor highlights dilemma for aid workers after the murder of Gayle Williams, a Briton, in Kabul
The vulnerability of aid workers in Afghanistan has been a constant source of concern for the many non-governmental organisations which operate in all parts of the country.
They are unarmed civilians, and yet they face the same dangers and risk to life as the tens of thousands of heavily armed soldiers from Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) who serve in Afghanistan.
The difficulty for the aid workers is that they need to travel around the country, but they are reluctant to seek the protection of Isaf because they feel that would compromise their independence and make them even more vulnerable to attack by the Taleban.
This is an unresolvable dilemma in a country as unstable as Afghanistan, and means that if aid workers are going to do their job properly they have to accept the inevitable risks.
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My Comment: These killings will kill the foreign aid programs in Afghanistan. Foreign aid workers are not going to come back until the security situation is appreciably improved.