Title:
Killing of 10 Aid Workers 'Horrific' but Not
Uncommon
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
See text below
Text:
Humanitarian aid groups have promised to continue
their work in Afghanistan after militants murdered
ten medical aid workers August fifth. Officials say
the seven men and three women worked for the
Christian aid group, International Assistance
Mission. They were returning to Kabul after a trip
to Nuristan province to provide medical care and
supplies. Those killed were six Americans, one
German, one Briton and two Afghans. The Taliban
claimed responsibility for the attack. It accused
the aid workers of being spies and spreading
Christianity. Violence against aid workers has
increased in recent years, even though international
laws are supposed to protect them. Seventeen aid
workers were killed in the first half of this year
in Afghanistan. Nineteen others were kidnapped. In
Pakistan, seven aid workers from the Christian group
World Vision were killed during an attack on their
office in March. Officials believe militants were
responsible for the attack. The Humanitarian Policy
Group has been studying violence against aid workers
for more than ten years. The group released its
latest report on the issue last year.Abby Stoddard
works with the international research group
Humanitarian Outcomes. She helped write the policy
group report. The report says that in two thousand
eight, two hundred sixty humanitarian aid workers
were killed, kidnapped or seriously injured in
violent attacks. This was the highest number of
incidents since the group began doing the research
twelve years ago. Mrs. Stoddard says more than sixty
percent of the incidents took place in three
countries. She said there has been an increase in
major attacks against aid workers. But this has been
driven by the extremely violent environments in
Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan, especially the
Darfur area of Sudan.Sri Lanka, Chad, Iraq and
Pakistan also had many cases of violence against aid
workers. Abby Stoddard says ongoing conflicts in the
countries increase the risk of violence against aid
workers. Mrs. Stoddard called the recent murders in
Afghanistan horrific. But she said they are not
uncommon. She says incidents involving nationals
instead of foreigners do not get the same level of
attention. And that's the VOA Special English
Development Report. You can comment on this report
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personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
