• UN suspends polio vaccinations in Pakistan as 2 more workers shot dead
    18 replies, posted
[url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20779388[/url] [quote=BBC News][B]Two polio vaccination workers have been killed in north-western Pakistan in the latest of a spate of deadly attacks.[/B] The shootings in the Peshawar region left a vaccination supervisor and her driver dead, and injured a volunteer. The deaths brought to eight the number of health workers killed in this week's anti-polio drive. The three-day drive is now over. No group has claimed responsibility, but the Taliban have issued threats against the UN's anti-polio efforts. The militants have accused health workers of working as US spies and say the vaccine makes children sterile. Pakistan is one of just three countries where the disease is still endemic. Coming after five deaths on Tuesday, and one on Monday, the UN children's agency Unicef and the World Health Organisation halted work in Sindh province in the south and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in the north-west on Tuesday. The suspension was extended nationwide on Wednesday. The UN provides technical and financial support to employees and volunteers of the local health departments who administer the polio drops. [img]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/64850000/gif/_64850097_pakistan_polio_shooting_464.gif[/img] Despite the killings, the immunisation drive continued in some areas on Wednesday - although a number of local health workers refused to go out, Reuters news agency reported. [B]'We risk our lives'[/B] In Wednesday's violence, the vaccination supervisor and her driver died when their car was sprayed with bullets by gunmen riding motorbikes in Charsadda district, north-east of Peshawar, police said. The student volunteer was shot in the head and critically injured when gunmen on two motorbikes fired at a team of vaccinators in a northern suburb of Peshawar. Gunmen riding motorbikes also shot at polio vaccinators in another area of Charsadda and in the adjoining district of Nowshera, although no injuries were reported. On Tuesday, four female health workers were shot dead in the space of 20 minutes in Karachi, and a fifth woman died after being shot in Peshawar. A day earlier a male health worker working on the anti-polio drive was also killed in Karachi, although police have suggested other factors may also lie behind his death. Correspondents say the authorities were caught off guard by the violence - until now most attacks on health workers have taken place in north-western areas near militant strongholds. At a rally in Islamabad, health worker Ambreen Bibi told Reuters: "We go out and risk our lives to save other people's children from being permanently handicapped, for what? So that our own children become orphans?" Wednesday was the final day of a three-day nationwide anti-polio drive - during which an estimated 5.2 million polio drops were to be administered. There has been opposition to such immunisation efforts in parts of Pakistan, particularly after a fake CIA hepatitis vaccination campaign helped to locate Osama Bin Laden in 2011. Militants have kidnapped and killed foreign NGO workers in the past in an attempt to halt the immunisation drives, which they say are part of efforts to spy on them. Afghanistan and Nigeria are the only other countries where polio is still endemic. Pakistan is considered the key battleground in the global fight against the disease, which attacks the nervous system and can cause permanent paralysis within hours of infection. Almost 200 children were paralysed in the country in 2011 - the worst figures in 15 years. Earlier this year, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative warned that tackling the disease had entered "emergency mode" after "explosive" outbreaks in countries previously free of polio. The World Health Organization said polio was at a tipping point, with experts fearing it could "come back with a vengeance" after large outbreaks in Africa and Tajikistan, and China's first recorded cases for more than a decade. Declaring polio a national emergency, the Pakistani government is targeting 33 million children for vaccination with some 88,000 health workers delivering vaccination drops.[/quote]
Why the fuck would you shoot at health workers. Makes no sense at all. I mean, it's not like they're going to extract sensitive information from kids.
[QUOTE=Swebonny;38891329]Why the fuck would you shoot at health workers. Makes no sense at all. I mean, it's not like they're going to extract sensitive information from kids.[/QUOTE] Because taliban.
[QUOTE=Swebonny;38891329]Why the fuck would you shoot at health workers. Makes no sense at all. I mean, it's not like they're going to extract sensitive information from kids.[/QUOTE] The taliban think the vaccines are just a western ploy to cause... Sterility, I think?
I don't blame them, the UN I mean.
I think the proper response is to just shrug and go "Right, so you guys want everyone around you to die from terrible diseases that the west eradicated entirely sixty years ago? Ok! Have fun! We're out.", followed by leaving entirely.
Way to go, assholes. Keep your polio.
Assholes man, just assholes. I could only imagine trying to do your best to help heal kids, then being shot up because of it. Ruthless cunts.
[QUOTE=TestECull;38891977]I think the proper response is to just shrug and go "Right, so you guys want everyone around you to die from terrible diseases that the west eradicated entirely sixty years ago? Ok! Have fun! We're out.", followed by leaving entirely.[/QUOTE] Innocent people and children shouldn't miss out on their vaccinations because of the Taliban being dicks Hopefully they can restart the programme with renewed security for the workers asap
[QUOTE=Swebonny;38891329]Why the fuck would you shoot at health workers. Makes no sense at all. I mean, it's not like they're going to extract sensitive information from kids.[/QUOTE] You didn't read about how the US used a doctor to try and get DNA from family members at Bin Laden's hideout, to prove he was there? Dr. Shakeel Afridi, look it up. This is why it's really a bad idea to use civilians to do military and/or intelligence work. Once people know you're using doctors, ALL medical personnel become eligible targets.
[QUOTE=smurfy;38892273]Innocent people and children shouldn't miss out on their vaccinations because of the Taliban being dicks Hopefully they can restart the programme with renewed security for the workers asap[/QUOTE] Ya-right, people have a big enough problem in Afghanistan, think Pakistan is going to let any foreigners in and around the doctors?
[QUOTE=smurfy;38892273]Innocent people and children shouldn't miss out on their vaccinations because of the Taliban being dicks Hopefully they can restart the programme with renewed security for the workers asap[/QUOTE] And those doctors can do just as much good back home without having to worry about getting shot at or asploded by some taliban dickheads just because they're trying to do good. Or, if them helping abroad is set in stone, send them to Africa instead. Those kids are just as needy of these shots as the Pakistani ones, yet there's a 90% lower risk of the doctor being blown to smithereens. Sometimes the only reasonable course of action is to let a shithole rot. You can't help everyone. I know it sounds cold, and it is, but the world is not always a happy place and some things just aren't feasible to do.
I hope the whole of the Taliban get Polio. Ultimate irony.
There was a time when BBC was known for its neutral views/reports, now its just a mouth-piece of western propaganda. They cant even (or dont want to) distinguish between the Taliban and Pakistani-Taliban (the former has disassociated itself from the actions of the latter). [QUOTE=Red scout?;38891351]Because taliban.[/QUOTE] Except, P-Talibans have denied responsibility behind the attacks.: [quote] Suspicion for the attacks has fallen on the Pakistani Taliban because of their virulent opposition to the polio campaign, but the group’s spokesman, [B]Ahsanullah Ahsan, denied responsibility in a telephone call to The Associated Press.[/B] [/quote] [URL]http://dawn.com/2012/12/20/police-operations-in-karachi-against-polio-team-attack-suspects/[/URL] It was mentioned in the BBC article, however the immediate use of term "militants" after that gives the reader the impression, that it was those guys behind the attach. Couldve been hired killers, ya know. [QUOTE=SatansSin;38892264]Assholes man, just assholes. I could only imagine trying to do your best to help heal kids, then being shot up because of it. Ruthless cunts.[/QUOTE] [quote]Insurgent opposition to the campaign grew last year after it was revealed that a Pakistani doctor ran a fake vaccination program to help the CIA track down and kill al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, who was hiding in the town of Abbottabad in the country’s northwest.[/quote] The Pakistani government is partly responsible for not providing enough security for such campaign workers even after opposition against it. Also, there is alot of target killing in pakistan. Its plain chaos there.
I wish we could just put Pakistan in a giant bubble and forget about them, maybe poke some Airholes in the top, but other then that...
[QUOTE=imperialrock;38902312]I wish we could just put Pakistan in a giant bubble and forget about them, maybe poke some Airholes in the top, but other then that...[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=TestECull;38891977]I think the proper response is to just shrug and go "Right, so you guys want everyone around you to die from terrible diseases that the west eradicated entirely sixty years ago? Ok! Have fun! We're out.", followed by leaving entirely.[/QUOTE] I think you guys forget that not every Pakistani is a fervently anti-West jihadi.
[QUOTE=TestECull;38891977]I think the proper response is to just shrug and go "Right, so you guys want everyone around you to die from terrible diseases that the west eradicated entirely sixty years ago? Ok! Have fun! We're out.", followed by leaving entirely.[/QUOTE] Because that's what the innocent people in need of vaccines want, right? [editline]20th December 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=TestECull;38897319]Sometimes the only reasonable course of action is to let a shithole rot. You can't help everyone. I know it sounds cold, and it is, but the world is not always a happy place and some things just aren't feasible to do.[/QUOTE] Jesus Christ, shut up with this weird dictator, nihilistic, angst. That is by no means a 'reasonable' course of action, 'let those kids die because there are more worthy underprivileged people in Africa'. You want change, you make the fucking sacrifices. You want diseases gone, you send the brave doctors and nurses to dangerous countries like this so that at the cost of their lives they might save many children from a tortuous fate of death by sickness. On the other hand, if you want them to survive, get some blue-helmets guarding them instead of pulling out as soon as Pakistan's vagina twitches.
[QUOTE=Géza!;38891396]The taliban think the vaccines are just a western ploy to cause... Sterility, I think?[/QUOTE] No, this is insurgency tactics 101. The Taliban probably just doesn't want the UN in pakistan at all for whatever their reasons are. Maybe they perceive them as a force that threatens the Taliban itself. Obviously killing UN workers tends to get the UN to pull out. [editline]20th December 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=TestECull;38891977]I think the proper response is to just shrug and go "Right, so you guys want everyone around you to die from terrible diseases that the west eradicated entirely sixty years ago? Ok! Have fun! We're out.", followed by leaving entirely.[/QUOTE] It's likely that at least 90% of people want these vaccines, the Taliban doesn't want that 90% of people accepting help from the UN so they'll do their darnedest to kick over the sandcastle. [editline]20th December 2012[/editline] If it's not Taliban than it's probably some other lunatic minority organization (or individuals) that don't want the UN involved in Pakistan
Indeed, I doubt they want to see anyone western in Pakistan because it is their sanctuary and hideout, sanctioned by the Pakistani government. They can't afford to let the Pakistanis see that westerners do nice things, like we're trying to show the Afghans.
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