Aid agency threatens to leave Afghanistan after Kabul accuses it of al-Qa'ida links

Already 15 Afghan workers in the three hospitals and 28 emergency clinics run by a non-governmental organisation called Emergency have quit, scared to report for duty since the organisation was accused by a spokesman for the Karzai government secret services of being connected to the Taliban. But yesterday the accusations became far harsher and the threats more specific. Now Emergency's founder fears the end of its involvement in the country may not be far off.

The crisis broke after the man who negotiated the release of an Italian journalist kidnapped last month by the Taliban was jailed by Hamid Karzai's government. The man, Rahmatullah Hanefi, an Emergency employee, remains incommunicado in jail in Kabul. This despite the fact that he had brought the journalist, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, out safe and well. When news of the arrest broke, Gino Strada, the Milanese surgeon who founded Emergency, accused the Italian government of abandoning Mr Hanefi.

Then on Sunday, Amirullah Saleh, a spokesman for Mr Karzai's military intelligence, claimed that Mr Hanefi had been involved in Mr Mastrogiacomo's capture. Yesterday he renewed the charges and added new ones. "We have proof that Hanefi was a facilitator of the Taliban, if not actually a militant in the guise of humanitarian worker," he told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. "Emergency is, in reality, not a real humanitarian organisation but a front for terrorists and al-Qa'ida in Afghanistan."

He said the proof would be presented at Mr Hanefi's trial "for having aided the Taliban and perhaps more than that".

For Mr Strada these charges are not just ridiculous but mortally dangerous. "The allegation that we are not a humanitarian but a terrorist organisation and that Mr Hanefi is the man of al-Qa'ida obviously puts our presence in Afghanistan in a totally different perspective," he said. Since Mr Hanefi's arrest, Mr Strada has warned that, if security cannot be guaranteed, Emergency might have to pull out of the country. But Mr Saleh's new broadside raises the stakes. "Already 15 local staff have resigned because it's clear that if an organisation is regarded as a target by the secret services, people get scared," said Mr Strada. "We have been in Afghanistan since 1999, and we have cured more than 1.4 million people. Ours are the only hospitals in Afghanistan where patients receive high-level treatment totally free.

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