North Caucasus

Geneva, July 14, 2008 – The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is shocked by the judgment rendered today by Switzerland's highest judicial body, the Federal Tribunal, which rejected the arguments of MSF in a kidnapping ransom case.

Geneva, May 4, 2007 — Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) denounces in the strongest possible terms the relentless attitude of the Dutch government in its pursuit of legal action against MSF and its persistent denial of the role it played in freeing Arjan Erkel.

Geneva, March 15, 2007 – Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has just learned with great satisfaction of the judgement handed down by the Court of First Instance of the Republic and Canton of Geneva concerning the case brought against it by the Netherlands Government. This lawsuit involved the reimbursement of a ransom paid by the Netherlands authorities in April 2004 for the release of Arjan Erkel, MSF head of mission who was held hostage in the North Caucasus region for over 600 days.

Adrien Marteau is a doctor in the MSF tuberculosis (TB) treatment program at Gluprish Hospital in Abkhazia, located within the borders of Georgia in the Caucasus region. He shares his frustrations as a doctor treating drug-resistant forms of this illness.

MSF has supported the local branch of the national TB program in Abkhazia since 1996. Since 2001, the program has included treatment for multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), one of the most frightening health scourges of former Soviet countries.

One year after the release on April 12 2004, of Arjan Erkel, a Dutch volunteer for MSF who was kidnapped in Dagestan and held captive for 20 months, MSF has been brought before a civil court in Geneva, Switzerland by the Dutch government.

Moscow/New York, NY, February 12, 2004 - One-and-a-half years after the abduction of Arjan Erkel, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is deeply concerned by the failure of the Russian authorities to bring about a positive resolution of his case. MSF believes that the absence of any progress in the case is a clear indication that a firmer political commitment is needed by the Russian Federal and local authorities to ensure the safe release of Arjan.

On the closing of Chechen refugee camps in Ingushetia.