15 April 2010 - United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan, today called on the competent Afghan authorities to ensure a quick and thorough investigation into the case of three Italian medical workers and their six Afghan colleagues who were detained by Afghan authorities on 10 April in Helmand province after weapons were reportedly discovered in a storeroom of the hospital where they were working.

The Italian medical workers belong to the medical NGO Emergency, which has operated in Afghanistan for more than a decade, dispensing critical health care to Afghans in a volatile region. It is the main medical facility in the province with trauma surgery and treatment capability. It currently has 40 patients.

Special Representative de Mistura called on the President and relevant Afghan authorities to ensure that the Italian medical workers receive proper legal assistance and that they be accorded due process, safe conditions and visits from their embassy.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, which Special Representative de Mistura leads, has asked the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and the UN Office of the High Commission for Human Rights to monitor the case.

“I am hopeful that these arrests are due to some serious misunderstanding,” he said today. “International medical workers in places like Helmand are risking their lives to treat all who come to them for help.”