1999 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

	October 15,1999
	After this background report from Kwame Holman, Elizabeth Farnsworth speaks with Dr. James Orbinski, head of the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization, Doctors Without Borders.

MARGARET WARNER: Earlier today, Elizabeth Farnsworth talked with Dr. James Orbinski, the international president of Doctors Without Borders. He is a Canadian who has been with the organization since 1992. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Dr. Orbinski, thank you for being with us and congratulations to you and your colleagues. DR. JAMES ORBINSKI: Thanks very much. Thanks very much. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: What will this prize, this Nobel Peace Prize, mean to your organization? DR. JAMES ORBINSKI: Well, I think more than anything else, the prize means that the people that we work with, the populations in war zones, in civil wars, people who are victims of famine, of natural disaster, that those people, that their dignity as human beings is recognized. And it also means, I think, that the volunteers, the 2,300 medical people that work with us around the world, our 10,000 national staff, that they, as well as the millions of donors and supporters who support us politically, morally, and financially, that all of those people are recognized in a sense for the work of humanitarianism, and for the work of humanitarianism as we define it. Now that, I think, is probably the most important aspect of the prize in that it recognizes Medecins Sans Frontieres for the kind of humanitarianism work that we do, which is direct medical assistance to populations in need, and it's also... that assistance is given with a commitment to speaking out about the kind of egregious situations people find themselves in. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Tell us more about that. As we heard in the setup, you were founded partly because of frustrations with the Red Cross and other groups, the neutrality they had to follow. Tell us more about how you're different. DR. JAMES ORBINSKI: Well, if you refer back to the Red Cross situation in 1971 in Biafra, there was a group of French doctors working with the Red Cross that were essentially outraged, that it was not possible to speak out against what was essentially a state planned and state directed policy of forced starvation. So this group of doctors formed a committee. And the original committee name was the Committee Against Genocide in Biafra -- formed a committee, and in that group made a commitment to speaking out against egregious crimes against humanity, against situations against where populations are targeted by their governments or by other actors, and in a way that affronts their fundamental human dignity. That is the ethos, if you will of Medecins Sans Frontieres. It is the spirit with which MSF engages in humanitarian action and the spirit that we've carried on over the last 28 years and right up until recent events in Kosovo, and recent events in Somalia and Rwanda; we have been deeply committed to speaking out against egregious insults, if you will, on populations whether it's genocide, whether it's food diversion in Somalia or whether it's abuse of humanitarian principles by NATO in Kosovo. That's something that we have defined, if you will, as a part of our identity. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Do you believe that the organization has played a role in a notion which is more and more accepted that states authorities or that an organization can violate the ultimate authority of a state when there are human rights violations? Do you believe you've played a role in that notion which is more accepted? DR. JAMES ORBINSKI: Well, I think we have to be very careful about that notion. What we're... from our perspective, we recognize, and we pursue, the right to give humanitarian assistance. And that's a right that is recognized in the Geneva Conventions which govern the laws of war. The pursuit, if you will, of state intervention against the sovereignty of another state is an issue that has come up more and more in the post-Cold War period, and is one where the mix if you will, of humanitarian principles with the responsibility of the larger international community to act politically, militarily, economically or diplomatically, that that mix, in our mind, is a mix that we're very, very cautious about. Now, certainly, we have called for states in the last few years to actively intervene in, for example, in genocide or, for example, in Somalia during the famine civil war of 1992-1993. However, the intervention is a military act or a political act or a diplomatic act or economic act. It's not a humanitarian act. What we do or what humanitarian NGO's do, that is a humanitarian act. But a military act cannot, in principle, be a humanitarian act. It can be an act that is in pursuit of humanitarian space, if you will. But it in itself is a military act or a diplomatic or political act that's not a humanitarian action. So the mixing of those concepts is something that we're very cautious about. But certainly we have played a role in pushing states and the international community to assume its formal and legitimate responsibility to protect the dignity of people. MARGARET WARNER: Dr. Orbinski, you were involved in pediatric AIDS research before you became involved with Medecins Sans Frontieres. Why did you become involved and how? DR. JAMES ORBINSKI: Basically I had been working in Africa on pediatric HIV, and I realized there the enormous impact that one could have as a physician in situations where there are massive health needs. And MSF, for lack of a better description, it is a vessel or vehicle for the passions of people like me, I suppose. And I basically was drawn to it because of what MSF does, what it represents -- its fundamental respect for the dignity of people, and its willingness to work with populations that are out of the media spotlight, for example, in Congo. At this point in time, there are hundreds of women who have been raped in Sierra Leone. There are thousands of people who have had arms and legs amputated in Afghanistan, in Burundi, in Sierra Leone, and elsewhere. Those are people who are out of the media spotlight, out of the political spotlight but who have needs nonetheless, and that MSF, Medecins Sans Frontieres is, as a matter of principle, committed to working with. So that's what drew me, and I think that's what draws most people to the MSF movement. ELIZABETH FARNSWORTH: Dr. James Orbinski, thank you very much, and congratulations again to you and your colleagues. DR. JAMES ORBINSKI: Thank you very much.