Karen_Woo

Karen Woo's death Karen Woo was a british doctor, who got killed in the Badakshan massacre on Agust 6th 2010. Karen Woo was according to her friends and family a caring and giving person, who gave up her wellpaid job in London, in order to travel to Afganistan and help treating people there. On her blog ”Dr Karen Explores Healthcare in Afganistan” she writes about her desire to help the afgans, and give the world insight in their lives by making a documentary. Her blog also reveals that she was aware of the risk of staying in Afganistan, but that she could not resist the desire of becoming a hero. She writes ”I'm going back to Afghanistan but maybe I should stay in England, get a regular doctor's job and nine to five some sensible money. Instead I am dealing with the unusual sensation - reliant on others as never before - of even more elevated risk. I might come home with my tail between my legs but I might just come home in glory [..]”, which clearly shows how she felt about the job of helping people in Afganistan. Karen Woo had big plans but never got the chance to complete dem. She was suposed to return home and marry her fiance Marc ”Paddy” Smith shortly after the murder. The only survivor of the attack explains what happend in ”The Independent”. On August 6th Karen Woo and the rest of her medical team were in Nuristan in order to provide medical care to the locals. They were resting in a forested area, when 10 gunmen showed up. They began shooting and throwing grenades, and killed 10 members of the medical team, including Karen Woo. The survivor tells that they were well-organised and motivated militants. After killing the 10 people they took some of their stuff and money, and forced the survivor to carry their weapon for 8 hours. One of the killers carried a radio, which he used to report that ”everything was done”, and that they had killed them. After questioning him about his relation to the killed ones, and his family and faith they dumped him out of the veichle and sat him free. What caused the attack is still unclear. In the begining the local authorities belived that it was a robbery, because the attackers had stolen some money and valuables from the victims, but now both Hizb-e-Islami and Taliban are the suspects. They have both taken credit for the attack, claiming that the victims were trying to turn the afgans agains islam, and force them to convert to Christianity. Taliban had found a bible, in the veichle which they believe belonged to Karen Woo, and accused her of preaching Christianity, according to ”Mail Online”. Her team and her fionce and family deny Karen Woo being religious, and claim that she was just humanitarian. They do not believe that the bible belongs to Karen, and deny any possibility of Karen Woo preaching Christianity, in order to get the afgans to convert to Christianity. ”She just wanted to help”, says her fionce. Beside of accusing Karen Woo and her team of being Christian missionaries, the Taliban also claims that they were spies, who wanted to fight the Taliban, and that that was the reason why they killed them. The driver who survived the attack explains that the attackers were yelling ”satellite, satellite”, refering to their cellphones, which could indicate that they believed that the victims had contact with some enemy-groups, through their phones. The reason why the authorities and medias still are not sure whether the Taliban were the ones who killed the medical team is because they took the responsibility of the attack later then they usually do. It was not before the news reaching half of the world, which is atypical for the Taliban. But one thing everyone on the internet agree on, is that the murder of Karen Woo was a cowardly act, because she just tried to help the poor people of Afganistan, and that she was a truly hero, and because of that a tons of videos on YouTube are uploaded as a tribute to her.