In 1979, after four years of movement of refugees from southern Vietnam and surrounding countries on foot and by boat, French intellectuals launched an appeal in Le Monde for ”A Boat for Vietnam”, a project designed to provide medical assistance to refugees. Although the project was not supported by the majority of MSF, some, including Minister Bernard Kouchner, chartered a ship called L`Ele de Lumiére (”The Island of Light”) and sailed in the South China Sea with doctors, journalists and photographers and provided medical assistance to boaters. The dissident organization that did so, Médecins du Monde, later developed the idea of humanitarian intervention as a duty, especially on the part of Western nations such as France. [15] In 2007, MSF reported that MSF and Kouchner had been in public disagreement for nearly 30 years on issues such as the right to intervention and the use of armed force for humanitarian reasons. Kouchner is for the latter, while MSF represents an impartial humanitarian action, independent of all political, economic and religious powers. [16] 2.12. When it comes to defining an international public position, serious efforts should be made to find a common voice to ensure greater coherence on and off the ground. However, since the diversity of opinions within MSF is essential to the vitality of the movement, it is acceptable for a majority (the international position) and a minority position to coexist when it is not possible to reach agreement on a common position. If the minority decides to go public after taking into account the effects of its actions on the movement, the minority is obliged to state that it does not express the ”MSF position” but its own. However, minority sectors should not impede the implementation of the decision and be taken into account in its follow-up. Not only do these differences in formal status between foreign and national staff exist, but it also seemed that there was a tacit agreement not to include nationals in the bi-chaired meetings of this group of administrative directors, during which updated information, plans and decisions were made. The only exception to this latent ”rule” was remarkable.

At the insistence of Lieve V, Belgian coordinator of the programme for the homeless, Nikolai S. was promoted to project coordinator and invited to participate in these meetings.20 Nikolai was a Russian collaborator, who was the coordinator of the programme but who had been defined as an ”assistant” who worked under Lieve`s ”supervision”. Lieve had run a one-woman campaign to achieve this, arguing that Nikolai had devoted more time to the project, had more knowledge of her history and understood her context better than she did, and had a greater ability to negotiate skilfully with national and local political and health officials on her behalf. Lieve continued to be the official signatory of all financial and administrative documents relating to the homeless program, a responsibility she failed to convince her foreign colleagues that Nikolai had the right to share it. The recent civil war in Sudan began in 1983 and ended in 2005 with the signing of a peace agreement between North and South Sudan. [22] MSF medical teams were active during and before the civil war and provided emergency medical assistance at several locations. [22] The poor infrastructure situation in the South has been exacerbated by the civil war and has led to a deterioration of the region`s terrible health indicators.