Thursday, June 10, 2004
Afscheid
Pim is thuis, alwaar geen bezoek.Op maandag 14 juni om 11.00 uur is er een
herdenkingsbijeenkomst in de Oosterkerk,
Grote Oost 60 te Hoorn,
met aansluitend gelegenheid tot condoleren
en het nemen van afscheid.
Daarna zal Pim om 15.30 uur worden begraven
op de begraafplaats aan de Schoolstraat in Hem.
Geschreven door mariska @ 19:15 -
Thursday, June 3, 2004
Einde Missie (2)
Tot onze grote ontzetting bereikte ons op 2 juni j.l. het bericht dat Pim Kwint is omgekomen bij een aanslag in het dorp Khair Khana, in het noordwesten van Afghanistan, ongeveer 500 kilometer van Kabul. Pim zat in een auto met vier andere hulpverleners toen deze door vermoedelijk twee schutters onder vuur werd genomen.
Na zijn oorspronkelijke missie, die ongeveer 10 maanden heeft geduurd, keerde Pim aanvankelijk op 7 april terug in Nederland. Na een periode van twee weken thuis te zijn geweest had hij besloten voor 2 maanden terug te keren naar zijn humanitaire hulppost om zijn werkzaamheden over kunnen te dragen aan nieuwe medewerkers.
Een week voordat hij terug zou komen werd de auto van Artsen zonder Grenzen, waarin naast Pim vier andere hulpverleners van AzG zaten in een hinderlaag onder vuur genomen. Pim heeft deze aanval niet overleefd.
Wij danken iedereen voor hun medeleven.
Reacties aan de nabestaanden kunt u onder dit bericht achterlaten. Indien er meer nieuws beschikbaar komt zal hiervan in dit weblog bericht worden gedaan.
Mariska, Hoorn
Rik, Marlien, Reinier en Tony, Hoorn
Sacco, Adri, Baldi, Reina, Hoorn
Zoë, Richard, Thomas, Amsterdam
Links:
From: Adam Nyhan
Hi guys - I was really sad to hear about Pim and to read his brother's email. I just sent this "Obituary" to a few of my friends. What a terrible story and I was at least thankful that he was apparently killed instantly and not beheaded like Nick Berg.
Hey guys. I don't know if you caught this story - on Wednesday, Taliban members killed 5 aid workers with Doctors Without Borders. (MSF). They used guns and a grenade to kill them as they were riding in a vehicle that bore the group's logo, and a supposed Taliban spokesman claimed they were targeted because they were serving America's interests. MSF has now pulled its people out of Afghanistan to regroup.
My mother just learned from our cousins in Holland that one of the MSF workers, Willem "Pim" Kwint, was actually a distant cousin of ours. He was apparently 40 years old, and had put his business in Holland on hold for a while to volunteer to help out MSF in giving medical care to Afghans. His family and girlfriend were expecting him back in 2 weeks.
I never knew Pim because he was 40 and lived in Holland and was a pretty distant relative. But I know he's not going to get the kind of recognition over here that Pat Tillman did. I'm sure Pat Tillman was a nice guy and I'm sorry he was killed, but I don't think his death was any more "tragic" or "heroic" than that of any of the other women or men who have gotten slaughtered in the name of Bush's psychotic- religious- I'll- bomb- them- because- I- have- a- personal- hotline- to- the- Almighty crusade in the Middle East. But I know that Pim Kwint was not American and was not a famous football player, which means that our President won't be honoring him publicly anytime soon. And I know that the Taliban who killed him and his 4 MSF companions are too far beyond sanity and humanity to consider what they've done. So I thought I would.
Pim, thanks for doing what you could. I'm sorry you were killed, and I hope it was over quickly. I doubt I would have had the courage to leave a girlfriend, a family and comfortable job and go try to help sick people in a country full of Taliban trying to kill me. I'd like to think I would have, but when it comes right down to it, I really doubt I would have done what you did. Thanks to you, and to Helene de Bier, Egil Tynaes, Fasil Ahmad, and Bismillah. It may be too much to hope that the people who killed you are ever "brought to justice," whatever that might mean, but I wanted a few of my friends to hear your names and know what you did. Rest in peace.
Some stories on this incident are at Washington Post and Guardian. The MSF Obituary is at MSF.
Geschreven door mariska @ 20:57 -
