Hollywood Tale of Aid Worker in Cahoots With Cia Sparks Dismay

A new film, starring Angelina Jolie and Clive Owen, about humanitarian aid organisations that operate in war zones, has been attacked by aid groups for potentially putting their staff at risk.

The film, Beyond Borders, opened in the US last month but the distributors say it will not now be shown in Britain.

Beyond Borders tells the story of an idealistic but bloody-minded English doctor, played by Owen, who works in conflict areas such as Ethiopia, Cambodia and Chechnya.

Jolie plays a wealthy married woman who becomes involved with the doctor and his work with refugees.

The controversial ingredient in the film is the suggestion that the doctor, in order to get his medical supplies through, works with the CIA and allows the smuggling of weapons. A shadowy intelligence agent pops up throughout the film in different locations.

The suggestion of a relationship between the CIA and aid groups has provoked an angry response from medical aid workers and groups. Medical aid organisations are particularly anxious to distance themselves from any governmental links after the attack on the International Committee of the Red Cross building in Baghdad.

Steve Hansch, a research fellow at Georgetown University in Washington, who has worked at more than 100 refugee camps in 60 countries, said the film could endanger medical aid workers in foreign countries.

"Hundreds of my friends and colleagues may well be put at risk now, because Beyond Borders gives credence to the notion that NGOs [non-governmental organisations] act secretly and repeatedly under contract to the CIA," Mr Hansch wrote in the LA Times.

"By popularising an image of aid agencies working under instructions from the CIA, Beyond Borders may torpedo their real work in the field."

In reference to a scene in which the aid workers fight with soldiers in Cambodia, Mr Hansch added: "Real aid workers do not kill local soldiers with their bare hands."

Mr Hansch was a friend of the American aid worker Fred Cuny, who was killed in Chechnya after being wrongly suspected of working for the CIA.

In the field, too, there is dismay at the premise of the film. The coordinator of a Médicins Sans Frontières operation in Colombia, Maria Theresa de Maghalaes Vilhena, said: "I think this is very dangerous. This mix-up between military and humanitarian is very dangerous. Look at what is happening now in Iraq."

MSF has a strict policy of complete independence from governments and factions.

Ms de Maghalaes Vilhena said many countries were suspicious of any foreigners in conflict zones, and MSF workers had strict guidelines on such issues. They were advised to allow their vehicles to be searched at roadblocks to prove that they were only carrying medical equipment.

"We have to be clear, and I think this movie is not making it clear," she said.

Medical aid organisations are also aware that combatants sometimes try to use their insignia as a way of smuggling arms or personnel.

The distributor of the film, Pathé, had no comment yesterday on the criticisms. A spokesperson said it had been decided that the film would not be distributed in the UK, but was unable to say whether this was because of poor box-office returns in the US or as a result of the controversy.

Many of those involved in the film appear to have had the best of intentions. It demonstrates well the difficult conditions under which medical staff work, the bureacratic battles they have to fight, and the heroic work they often do. Jolie herself has been active in highlighting the plight of refugees in Cambodia and has committed herself to working on their behalf.

But despite a major marketing campaign and a large budget, the film has taken less than $3m (£1.8m) at the box office and has only reached No 17 in the latest Variety box office charts. Nor has it been well received by the critics, being described by one as "beyond silliness", and it is not expected to win any awards.