One of the world’s best known aid agencies, Médecins sans Frontières, has released a collection of essays which has revealed some of the controversial policies that they undertook when negotiating with governments during their work.

Amongst those examined was their work in Sri Lanka where after being accused of being pro-LTTE, the agency found itself working within a government "pacification policy that had settled the ethnic question in Sri Lanka by bombings and military surveillance".

Looking at other operations in Somalia, Burma, Pakistan and Gaza, the book explores the argument that compromises with political and military figures may have lead to their operations prolonging conflicts.

A report by The Guardian, called them “ugly compromises” and noted that there were striking contradictions in the way the aid organisation responded to different situations.

Marie Noelle Rodrigue, operations director of MSF in Paris told the Guardian,

"Often that means making a compromise to a degree where you are helping the authorities. This is a question that no-one has wanted to examine and it is good that MSF have looked into it and I think we are happy that we've done it honestly."

"I think too often there is a mystery about what goes on in the humanitarian world behind closed doors, despite the fact that people know there is often a price to pay to help the victims."

While she did not comment on whether any of the decisions were right or wrong, she conceded that their policies, particularly in Sri Lanka, had some within the organisation questioning their tactics.

"There are people in the organisation who believe we did the right thing in Sri Lanka and others who think we compromised too far. The important thing is to open it up to an honest discussion."

"Some of the case studies in the book are still under discussion within MSF."