War crime claims ‘far-fetched’

The odds of an inquiry into whether elite Kiwi troops killed civilians in an Afghanistan raid look increasingly slim after Bill English said allegations of war crimes looked ‘‘quite farfetched’’.

Yesterday, the prime minister said ‘‘there hasn’t been any credible evidence presented that there were any civilian casualties’’ but he remained open to reviewing any new evidence following the release of the book, Hit and Run.

On Monday, Chief of Defence Tim Keating acknowledged for the first time that civilians may have been killed in a raid in 2010, after previously saying an investigation had found the allegations were ‘‘unfounded’’.

‘‘The Defence Force has outlined where it went, the nature of the operation, it’s referred to how they conducted their operations in order to prevent any civilian casualties. The allegation of war crimes in that context looks quite far-fetched,’’ English said.

‘‘You don’t have an inquiry just because someone’s decided to make allegations to sell a book.’’

English’s comments come on the back of the two authors, earlier yesterday, conceding the attacks were at a different location from the position given in their book.

Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson said the claims in Hit and Run were still accurate despite the raids taking place 2 kilometres away.

‘‘We have checked the NZDF maps shown at the press conference and it appears the location of the raid and the villages is indeed slightly different to what our local sources told us. But the villages at that location are definitely called Naik and Khak Khuday Dad, and all the rest of the story in the book is unchanged.

‘‘Likewise the photos in the book of the villages attacked in the raid are correct, as are the photos of the victims and destroyed houses,’’ Hager said.

The location was a ‘‘minor detail’’ and difficult to establish in mountains with no roads or detailed maps, he said.

‘‘Contrary to what Keating said, the central premise of the book is that the actions of the SAS and its allies in the villages of Naik and Khak Khuday Dad led to civilian deaths and injuries, destruction of houses, neglect of wounded people and then a coverup – and none of that has changed.’’

Lawyers acting for the Afghan villagers say they have confirmed with their clients that the locations stated in the book are wrong.

In a letter to English, the lawyers said the villagers agreed the raid happened in the location identified by the NZDF but disputed it was a village called Tirgiran.

‘‘Tirgiran is not a village, and therefore Tirgiran Village does not exist,’’ the letter stated. The villages identified by Keating on Monday as Naik and Khak Khuday Dad had been labelled incorrectly and were actually villages called Beidak and Khakandy, according to the lawyers.

English has not read the letter nor received advice on it yet. He is waiting on Keating to brief Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee before deciding whether a review is needed.

On Monday, Keating said civilians, who were at times used by insurgents as human shields, might have been hit by fire from a US Apache helicopter that accidentally shot a building due to an equipment malfunction.

Hager has also criticised Keating for not addressing the ‘‘deaths and injuries suffered by children, mothers and elderly people who were obviously not insurgents - which are the most important allegations in the book’’.

Hit and Run alleges six civilians, including a 3-yearold girl, were killed during the raid.