Clark to SAS: please explain
Former Prime Minister Helen Clark is calling on military chiefs to front up over allegations surrounding a 2004 SAS firefight, saying, ‘‘I would not consider behaviour along the lines described acceptable.’’
The Stuff Circuit documentary series The Valley uncovers concerns raised by senior military sources about what happened before and after the gunfight in Uruzgan, which led to Willie Apiata being awarded a Victoria Cross for bravery under fire.
He carried a seriously wounded soldier 70 metres across a battlefield through enemy fire.
Clark, who was prime minister at the time, told Stuff Circuit she has ‘‘no recollection whatsoever of hearing of the events alleged to have occurred before and after the firefight involving Willie Apiata and his colleagues’’.
She said Willie Apiata’s action was one of heroism.
‘‘I do think, however, that the New Zealand Defence Force should respond to the allegations made by villagers about the treatment they received before and after the firefight occurred.
‘‘The behaviour described would not in my opinion meet the standard expected of New Zealand Defence Force personnel.’’
At the time Apiata was decorated, Clark said, ‘‘This is a very proud moment for the SAS, for the New Zealand Defence Force and for New Zealand.’’
But sources in New Zealand said the military framing of the 2004 firefight was very specific, and they believed the public should know there was more to it than has ever been revealed by the Defence Force.
They question the official version - that the New Zealanders came under surprise attack - and ask whether the firefight needed to happen at all.
Those sources are not questioning Apiata’s courage and are not saying he didn’t deserve the VC.
The Defence Force has repeatedly refused to be interviewed by Stuff Circuit, despite being supplied with extensive details of topics to be covered.
Stuff Circuit travelled to Afghanistan in April and interviewed villagers who wanted to tell their side of the story, ‘‘because we were afflicted, oppressed, and unjust things happened to us’’.
The villagers describe how troopers arrived in their village bazaar, creating a lot of dust, so the villagers gathered around.
‘‘They were probably offended so they kicked, slapped and punched us...They cursed and used abusive words towards the people. They said, ‘ You guys are Taliban and we will come back again tomorrow’.’’
They say the troopers left and set up camp on the side of a hill not far away. During the night, the villagers heard loud fighting.
It is believed this was the firefight in which Apiata earned his VC.
The villagers say the following morning what they describe as ‘‘tanks’’ rolled back into the village bazaar.
‘‘Six tanks came. Each tank had a body.... They dropped the bodies down, they then tied our hands behind our backs.’’
The ties the villagers are referring to are known in the military as ‘flexi-cuffs’.
‘‘Then they searched the houses. Children were screaming and [the troopers] yelled, kicked the doors, and broke the locks and doors.’’ The villagers had also said around 15 or 16 men were tied up.
One said when his hands were tied behind his back he was forced to kneel against the wall.
One guy was guarding me, pointing his gun to me saying ‘Don’t turn your face’.
‘‘I was thinking that they will take me to their tank and will take me away.’’
Asked if he was scared, he said ‘‘Yes, I was scared’’. The second villager said ‘‘Yes, why wouldn’t we be scared?’’
The men say they feared for their lives.
The villagers’ account of what happened before and after the firefight accords with what military sources in New Zealand have told Stuff Circuit.
They describe it as a Special Forces tactic called ‘‘bait and hook’’.
They say in this case the ‘bait’ was going into the village and apparently provoking the firefight, and the ‘hook’, that there were more SAS troopers waiting to fight.
Asked whether the people involved were Taliban or local villagers one of the men said, ‘‘When those foreigners commit disgraceful acts, then the people fight them because they’ve been humiliated…People were saying all the foreigners deliberately created problems for the villagers so villagers were forced to fight them.’’
- Stuff Circuit
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