NZDF advice key to inquiry call

PM waiting for further info from Keating on SAS raid

Adecision on whether an inquiry or further investigation is needed into allegations an SAS raid led to civilian deaths will be based on advice from the Chief of Defence Force.

Hit & Run, by Jon Stephenson and Nicky Hager, claims six civilians were killed and 15 were injured and the authors have accused Lieutenant General Tim Keating of doing everything in his power to avoid an inquiry.

But Prime Minister Bill English told reporters yesterday that he was waiting for further advice from Keating — a former commanding officer of the NZSAS — into whether any further action is required.

“He will tell us whether he thinks there is a basis there with any new evidence or any new information,” English said.

“It’s his job to look into these kinds of allegations . . . the book has turned out to be wrong, pretty fundamentally wrong about events that might have happened but certainly happened somewhere else.”

Earlier yesterday Wayne Mapp, who as Defence Minister approved the raids in 2010, outed himself as a source for the book on the Pundit website and called for further investi- gation to find out if civilians died.

English said as a private citizen Mapp was “free to follow whatever opinions he has” but said they were based largely on a television documentary by Stephenson that showed on Maori TV in 2014.

“So he doesn’t have any different or more information than anyone else.”

As Defence Minister Mapp was briefed both before and after the SAS operations — called Operation Burnham — in Baghlan province. The book said Mapp had described the raids as a “fiasco”, and after its release he confirmed he had used those words.

Labour, the Green Party, NZ First and United Future have all called for an inquiry as have lawyers acting for Afghani villagers.