Transparency, cleanup needed

There is a moment in the new Stuff Circuit documentary, Life And Limb, that, despite the language barrier between journalist and subjects, is achingly poignant. Paula Penfold, interviewing Baskul, one of three mothers who between them lost seven children to an explosion in 2014, asks her about her two sons killed that day. We hear her question, the acknowledgement that it is a difficult thing for her to be asked. Then, in a voiceover as footage shows a clearly grief-stricken Baskul, Penfold says: ‘‘She asks us not to refresh her sorrow. Her grief is so raw.’’

By now, we should have an idea of our Government’s response to another challenging story involving the New Zealand Defence Force’s 10-year deployment in Afghanistan. At time of writing, that was unclear.

The difference from the previous story Stuff Circuit investigated in Afghanistan, told in The Valley, is that this also concerns events since the NZDF’s role as a provincial reconstruction team (PRT) in Bamiyan Province ended. Although the nine incidents on New Zealand firing ranges, involving the deaths or injuries of 17 people, and listed on a United Nations database, go back to 2004.

Again a big question is what the Government is going to do about it. In another test of its resolve to exercise kindness, will its response refresh the sorrow of Baskul and the other two mothers bereaved on April 1, 2014? Or will New Zealand respond positively to the impassioned plea from the families to clean up the vast firing range where the unexploded ordnance that killed their children seems certain to have originated?

The New Zealand public can demand significantly more transparency from the

Government than Stuff Circuit has received from the NZDF. The documentaries are linked in several ways. There’s location, and the fact that the team was making The Valley in Afghanistan in 2017 when it heard of an incident on a firing range. Also, in the words of Penfold’s colleague, Eugene Bingham, the NZDF has ‘‘never done an interview’’ for either documentary, despite numerous requests ‘‘since 2013’’.

That’s significant. When Bingham made a request under the Official Information Act in 2017, the NZDF response highlighted a 2011 incident in which one child was killed, and a second injured. It had been the subject of an NZDF press release. But there is a revealing response to his last question: ‘‘Were there other incidents of Afghan locals being killed or injured at sites used by the PRT as firing ranges?’’

The response says the NZDF ‘‘is unaware of any similar incidents occurring at ranges used by the PRT’’. That’s not what the UN database says.

The NZDF needs to answer how, on a ‘‘hearts and minds’’ mission, it might not have been aware of deaths and injuries on its firing ranges. Like a 2013 incident when two brothers were injured gathering firewood, with their mother complaining to the PRT. Village elder Mr Hashimi laid a complaint soon afterwards. It was forwarded to the International Security Assistance Force, which had oversight of New Zealand operations. It’s tough to imagine that not being forwarded to the NZDF.

The bottom line is we need to know exactly what happened as a result of our troops’ presence there. Affected residents, philosophical as they are that what’s done cannot be undone, need the assurance of knowing the firing ranges used by our troops in Bamiyan have been properly cleared. Not in another six years. Immediately.

In another test of its resolve to exercise kindness, will its response refresh the sorrow of Baskul . . . ?