Special investigation Kids die in NZ
It’s time New Zealand sorted out the deadly mess it left behind in Afghanistan, says the United Nations. Eugene Bingham and Paula Penfold report.
SEVEN children were killed in an explosion caused by a device left behind on a New Zealand firing range in Afghanistan, a Stuff Circuit investigation has revealed.
The children are among 17 civilians killed or injured in incidents connected to unexploded ordnance on New Zealand’s firing ranges.
The previously unreported tragic legacy of New Zealand’s 10-year deployment to Afghanistan is the subject of a Stuff Circuit documentary, Life + Limb.
Locals are pleading for the ranges to be cleared, and the United Nations says it’s time for New Zealand to sort it out.
‘‘If you are an international military and you’re deployed in someone else’s country, you’re responsible for cleaning up your own firing range,’’ said Patrick Fruchet, head of the United Nations Mine Action Service in Afghanistan.
‘‘You can’t just leave unexploded ordnance behind in somebody else’s country.’’
The Defence Force refused to be interviewed, but in a statement said it ‘‘takes its responsibility to ensure areas used by New Zealand forces are free of unexploded ordnance very seriously’’.
Defence was in talks with the Afghan government to clear the ranges, and had set aside $10 million to do so, the statement said.
But locals point out it is now six years since New Zealand left Afghanistan and question why the work hasn’t been carried out already.
Some of the incidents have happened since New Zealand’s departure.
But the Defence Force denied the incidents could be directly linked to New Zealand devices, saying the blame could be pointed at Russian or American forces who used the land prior to New Zealand’s arrival.
Fruchet said while it was a ‘‘mathematical’’ possibility other forces’ devices were responsible for some of the deaths and injuries, it was not a ‘‘reasonable likelihood’’.
‘‘These incidents are taking place in communities that are immediately adjacent to these firing ranges,’’ said Fruchet. ‘‘And we saw a spike in the data set in terms of explosive ordnance casualties in Bamyan once these firing ranges were up and running.’’
New Zealand sent a
Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) to the central Afghanistan province of Bamyan in 2003, on a ‘‘hearts and minds’’ mission to help the local population recover after the overthrow of the Taliban.
Since it was a military deployment, soldiers used five firing ranges around the province to train, and test their weapons. Two of the ranges were used for high explosives, including 40mm grenades and 60mm mortars.
Defence said it operated the ranges in accordance with rules that required an officer to notify PRT headquarters if any devices had not exploded, so specialist personnel would be sent to deal with it.
The PRT also helped dispose of foreign military ordnance left all over the province.
A spokesperson said the ranges were cleared in accordance with the rules that were in place when the PRT departed in April 2013, but that the rules had subsequently changed.
The rules, agreed to by the International Security Assistance Force that New Zealand was part of, were changed in November 2013.
But Stuff Circuit has learned the talks only began last year. In 2018, a survey of the ranges found 39 square kilometres remained dangerous.
The ranges are on land used by locals for herding of animals and collecting firewood. One of them, known by the New Zealanders as the Beersheba Range, is surrounded by villages where children play freely.
It was at a village near Beersheba Range in April 2014 when a local woman, Baskul, heard a loud explosion while she was visiting her brother.
It is believed one of the children found a device on the range and carried it back to the outskirts of the village, about a kilometre away.