Afghan children die in NZ firing-range explosion

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.

Children were among 17 civilians killed or injured in explosions caused by devices left behind on a New Zealand firing range in Afghanistan, a Stuff Circuit investigation has revealed, and the UN says it’s time New Zealand sorted out the deadly mess it left behind.

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.

‘‘When I got out of the home, I saw my daughter-in-law running and screaming that I lost my children,’’ Baskul told Stuff Circuit. ‘‘I asked her, ‘Don’t say stupid things, it is not right’.’’

When she confirmed the truth, she collapsed in shock. She had lost two sons, aged 12 and 9.

She described them both as good boys, who had told their mother they would not marry so they could care for her instead.

‘‘They said, ‘We will wash your clothes and cook for you and take care of you’. They had very good morals and they were kind.’’

In the same explosion, another mother, Tohira, lost two children, aged 5 and 11. A third woman, Raina, had three children killed, aged 5, 8 and 12.

‘‘We have lost them and nothing can bring them back,’’ said Raina. ‘‘God bless them.’’

One of Baskul’s older sons, 21-year-old Alidot, called for the New Zealand government to clean up the range urgently as it was an area local people used.

Asked if the families had heard from any New Zealanders, he said: ‘‘No, you are the first.’’

Another accident left two young men with injuries after a blast knocked them to the ground while they were collecting firewood on the range in February 2013 – two months before the PRT’s mission in Bamyan ended.

Khaliq, who was 15 at the time, said he and his brother Sajad, then 18, are farm workers but cannot do heavy work because of their injuries.

Khaliq has scars over his body, and ongoing back pain, while Sajad still has shrapnel in his hand.

Their mother, Kubra, told Stuff Circuit that after the accident, she went to the New Zealand PRT base to complain.

‘‘I [told] them, ‘My sons have been injured and the accident happened on the area that you are firing on’,’’ Kubra said. ‘‘They said, ‘No, we are not to blame, it does not belong to us’.’’

Defence documents seen by Stuff Circuit said the firing range linked to the deaths of the seven children was cleared in 2013, after its departure.

However, a clearance certificate obtained by Stuff Circuit shows only a small proportion of the range was cleared, 0.297 square kilometres. Last year, the range was surveyed and it was deemed that more than 18 square kilometres remained unsafe.

The United Nations welcomed the discussions between New Zealand and the Afghan Government and hoped New Zealand would pay for the clean-up.

‘‘If the result of all of all these tragic incidents is that there is a focusing of the mind and that these devices now get cleared, that’s at least something,’’ Fruchet said.

‘‘You’re responsible for cleaning up your own firing range. You can’t just leave unexploded ordnance behind in somebody else’s country.’’ Patrick Fruchet Head of UN Mine Action Service in Afghanistan