Book asks if SAS guilty of war crimes
The New Zealand Defence Force is standing by the actions of its soldiers, after a book by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson said elite New Zealand troops in Afghanistan may have been guilty of war crimes in a raid on two isolated villages
Their new book, Hit and Run, was released in Wellington last night. It outlines raids by SAS troops in Baghlan – when New Zealand led the provincial reconstruction team in Bamiyan – in August 2010 that left six civilians dead and 15 injured.
The authors said the raid – in response to the death of Lieutenant Tim O’Donnell from a roadside bomb, New Zealand’s first combat death in Afghanistan – was given the green light by then-prime minister John Key in person but it was based on flimsy intelligence.
Key responded late last night, saying: ‘‘I am proud of the work the SAS did, and the support they provided in Afghanistan.’’
NZDF said last night that it stood by its April 2011 statement that claims of civilian casualties were investigated and were unfounded.
It said NZDF did not undertake investigations or inquiries into the actions of forces from other nations. That was the role of the joint Afghan-ISAF investigation.
‘‘The NZDF is confident that New Zealand personnel conducted themselves in accordance with the applicable rules of engagement,’’ the statement said.
The authors said during the raid in 2010, the military had acted against something NZ should stand for, that may have amounted to war crimes. They added that the elite soldiers mistakenly believed they would find the insurgents who had attacked O’Donnell’s patrol 19 days earlier in Bamiyan.
Elite SAS officers commanded and led the attack, supported by US helicopter gunships and Afghan forces.
‘‘The insurgent group wasn’t there. Instead, at least 21 civilians were killed and injured – many of them women and children – and the SAS and US forces burned and blew up about a dozen houses,’’ Hager and Stephenson said.
SAS had also failed to help the wounded.
None of the insurgents were found.
Hager and Stephenson said NZDF and Government then tried to keep the whole thing secret.
‘‘They have never admitted nor taken responsibility for what they did. In a second raid on one of the villages about 10 days later, the SAS destroyed more property.’’
When one of the insurgents was caught in Kabul, he was beaten before being handed to the Afghan secret police and tortured, the book claims.
Hager and Stephenson have called for a full independent inquiry into the actions described in their book, which former chief human rights commissioner Margaret Bedggood said, if confirmed, ‘‘would seriously breach international law and could amount to war crimes’’.
‘‘This story also needs to be told to ensure our military is held to account for its actions,’’ Hager said. ‘‘There is no doubt that what the SAS did was wrong and betrayed the defence force’s core values of courage, commitment and integrity.’’
Then-Defence Minister Wayne Mapp said at the time that no civilians had been killed in the raids and a press release had said 12 insurgents were killed and that no civilians were injured or killed. That was later revised to nine.
‘‘Every piece of this statement was untrue,’’ the authors say.
A subsequent investigation concluded that ‘‘allegations of civilian casualties were unfounded’’ according to the media release in April 2011, and that was reinforced in later statements from ministers.
But the authors say Mapp has privately called the raid on Tirgiran valley ‘‘our biggest and most disastrous operation. A fiasco’’.
Former New Zealand, Afghan and US military personnel spoke on the condition their names and identities would not be revealed, Hager and Stephenson said.
Soon after the book was launched, a spokesman for Prime Minister Bill English said it was too early to comment.
But Labour leader Andrew Little said the book raised ‘‘serious allegations’’ about the conduct of SAS in Afghanistan.
‘‘The Defence Force’s reputation is at stake, so the Government must provide a comprehensive response. This cannot be swept under the carpet.’’
Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee is in Iraq.