The Australian Government has handed not only the SAS on a plate to extremist Muslims, but all Australians.
These Muslim extremist nut jobs will want revenge.
Even the Afghan Govt understands the good work Australia has done over there compared to the hell the Taliban submit them to.
Even this weekend, ISIS and the Taliban lobbed rockets into their own city killing their own civilians. These are not human beings but complete animals. And now we have thrown our solders at their feet.
Taliban ‘war crimes hypocrites’
Chief of the Australian Defence Force General Angus Campbell delivers the findings Afghanistan inquiry on November 19. Picture: Getty Images
The Afghan government has defended Australia’s legacy in Afghanistan as “overwhelmingly positive” and denounced the Taliban as hypocritical after the insurgents pounced on war crimes allegations against SAS troops at the weekend to demand punishment for “savage, degenerate invader” forces.
The militant group called for those responsible for war crimes in Afghanistan to be punished “so that it may heal the hearts of the victims”, and warned that allegations detailed in the Brereton report were only the tip of an iceberg of atrocities committed by coalition troops.
The statement was uploaded to the Taliban’s official website on Saturday, coinciding with fresh rocket attacks on the capital, Kabul, which killed eight and wounded dozens more. At least 163 civilians have been killed in November alone in Afghanistan’s ongoing insurgency.
A senior Afghan government official on Sunday dismissed the comments as attempted propaganda, pointing to continued attacks against civilians and government forces even as the insurgents claim to be prosecuting for peace.
Ahmad Shuja Jamal, director general of international affairs and regional co-operation in Afghanistan’s Office of the National Security Council, told The Australian his government was shocked by the details in the Brereton report and welcomed Scott Morrison’s assurances to President Ashraf Ghani that prosecutions would be pursued.
A four-year investigation by NSW Court of Appeals judge Paul Brereton found credible evidence that Australian special forces soldiers committed, or directed, up to 39 murders of non-combatants in 23 separate incidents, and ordered junior soldiers to kill Afghan prisoners and civilians in a practice known as “blooding”.
Mr Jamal added: “We would also like to make the point that even though evidence uncovered in this report is shocking, the contribution of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan has been overwhelmingly positive in helping us fight terrorism and training Afghan National Security Forces in standing their ground in Oruzgan against the Taliban.
“The Taliban think they can use this as an opportunity for propaganda but the reality is they have no moral high ground to stand on. The Taliban are conducting similar scale attacks every other day in this country in deliberate and targeted attacks of civilian in violation of right to life, violation of religious liberties.
“The Taliban are killing civilians, including women and children, in deliberate and indiscriminate ways.”
His comments came after Defence Force Chief Angus Campbell defended the mission in Afghanistan as one that prevented the country being a base for international terrorism but said he would ultimately be accountable for his role.
General Campbell, who was responsible for all Australian forces deployed to the region in 2011, told the ABC’s Insider’s program he backed a recommendation that appropriate body cameras be used by special forces.
Separately, Chief of Army Rick Burr told 60 Minutes on Sunday night he had heard nothing about the allegations while a high-ranking officer in Afghanistan. “The inquiry report makes very clear the efforts that individuals went to conceive conduct and conceal these alleged unlawful,” General Burr said.
Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission has expressed shock over the alleged murders of 39 Afghan non-combatants, and called for a full reckoning of crimes committed not just by Australian troops but by US, UK and other military partners in the NATO-led coalition.
The commission said in a statement that the Brereton report “clearly demonstrates that Australian forces engaged in murder and brutalisation of Afghans, including children, through deliberate inhumane acts of violence behind which was a consensus that Afghan life, whether of men, women or children, had no inherent worth or dignity”.
“The AIHRC calls on the US and UK, and other countries with an armed presence in Afghanistan, to investigate their forces’ participation, and leadership, of acts of violence against Afghan non-combatants, including detainees and civilians.
“Only through a series of independent inquiries will we uncover the true extent of this disregard for Afghan life, which normalised murder, and resulted in war crimes.”
In February this year, the UN reported that more than 100,000 civilians had been killed or hurt in the last decade of an 18-year war in Afghanistan between Taliban and other insurgents, government and Western forces.
The AIHRC has urged the Australian Office of the Special Investigator, tasked with pursuing military prosecutions over the allegations, to speak to victims and communities to uncover the “full extent of atrocities”, and to fund a unit that works directly with victims.
It has also called on the Australian government to “commit to listening to Afghan victims’ demands for truth and justice”, adequately compensate victims, and fund community memorials for those “brutally killed”.
State minister for human rights and former AIHRC chairwoman Sima Samar told The Australian the commission had “heard rumours about humiliation by international forces in Oruzgan”, where most Australian troops were based, and was dismayed that no complaints had previously reached her office.
“We believed and had confidence that the Australian troops know about international humanitarian law and respect the rules of the Geneva Convention,” she said.
While the Taliban statement savaged Australian troops over the Brereton report, it stopped short of threatening retaliation at a time when the US is poised to pull most of its remaining troops from the country by January. AMANDA HODGE
SOUTH EAST ASIA CORRESPONDENT
Amanda Hodge is The Australian’s South East Asia correspondent, based in Jakarta. Previously based in New Delhi, she has lived and worked in Asia for more than a decade covering social and political upheaval fr... Read more
