RSL blasts delay in resolving Afghanistan war crimes allegations
The country’s peak veterans’ organization is demanding authorities urgently resolve outstanding war crimes allegations against Australian soldiers serving in Afghanistan, arguing the delays are damaging morale and unfairly tarnishing uniformed soldiers.
Former judge Paul Brereton’s explosive 2020 report into war crimes allegations found credible evidence of 39 unlawful killings of civilians and prisoners by members of Australian special forces between 2005 and 2016.
His report stated that 19 current and former soldiers would be subject to criminal investigation, but only one charge was brought.
Former special forces soldier Oliver Schulz was arrested and charged in 2023, becoming the first Australian soldier to be charged with war crimes under domestic law. He has pleaded not guilty and is not expected to stand trial until 2027 due to national security concerns.
Peter Tinley, national president of the Returned and Services Association, demanded that all allegations, findings and accusations relating to the conduct of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan be “resolved as a matter of urgent priority”.
Noting that only one charge has been laid in the five years since Brereton submitted his report, Tinley said: “This is not justice. This is uncertainty and it costs everyone: the defendants and their families, the affected Afghan families who have been promised accountability, and the 580,000 Australians who served this country honorably and now watch their service be measured by unresolved allegations rather than the truth of what they gave.”
Tinley served for 17 years in the Special Air Service Regiment, which has been the focus of allegations of misconduct, including as deputy commander at the start of the war in Afghanistan.
Tinley, who has been grappling with complaints from veterans frustrated about the pace of action, said the response to Brereton’s report had been “too slow, too transparent and too humanly costly”.
“We know that complex prosecutions involving classified material take time, we understand that,” he said.
“But ‘complexity’ cannot become a permanent condition or a defense of slow processes. National security restrictions that delay both sides’ access to evidence need to be resolved urgently.”
Chris Moraitis, director general of the Office of Special Investigations (OSI), established to investigate alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, told the Senate at hearings this month that his organization estimated 13 active investigations were ongoing.
He said 39 investigations are no longer active.
Moraitis said the office’s joint investigation with the Australian Federal Police “continues to make significant progress”.
“We are working to complete joint investigations as quickly as possible, mindful of the potential impact on the welfare of those involved and the wider Defense community,” he said.
Tinley said current military personnel were watching anxiously to see “whether Australia’s commitment to accountability is genuine or performance-based”.
“This uncertainty is not abstract,” he said in a statement.
“It impacts operational cohesion, recruitment and retention, and our national capability. A Defense Force whose people have doubts about institutional integrity is a less effective Defense Force.”
He said continued uncertainty for veterans is “re-opening wounds that have begun to close,” leading to reluctance to talk about military service and feelings of shame among those who have done nothing wrong.
This imprint reported last year that the OSI had secured the cooperation of new witnesses in its investigation into allegations against disgraced soldier Ben Roberts-Smith and had obtained footage of him drinking a beer from the prosthetic leg of an Afghan man he executed.
The standard of proof required for a civil court judge to make a finding is lower than that of a criminal court.
Labor MP Julian Hill warned in the wake of Roberts-Smith’s smear that there could be a wave of veteran suicides if the country does not move beyond focusing on the wrongful actions of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.
“[F]Frankly speaking, it is time to draw a line in the sand and rebalance our national conversations about this period, Hill wrote in a report by the defense subcommittee of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade.
“Most Australians who served in Afghanistan did so with distinction… As a society, Australia risks repeating another Vietnam and callously increasing veteran suicides if we lose perspective and balance.”
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