Add Category
Posted
Lawyers for Afghans whose relatives were killed in a botched raid by New Zealand troops in 2010 have demanded a full, independent inquiry into the killings, and accused the New Zealand Defence Force of covering up potential war crimes.
- The lawyers says it's possible that NZ soldiers have committed war crimes
- They say villagers dispute claims they had invited the attack, which left six people dead
- A book released this week investigating the raid has sparked a furore in New Zealand
The three Auckland-based lawyers held a press conference this morning to announce they had written to the relevant government ministers asking for an inquiry into the killing of six people — including a three-year-old girl — and the wounding of another 15.
The lawyers said it was possible that New Zealand soldiers had committed war crimes during the attack on two villages in Baghlan province.
"International law, human rights law, is very clear, that when there are violations of such fundamental rights, that there must be a full and independent investigation and inquiry," one of the lawyers Deborah Manning said.
"That's stage one. Then you move onto stage two, which is accountability."
Politicians and senior military officials denied for seven years that any civilians were killed in operation, which was supposed to target insurgents responsible for the killing of a New Zealand soldier.
However, a book released this week by investigative reporters Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson has sparked a furore in New Zealand with its claims that the New Zealand Defence Force knew almost immediately that civilians were killed, and has covered that up.
The Defence Minister at the time of the raid, Wayne Mapp, this week confirmed that he knew in 2014 that civilians were killed.
However, he subsequently said he did not think New Zealand troops had committed war crimes, as they believed they were under attack from within the village.
Lawyer Deborah Manning said the villagers had told her they disputed any claim that they had in any way invited the attack by elite New Zealand SAS troopers, backed by United States helicopter gunships.
"They're very concerned about some of the comments that are coming out in order to justify the attacks," she said.
"They are clear that they are a simple, poor village and that they have lost their dearest people for no reason, and that they ask for whatever help that can be given to them."
Ms Manning's colleague, Rodney Harrison, QC, said it was clear that the New Zealand Defence Force had covered up the killings and was continuing to do so.
"From our perspective there's both the book, and the instructions we have from the villagers," Mr Harrison said.
"Already the outright denials of the Defence Force have been disproved over the last couple of days, anyway, so it's not as if any credence should be given to those.
"The inquiry also has to look at the cover-up, to be blunt, by the New Zealand Defence Force. Their complete denial that there were any civilian deaths and their assertion that insurgents were killed when there were none killed."
Separately, claims have been made in the New Zealand media today that New Zealand troops were directly responsible for at least some of the deaths, rather than the US helicopter gunships that fired on the village.
The New Zealand Herald quoted sources from within the New Zealand SAS saying that snipers shot two villagers, and that the troops had been told to assume that everybody in the village was a hostile insurgent.
The article said there was considerable unease within the Defence Force about the fact that soldiers had been given decorations for their part in the operation, when it was well known that civilians had been killed.
One soldier was given a decoration because he was seriously injured when a wall fell on him during the operation, while the soldier who called in the airstrikes on the village was also given a medal.
Topics: defence-forces, unrest-conflict-and-war, defence-and-national-security, afghanistan, new-zealand