Australia has sought to strip its senior military officers of their honor medals of rank in regard to alleged war crimes committed in Afghanistan.
The release on Thursday follows the 2020 Brereton Report that exposed credible Australian defense force Afghanistan’s unlawful use of force whereby 39 prisoners and civilians were killed. Defence Minister of Australia Richard Marles, speaking in the parliament, stated that this decision was made following 143 of the report recommendations, some of which were on “command accountability.”
“My actions regarding this decision are in line with the Brereton report findings and recommendations. I am unable to reveal details and outcome due to the privacy act,”said Marles. Marles did not reveal the names of the officers who had been demerit and did not state the number of people affected. Still, local media brought this information showing that it is less than 10 people.
Marles also said that the Office of the Special Investigator was considering putting some ADF personnel on trial, but those investigations would “take years to finish.” Marles said that despite the fact that the alleged actions of around two dozen ADF personnel were a source of ’national shame,’ thousands of Australians fought in the Afghan war.
“Apart from the acts demonstrated by a handful of individuals, they performed their duties professionally, with dignity, and with a high level of ethics that should make them proud, and indeed we are proud of them,” he said. Paul Brereton’s four-year inquiry did not establish that the military top brass had prior knowledge of the alleged war crimes.
The former judge was able, however, to conclude that “troop, squadron and task group commanders are charged with moral command responsibility and accountability for what occurred on their watch.”
This was to be charged in March last year wherein former Special Air Service Regiment soldier Oliver Schulz was accused of murdering an Afghan man in 2012 in order to become the first serving or former ADF member to be charged with a war crime-related murder.
