The first Australian soldier has been charged over Afghanistan war crimes, but those ultimately responsible remain in command — RT World News

Earlier this week, an Australian soldier, Oliver Schulz, 41, was charged with homicide by the Australian Federal Police in relation to the killing of a civilian in Afghanistan in 2012.

Schulz was remanded in custody and is because of seem in court docket once more on Might 16. His trial will in all probability start later this yr, and, if discovered responsible of homicide, he faces a most sentence of life imprisonment.

Schulz was a member of the elite Particular Air Service (SAS) Regiment – Australia’s shock troops that did a lot of the preventing in Afghanistan.  He served a number of excursions of responsibility, and was awarded the Commendation for Gallantry.

That is the primary legal prosecution introduced because of investigations performed by the Workplace of the Particular Investigator (OSI) – a physique established in 2021 by the Australian authorities to find out if legal expenses ought to be introduced in respect of doable battle crimes that had been recognized within the 2020 Brereton Report.

The Brereton inquiry discovered “credible proof” that Australian troopers might have murdered some 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners between 2005 and 2016. Investigation head Paul Brereton advisable that any prosecutions for these crimes be introduced within the civil courts, quite than earlier than army tribunals, resulting in the charging of Schulz this week.

The Brereton inquiry was established in response to experiences by the ABC and Channel 9 alleging that Australian troopers had dedicated quite a few battle crimes through the Afghanistan battle.

Media experiences accused Victoria Cross winner and SAS battle hero Ben Roberts-Smith of getting dedicated atrocities whereas on responsibility, prompting him to start defamation proceedings in opposition to the publishers. The prolonged Roberts-Smith listening to was delayed by Covid-19 and solely concluded final yr, with the decide anticipated at hand down his judgment later this yr.

On the trial, the defendants, who’re publishers elevating a protection of reality, known as proof from numerous Afghan civilians and SAS troopers. If believed, it might show that Roberts-Smith had, in actual fact, dedicated numerous atrocities – together with homicide. It isn’t identified whether or not OSI is at the moment investigating Roberts-Smith, but when the publishers’ reality protection succeeds, Roberts-Smith will nearly actually be prosecuted. 

Schulz is believed to have been featured in an ABC 4 Corners documentary – though he was not named – that confirmed footage of an Afghan civilian, who was mendacity down in a area along with his fingers raised, being shot by an Australian SAS soldier. That soldier is now alleged to be Schulz. 

The Schulz prosecution is just the start of what is going to be a prolonged and embarrassing course of for the Australian Defence Power (ADF). The OSI is at the moment investigating between 40 and 50 extra battle crimes allegedly dedicated by Australian troopers in Afghanistan.

Fiona Nelson, director of the Australian Centre for Worldwide Justice, mentioned this week that, “Victims of human rights violations throughout the battle in Afghanistan have for many years been denied avenues for any accountability. Legal proceedings in Australia have an essential function to play in lastly permitting for impunity to be challenged. Australia has plenty of work forward to answer the legacy of its army engagement in Afghanistan.”

Australia’s involvement within the battle in Afghanistan – in assist of the US try to impose a type of democracy and regime change on the Asian nation – has already confirmed to be a grave embarrassment for Canberra. Schulz’s trial, and the others that appear sure to observe in its wake, will little doubt add to Australia’s shame and disgrace.

Some 26,000 Australian personnel have been deployed in Afghanistan. 41 troopers died and 261 have been wounded. The battle in Afghanistan resulted in a complete army catastrophe for the invaders with the US and Australia pressured to make a humiliating withdrawal within the face of the resurgent Taliban’s return to energy. 

The army loss in Afghanistan and the findings contained within the Brereton Report have fully destroyed the fame and morale of the ADF, and the Schulz prosecution, regardless of the end result, can solely add to the ADF’s woes. This was confirmed by SAS Affiliation Chairman Martin Hamilton-Smith, who mentioned this week that Schulz “has a proper to place his model of occasions and to clarify the character and complexities of the preventing in Afghanistan.” 

When the Brereton findings have been handed down in November 2020, the ADF prime brass refused to take any accountability in any way for the conduct of Australian troops in Afghanistan.

Navy leaders heaped blame on low-ranking SAS troopers and appeared stunned at Brereton’s findings.  A complete SAS Regiment was disbanded, and medals awarded to 1000’s of abnormal troopers have been peremptorily rescinded. Was the army management actually fully unaware of how the battle in Afghanistan had been fought, or, as is more likely, had the ADF prime brass merely turned a blind eye to occasions taking place in Afghanistan for years?

Moreover, the army elite’s enthusiastic assist for Schulz’s prosecution mustn’t blind us to the truth that this might be simply one other ploy to keep away from taking final accountability for the battle crimes undoubtedly dedicated by Australian troops in Afghanistan.

Nevertheless, the ADF management’s dereliction of responsibility doesn’t cease there. It was the ADF prime brass that inspired and permitted troopers to interact in a number of excursions of responsibility in Afghanistan as a matter after all – certainly an unwise coverage, and one that would possible result in the brutalization of abnormal troopers.

Additionally, it was the identical prime brass that drafted the inappropriate phrases of engagement that ruled the conduct of Australian troops in Afghanistan – guidelines that some protection consultants and troopers really feel precipitated, at the least partially, the excesses revealed by Brereton.

It was the identical army management that did not correctly assist these troopers who returned from Afghanistan in a traumatized state. In spite of everything, it turned clear very early on within the battle that many troopers who returned house have been unable to readjust to civilian life. Suicide charges amongst returning veterans have been terribly excessive, however the ADF prime brass did little or nothing to help these shattered people. 

Solely when veterans’ organizations engaged in media campaigns to spotlight the difficulty did the federal authorities belatedly act. In July 2021 a Royal Fee was established to investigate into veteran suicide. The Fee is but at hand down its remaining report.  

Because of Australia’s involvement in America’s misguided battle in Afghanistan, the ADF is now a damaged group. Its morale is shattered and veteran’s organizations and lots of abnormal troopers have misplaced all respect for the ADF management. 

However, the exact same army leaders that presided over the Afghanistan battle, and all that has transpired subsequently, nonetheless stay firmly in control of the ADF. It’s correct for abnormal troopers like Oliver Schulz to be prosecuted for battle crimes, nevertheless it ought to embody those that bear final accountability for what occurred in Afghanistan – particularly the higher echelon ADF officers and politicians who uncritically supported america invasion and its aftermath – and they need to be held accountable and punished.

In fact, that won’t occur as a result of – as final week’s AUKUS deal clearly demonstrated – the apparent classes that ought to have been realized from Australia’s disastrous involvement within the Afghanistan and Iraq wars are nonetheless being ignored by the political and army elites that proceed to rule Australia of their characteristically inept trend.