Horrific findings in war crimes report

BOMBSHELL REPORT

The Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Angus Campbell, yesterday announced that Major General Justice Paul Brereton’s final, heavily-redacted report into Australian war crimes in Afghanistan found “credible information to substantiate 23 incidents of alleged unlawful killing of 39 people by 25 Australian Special Forces personnel, predominantly from the Special Air Service Regiment”.

As The Mandarin explains, the report also discloses separate allegations that ADF members “cruelly treated” people who were under their control and not classified as existing combatants during periods of time outside “the heat of battle”.

Two of the more horrific, systemic findings involved soldiers carrying “throwdowns” — foreign weapons or equipment such as pistols, hand-held radios and grenades — “to be placed with the bodies of ‘enemy killed in action’ for the purposes of site exploitation photography”, and what Campbell calls an “appalling practice known as blooding” where soldiers were instructed to shoot a prisoner in order to achieve their first kill.

Brereton investigated 57 allegations and made 143 recommendations in his report — including for the referral of 36 incidents to the Australian Federal Police and compensation of victims’ families — all of which have been accepted.

For anyone seeking help, Lifeline is on 13 11 14, Open Arms Veterans & Families Counselling is on 1800 011 046, and the ADF All-hours Support Line is on 1800 628 036.

REFORM, SADNESS, AND OUTRAGE

The release of Brereton’s war crimes report has seen a number of major responses, including but not limited to:

BORDER ORDERS

Victoria has implemented a 48-hour hard border to South Australia starting from midnight last night, with the ABC noting that all truck drivers entering from the state will be asked to be tested.

The news comes after South Australia recorded no new cases yesterday but Premier Steven Marshall warned “potentially thousands” of people visited a “site of concern”.

Meanwhile, 7News reports that COVID-19 fragments were found in wastewater in regional Victorian cities Benalla and Portland, even as Victoria recorded its 20th day of zero cases and deaths.

In a welcome if belated acknowledgement of the risks of using casualised labour for high-risk work, the ABC reports that Victoria’s new hotel quarantine program will directly employ staff and do advance contact tracing.

A KOALAFIED STATEMENT

Finally, the ABC reports that the NSW government made the snap decision yesterday to dump the koala protection bill that threatened to blow up the state Coalition.

The decision was made after Liberal MP Catherine Cusack crossed the floor to vote with Labor, the Greens, the Animal Justice Party, and Independent Justin Field and successfully send the bill to a parliamentary inquiry.

Apparently, rather than suffer that ignominy, the Berejiklian government has just dropped the bill altogether. Which is a win for Nationals Leader John Barilaro, and a loss for koalas who, with no new protections, are now still on track to be extinct in the state by 2050.