Afghan war crimes report: Stripping unit citation ‘premeditated’

Veterans are accusing the government of deciding to strip an elite unit of a military award before the Afghan war crimes report was released.

The federal government has been accused of taking a premediated decision to revoke meritorious unit citations after revelations the Queen was asked to approve changes to the award’s terms four months before the inquiry concluded.

Queen Elizabeth signed off on a changes allowing Governor-General David Hurley to revoke an entire unit’s medals on July 13.

The Brereton report was released in November, finding evidence Australian special soldiers murdered 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners.

The report prompted Defence Chief Angus Campbell to declare he would recommend the Special Operations Task Group be stripped of a meritorious unit citation. He said the citation, which is awarded for collective merit, was no longer sustainable given the number of allegations levelled against the unit.

But revelations the Queen was contacted in July to sign off on changes to regulations surrounding the citation have led to accusations the government premeditated the decision.

The Afghan war crimes report found evidence of 39 murders committed by Australian special forces. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Gary Ramage

Special Forces veteran Heston Russell said the threat of citations being removed from veterans had reopened wounds for families.

He said too much was occurring behind closed doors, and the veteran community was outraged.

“They (government) spent over the last six months premeditating actions without supporting them,” he said.

“It’s inexcusable, they’ve lost my trust and they have lost the trust of so many veterans and their families.”

Mr Russell defended the force, saying that when he was in Afghanistan he saw “warrior culture” that saved lives.

“These offences have to go to be proven true, or otherwise, by qualified legal people through the Office of the Special Investigator,” he said.

Heston Russell said the threat of losing citations had reopened wounds for veterans and their families. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie accused the government’s actions as “so un-Australian”. She has accused Defence of violating the presumption of innocence, a core tenet of the legal system.

“You are already saying these guys are guilty that you are investigating,” she said.

“If you gave a stuff about veteran suicide you would back it off.

“Nobody has been proven guilty yet.”

Senator Lambie told NCA NewsWire that Defence should “wait and see the scope and scale of guilt” before deciding on punishments.

“I don’t know what will come of this investigation any more than anyone else does,” she said.

“But until a single person is found guilty of something, you can’t tar everyone as guilty for everything under the sun.”

Mr Heston, a former special forces soldier, said he’d lost trust in the Chief of Defence Force and the Chief of Army and was not one of the accused.

Senator Jacqui Lambie has spoken out about the Brereton report and war crimes allegations. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“I’m hearing of soldiers receiving disciplinary and administrative action for commenting and liking Facebook posts, expressing their opinion, directives being pushed down through the Defence Force preventing any Defence person from speaking out, actions being taken against associations who are stepping up to support their members who are suffering,” Mr Russell said.

He has joined Senator Lambie in calling for a royal commission into the mental health of veterans and encouraged Australians to help him lobby.

The Defence Department was contacted for comment.