Top civilian legal defence must be afforded ‘war criminals’

Several of our servicemen will be charged at some time in the future with alleged war crimes carried out in Afghanistan. These men are members of the Special Air Service Regiment who take on the most dangerous of missions, usually well outside the range of supporting artillery, have only a split second to assess a situation and react.

Some may be guilty of war crimes and some may be innocent, but they all deserve their day in an appropriate court. It is morally wrong to tar all with the same brush.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has apologised to his Afghani counterpart for these alleged war crimes and offered compensation. Chief of the Defence Force General Angus Campbell has threatened to disband an SAS Squadron, remove a unit citation, remove awards (mass punishment) and pay compensation. All of this has been done before any crime has been proved. Have we forgotten “a person is deemed to be innocent until proven guilty”?

The Prime Minister and the CDF should now ask the Australian people for forgiveness for the stance they have taken. I expect senior counsel will have a ball with both gentlemen when this case gets to court. Could they have influenced the views of prospective jurors?

General Paul Brereton has found these alleged crimes were carried out by the lower ranks and that senior officers were too far away from the action to be aware of what was happening. Interesting, as General Campbell was awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for leadership in action. Was this the action of 2 Sqn SAS, the unit he intends to disband? Will he return his award?

I do not condone these alleged crimes and I believe that if any of these men are guilty of war crimes, they must be punished. The government committed the SAS to these operations where the enemy did not wear military uniforms, used improvised explosive devices to kill and maim our servicemen, suicide bombers killed their opposition and civilians, rogue Afghani soldiers fired on our troops inside base camps. Afghanistan is not a nice place to be yet higher military command committed many of our troops to multiple deployments and did not consider the physical and mental toll.

The government should pay for the best legal team to defend these alleged war criminals, not officers of the legal corps but top civilian senior counsel. If the government does not fund their defence, then maybe a “GoFundMe” appeal will be necessary.

Jim Hislop, Lt Col (retd), Wodonga, Vic

Rick Drewer (Letters, 27/11) states with the disbandment of the SASR 2 Squadron “there was no choice but to revoke the Meritorious Unit Citation, which had been awarded to it, not to individual members of it”. That is not so. Units are routinely disbanded as operational requirements change. But the citation remains and those who served with the unit at the time it was earned are entitled to wear it in perpetuity. General Angus Campbell is reported to have said he will also review awards made to senior officers. If that is so it should have been done in conjunction with the review of the unit citation and the decisions should have been announced together.

Peter O’Brien, Kiama, NSW

One of Australia’s most distinguished military achievements was that of the Australian Light Horse in 1917-18 from Cairo and Gaza to Beersheba, Es-Salt and on to Damascus, taking the city ahead of the arrival of T.E. Lawrence “of Arabia”.

Notably, not one Australian soldier ever received any military decoration or recognition for that spectacular campaign or their part in it. This denial, it is said, was at the insistence of the British commander General Edmund Allenby because of the ill-disciplined acts of revenge taken by the Australian forces, or some of them, near Sarafand, in response to an attack by locals on them.

This suggestion may be mythical. But that is what myths are for —— to instruct us, morally.

Clive Kessler, Emeritus Professor, Sociology and Anthropology, UNSW