SAS killing morally repugnant, says Andrew Hastie

Andrew Hastie has condemned as ‘morally repugnant’ the conduct of an SAS soldier seen killing an unarmed Afghan in leaked video.

An Australian SAS soldier is captured on video about to kill an unarmed man in Afghanistan. Source: Four Corners

Former Special Air Services Regiment captain Andrew Hastie has condemned as “morally repugnant” the conduct of an SAS soldier­ seen killing an unarmed Afghan man in leaked video ­footage.

The apparent execution, aired on the ABC’s Four Corners program­ on Monday night, was ­recorded on a helmet camera during­ a village raid in ­Oruzgan province in May 2012. The soldier called out “Do you want me to drop this c..t?”, before shooting the man three times as he cowered on the ground, holding what ­appeared to be prayer beads.

Mr Hastie, now a federal Liberal­ MP, said the footage was ­abhorrent, and urged a swift conclusio­n to an inquiry into ­alleged war crimes committed by the ­nation’s most elite soldiers. “I found the footage morally repugnant,” he said.

He praised the “moral courage” of SAS members who were coming forward “to expose this sort of behaviour”.

“The public needs to remember the inquiry has been driven from the ground up by men who are committed to the rule of law, ­accountability and honour,” Mr Hastie said. “We sent our soldiers to war and they can’t be forgotten when they return. It’s not enough just to pin medals on them.

“We are also called to bind their wounds — seen and unseen — and also hold those to account who have done wrong.”

Another former special forces operator told The Australian the killing was “not a good scene”, but should not be viewed in isolation. “It doesn’t paint the full picture,” he said.

The former soldier said Aust­ralia’s special forces didn’t undertake “hearts and minds” missions in Afghanistan — they were ­engaged in “kill or capture” operations. “Whenever you went out, you had actionable intelligence that there was a bad person there. You prepared for the worst and hoped for the best.”

NSW Supreme Court judge Paul Brereton is examining at least 55 potential instances of ­unlawful conduct by Australian special forces in Afghanistan as part of his inquiry for the Inspector-General of the Australian ­Defence Force.

According to the IGADF’s ­recent annual report, the allegations predominantly relate to ­“unlawful killings of persons who were non-combatants or were no longer combatants, but also ‘cruel treatment’ of such persons”.

The IGADF said the inquiry was not focused on decisions made in the “heat of battle”, but on “the treatment of persons who were clearly non-combatants or who were no longer combatants”.

Four Corners interviewed ­former SAS member Braden Chapman, who said fellow ­soldiers routinely shot villagers’ dogs, ­destroyed property and planted radios and guns on the bodies of dead Afghans.

He said a senior soldier told him soon after he arrived in ­Afghanistan: “I hope you’re ready and prepared for this deployment because you have to make sure that you’re OK with me putting a gun at someone’s head and pulling the trigger.” “I was thinking, OK, we’re executing people now,” Mr Chapman said.

He told of another incident in which a wounded Afghan, who was stabilised by an Australian medic, was taken away and killed by another special forces soldier.

Defence Minister Linda Rey­nolds said she was “deeply concerned­” by the Four Corners report, and was “steadfast” in her support for the Brereton inquiry.