MTV Native Affairs Investigation Collateral Damage – Independent Inquiry Must Be Initiated

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Maori TV, Native Affairs - Collateral Damage: http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/national/native-affairs-collateral-damage
Selwyn Manning Notes: On Monday June 30, 2014 Maori Television’s Native Affairs programme broadcast award winning journalist Jon Stephenson’s investigation into alleged civilian deaths during a joint NZDF/US/Afghanistan hunt-and-destroy/apprehend mission in Afghanistan’s Baghlan province.

The investigation Collateral Damage revealed claims that innocent civilians were killed during the joint mission – deaths that it would appear the NZDF is refusing to acknowledge or admit to.

The New Zealand Defence Force must not sit back and refuse to comment on this investigation. The National and Public Interest demands it or the Minister Jonathan Coleman front for a robust interview on this issue. Alternatively, a full independent inquiry must be held into the real role New Zealand’s NZDF and SAS soldiers performed while deployed to Afghanistan. Anything short is a national disgrace.

Jon Stephenson has provided me authorisation to publish the script to the Maori Television Native Affairs investigation: Collateral Damage.

Also, this script should be read in conjunction with viewing the Native Affairs investigation (click here); and an extract and the media releases referred to in the programme:

  • The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and the United Nations report extract (click here).
  • The ISAF/NATO joint command statement dated August 29, 2010 (Joint assessment team confirms possibility of civilian casualties in Baghlan click here).
  • The New Zealand Defence Force media statement on this issue dated April 20, 2011 can be accessed (click here).

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Maori TV, Native Affairs - Collateral Damage: http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/national/native-affairs-collateral-damage
Maori TV, Native Affairs – Collateral Damage:
http://www.maoritelevision.com/news/national/native-affairs-collateral-damage

Maori Television Native Affairs investigation: Collateral Damage (broadcast June 30 2014.

JS-Tirgiran script (unabridged):

August the 21st, 2010: troops from New Zealand’s Special Air Service board an American helicopter in Kabul.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

Together with Afghan commandos, the SAS is on a mission to capture or kill those responsible for our country’s first combat death in Afghanistan.

The operation is meant to be kept secret. When details get out, it will be presented as a success – a mission in which only insurgents have been killed.

Tonight you’ll hear allegations that the mission went wrong, leaving six civilians dead and 15 wounded – something our government and defence force has always denied.

……..

In 2010, the US-led war in Afghanistan was in its ninth year, and things weren’t going well.

This is Bamiyan province, where Kiwi soldiers were based – arguably the safest place in the country – yet even here, security was getting worse.

On August the third, a Kiwi patrol in northeast Bamiyan is ambushed by insurgents – its commander, Lieutenant Tim O’Donnell, killed by a roadside bomb.

As O’Donnell is farewelled at home, intelligence officers in Afghanistan are hunting for his killers.

They pinpoint a group of suspects Baghlan province, across the border from where the Kiwi patrol’s been attacked.

[MAP SHOWING KABUL, BAMIYAN AND BAGHLAN TO BE SHOWN HERE, first with an “X” for the target, then with an “X” for the place where O’Donnell was killed.]

A counter-attack is approved by the US-led coalition and Afghan officials, and Prime Minister John Key is briefed about it.

……..

April 2014. Claims that civilians were killed in the Baghlan raid have persisted, but details have been scarce.

Native Affairs has been told that the mission took place in Tirgiran – a village in Baghlan with no cell phone coverage, more than six hours walk from the nearest road.

We’ve found two men who say they were injured in the raid, and a doctor who treated them at the village. For security reasons, we’re meeting at another place.

PTC: So we’re just picking up our police escort here for the trip to Dushi, where we’re going to interview the survivors from the raid. We’re taking a couple of policemen with us because it’s quite a dangerous area and hopefully they’ll deter any insurgent attack on us.

It’s said that truth is the first casualty of war, and that’s often been the case in Afghanistan. The Taliban are known for exaggerating the numbers of dead and injured civilians, but the coalition has sometimes been caught out denying them.

We’ve invited the men to a guest house to hear their version of what happened. They haven’t asked for money or other favours; they just want us to tell their story.

………

Said Ahmad is a 38-year-old farmer with a wife and three boys. He lost a leg to a landmine during the Soviet occupation.

He tells me he got shrapnel wounds to his ankle, buttocks, shoulder, ear and thumb when helicopters opened fire in Tirgiran on August the 22nd.

In – 22:31:22

We were asleep at night….Suddenly at 12.30 in the morning helicopters came and went away. But after half an hour at one o’clock they came back and landed. When they landed people were very scared. People ran out of their houses and were trying to hide themselves. The helicopters were going, coming, going and coming in circles and firing on people. They shot at us and killed and wounded defenseless people.

OUT: 22:33:33 (Please use Karim’s translation as a voiceover for the grabs)

I ask him about a claim made by the coalition just after the raid that the only people killed were insurgents.

IN – 22:34:55

There were no Taliban. All of the people that were killed or wounded were innocent people. They claimed that nine people were killed. There were not nine people killed; there were six people killed.

OUT – 22:35:27

IN – 22:36:29

All of them were very poor people. They were doing farming, not disturbing people. Very ordinary people.

OUT – 22:36:43

This not only contradicts the coalition statement but comments made eight months later by then-defence minister Wayne Mapp.

[Q+A grabs from TVNZ follow here]

IN –

Espiner: There’s an Associated Press report around that time that contains a claim that a number of civilians were killed during that operation. Mapp: And that’s been investigated and proven to be false. Espiner: So, no civilians were killed in that? You’re satisfied about that? You’ve seen some reports on it? Mapp: I am satisfied around that. Espiner: Only insurgents were killed in that operation? Mapp: I’m satisfied around that. OUT – Said Ahmad’s account also contradicts a New Zealand Defence Force statement made after Mapp’s interview – a statement that said nine insurgents had been killed and an investigation had concluded that allegations of civilian casualties were unfounded.

Mohammad Iqbal also begs to differ. The 35-year-old tells me he was one of 15 civilians wounded when helicopters opened fire on the village. He says nine of them were women.

IN – 22:50:13

When the operation began I tried to escape and hide myself beside a rock because I was feeling that a rock was safer than my house. So when I was going then suddenly a piece of rocket came and hit at my back…

OUT – 22:51:32

IN – 22:51:36

Was he ever doing anything connected with the insurgency? Was he ever doing anything against the foreign forces and the Afghan government?

OUT – 22:51:46

IN – 22:53:48

I never had a connection with the insurgency. I’m a farmer.

OUT – 22:53:51

Tirgiran is a sprawling village in a district where the Afghan government has limited influence. Locals say insurgents sometimes pass through the area, but are adamant that none were there on August the 22nd 2010.

We’ve confirmed that the SAS and Afghan police commandos from the Crisis Response Unit were in the area that morning. However, reports of what they did there are sketchy.

According to locals, the Afghan and Kiwi troops were dropped by transport helicopters on either side of the village while helicopter gunships prowled overhead. The helicopters belonged to the US military.

Several houses were stormed, and gunfire could be heard nearby. Some reports suggest the SAS discovered small arms ammunition and a rocket launcher and blew up the house they found them in.

Others say six houses were blown-up, although it’s not clear whether they were destroyed by the commandos or by the helicopters.

But no one has accused the commandos of causing civilian casualties. The villagers are clear that their injuries came from helicopter gunfire.

IN – 22:53:55

Jon: How has the injury affected his ability to work on his farm?

OUT – 22:54:01

IN – 22:54:10

It is very hard for me to work. I can’t work. Beside I can’t work I can’t walk even long distances….I feel very disappointed right now to be disabled. [Karim’s translation is at 22:54:48–22:55:08]

OUT – 22:54:27

He says the shrapnel remains lodged in his back and the pain has spread to his family. Unable to work, he struggles to provide for his wife and seven children.

At least he’s alive. Dr Abdul Rahman, one of the first to arrive in Tirgiran after word of the raid, shows me pictures of the dead as well as the wounded. [Show pictures here from the doctor’s cell phone.]

He says a three-year-old girl named Fatima was among the six people killed.

23:32:12

Although Fatima was only three years old she was already attending school. She was very beautiful and really intelligent. She was in her mother’s arms when a piece of shrapnel hit her head…

23:32:29

IN – 23:35:23

Jon: Did he see Fatima’s body?

Abdul Rahman: Yes, I saw her body, and then we put her into the soil.

OUT – 23:35:41

IN – 22:08:04 [Show photo here of the list of the casualties]

He shows me a list of the dead and wounded. Native Affairs has spoken to the former district governor who issued the document and has confirmed that it’s authentic.

We’ve also learnt that an international NGO provided tents and blankets to people from Tirgiran after checking and confirming their stories.

[Picture here of the UN/AIHRC report]

The UN office in Afghanistan and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission acknowledged the civilian casualties in a 2011 report. They added that coalition investigators were unable to interview victims, were not shown grave sites and were unable to visit the site of the incident.

The villagers question why coalition investigators were supposedly unable to visit Tirgiran when their soldiers did so a week after the first operation – although not to interview victims or check the village gravesites. They came on a second night raid.

Fearing another attack, most of the villagers had already fled.

IN – 22:57:14

Jon: Did the government or ISAF ever send anyone to make an investigation into the civilian deaths or casualties?

OUT – 22:57:31

IN – 22:57:45

The government, ISAF, the Americans – no one helped us or did an investigation.

OUT – 22:58:16

IN – 22:58:47

Did the New Zealand military ever make any contact with the villagers and ask them what happened?

Nothing?

OUT – 22:59:15

I ask Said Ahmad if there’s anything he’d like to say to Prime Minister John Key, who had prior knowledge of the Tirgiran raid.

IN – 22:47:18

My message to the New Zealand prime minister is that you have said you have come to help us, to help this country. But attacks like these are not helping. I hope that you don’t do this kind of raid again.

OUT – 22:47:56

That’s not likely to happen. Most of our soldiers have left Afghanistan, although Tirgiran has not been forgotten. Native Affairs understands that SAS troopers who took part in the mission are concerned that civilians died there.

That possibility, at first rejected by the coalition, was confirmed on August the 29th – a week after the raid, when the operation had been reassessed.

During that week, investigators checked footage from the mission. They found that several rounds from US helicopters had missed their target and struck the wrong building and said this may have resulted in civilian deaths and injuries.

They blamed this on equipment failure – a faulty helicopter gun-sight.

This admission does not appear to fit with the number of dead and injured described by the villagers or their claim they died outside, not inside, their houses.

But it does call into question Mapp’s categorical denial that civilians were killed or injured. It also raises the question of why our defence force said claims of civilian casualties were unfounded when eight months earlier investigators had said they were credible.

And why wasn’t more done to contact the villagers, investigate further and make some amends?

……….

The American general who investigated the raid at Tirgiran said it’s important to know what had happened and to set the record straight.

But the record has not been set straight. Questions remain, and our defence force seems reluctant to answer them, or to accept that civilians may have died.

At Bamiyan, where our soldiers served for almost a decade, the names of the fallen are etched in stone.

We’re good at remembering our own.

The friends and relatives of civilians killed at Tirgiran village say they’d like their losses acknowledged as well.

If their accounts of what happened are accurate, it seems the least New Zealand can do.

10 COMMENTS

  1. Mapp turned a blind eye. National ministers unfortunately do so without a second thought. The role requires more scrupulous individuals.

  2. Thanks for this Selwyn, I saw most of the program, but have not got the time to check the additional information offered by you here right now. I will endeavour to do this later.

    What it tells me though is, more questions, more allegations, more suspicions, and a government busy denying wrong-doing, contradicting witnesses, reports and evidence, and more attempts to cover up, it seems.

    So yes, more must research and dig into this, and challenge the Minister, the former Minister of Defence and John Key and our Governor General also, I suppose, to give the answers we deserve. An official investigation is justified and needed.

    I fear though, nothing much will come out of all before the election, so the tactic by NatACT is sadly working, cut, deny funding and resources, and hamper efforts to resolve issues, and hope it will all be forgotten, why spin and media collaboration keep most distracted. And “bingo”, the election may be won, with smoke and mirrors and other tactics from their arsenal.

    Shame on them!

  3. Without doubt, Maori TV’s “Native Affairs” is now the premier current affairs show on any channel in this country. It leaves the rest behind in the dust…

  4. Fantastic story! As usual the MSM has completely ignored it. What does it take to get the great unwashed pissed off? Oh that’s right, Moas!

  5. I remember at the time this happened that comments were made in the media, I think by the government and perhaps the military, that gave me the distinct impression that their attitude was that they were going to go and get whoever was responsible for the NZ soldier’s death, rather than treating his death as a casualty of war carried out by by enemy combatants.

  6. Honestly – what a waste of time. This is in the same vein as the wailing and crying about the deaths of idiots who run off to the middle east to help in a fight that involves guns and explosives – and then there is complaints when they get killed.

    Afghanistan has been the land of death since long before the British went in there back in the mid 1800’s (about 1840 I think). They have no respect for human life and the place is essentially uncontrollable.
    Although the US got it very wrong by going into Iran, when they did realise that whats his name was in Afghanistan then all bets were off.

    When bullets get fired they might land anywhere and if I were in the armed forces and thought someone out there was lining up their sights on me – then Id be making every effort to dissuade them from continuing – and would probably include shooting them. And if they were in among innocent people – it would make no difference. My skin is more important than theirs – its that simple.

    • “My skin is more important than theirs – its that simple.

      So are you. Ignorant and arrogant as well.

      “They have no respect for human life and the place is essentially uncontrollable.”

      So you have lived there and have a deep understanding of them, have you?

    • Barry, one of those who you say your skin is more important than hers, was a three year old girl.

      These are the words of a coward and bully.

      The definition of a hero is someone who would give their own life to protect the lives of the innocent.

      By your own words Barry you are condemned as the antithesis of that ideal.

  7. I guess, the government will see it this way, and present it similarly:

    “We had our “noble” SAS soldiers involved, they are honest, truthful, loyal and always reliable, and would not hide anything from us.

    These are reports quoting “common Afghans”, who just make “claims”, and there may be no substance at all in this, as telling “tales” is widely common in the Middle and Near East. ”

    “Hence there is NO proof of any wrongdoing, and we have NOTHING to answer to”.

    New Zealand’s government is “conservative”, white and “right”, and critics are simply “wrong”. Easy positions and solution, and the media, beyond Jon Stevenson, have to prove stuff, that is impossible for them to prove, as they were not there. They will not dare to make allegations, as the government may simply employ Crown Law and have them for defamation of the Minister and so.

    Nothing new, nothing changes, the “dictatorship” is working.

Comments are closed.