NINE Aussie soldiers take their own lives as a war crimes scandal morphs into shambles, with top brass shielded & squaddies blamed

Canberra failed to deal with atrocities laid bare in a report which found that elite special forces’ murder of prisoners and innocent civilians in Afghanistan was “disgraceful.” Sadly, the guilty will probably get away with it.

The Australian government’s handling of the Afghanistan war crimes scandal has been an utter shambles and, as a result, those responsible are likely to escape punishment entirely.

The Brereton report, handed down last week in redacted form, found that some unnamed 25 soldiers in the elite Australian special forces had committed 39 murders while on duty in Afghanistan. Brereton correctly described this as “a disgraceful and profound betrayal.”

The report (very conveniently) then went on to completely exonerate upper-echelon army officers – on the grounds that they did not have a “sufficient degree of command and control to attract the principles of command responsibility.”

This is notwithstanding that, as prominent Australian commentator Alan Jones pointed out this week, this finding is contrary to the “Yamashita Standard” which holds that “a Commander can be held accountable for crimes committed by his troops, even if he did not order them, did not know about them or did not have the means to stop them.”

The government established the Brereton inquiry more than four years ago, amidst rumours and media speculation about atrocities having been committed by Australian troops in Afghanistan.

Why has the inquiry taken such an inexplicably long time to complete?

The main Nuremberg trials were completed in less than a year and the inquiry into American atrocities at Abu Ghraib was finalised just as quickly; and in both those cases punishments were immediately imposed on the guilty.

This unconscionable delay has been made worse by Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s extraordinary announcement this week that yet another inquiry is to be established, and that, only when that has been completed will any criminal prosecutions of the murderers commence.

Some of the atrocities described in the Brereton report took place more than 10 years ago.

What realistic possibility is there that the perpetrators of these crimes will be found guilty by Australian juries in civilian criminal trials that will take place in perhaps five or 10 years’ time? Bear in mind that none of the evidence gathered by Brereton will be admissible in those trials.

Justice delayed is justice denied, and you could not design a system more favourable to the guilty if you tried.

Killing Field: Explosive new allegations of Australian special forces war crimes | Four Corners

https://youtu.be/-GPplTKCYpQ

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/507894-australia-soldiers-war-crime/