Renewed calls to bring SAS home

Comrades carry the coffin of Tim O'Donnell. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Green Party has renewed calls to withdraw New Zealand's elite troops from Afghanistan following reports they are involved in capturing prisoners who are then handed over to regimes which could torture them.

Defence Minister Wayne Mapp yesterday said the Special Air Service (SAS) worked with Afghanistan's Crisis Response Unit to capture insurgents.

"It's likely some are [transferred to the Afghan National Directorate of Security], yes," he told the Sunday Star Times.
The British military has been banned from handing prisoners to the directorate as it is so notorious for torture.

Mr Locke said the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) had to share responsibility for what happened to insurgents it captured.

"Now that Defence Minister Wayne Mapp has admitted that it is likely that some of the prisoners have been transferred to the National Directorate, New Zealand can't wash its hands of any subsequent abusive treatment," he said.

"The latest revelations strengthen the Green case for withdrawal of our SAS unit from Afghanistan.

"We don't want New Zealand's good name muddied by links for the torture of prisoners, which is reputed to include beatings, electric shock treatment, and sleep, food and water deprivation."

The NZDF recently admitted to Parliament's foreign affairs, defence and trade select committee that SAS troops had been "in the vicinity" on 22 occasions when local Afghan forces were taking prisoners.

"Clearly these were joint operations, and our troops were not standing around with their hands in their pockets, so our defence force does share responsibility for what subsequently happened to the prisoners," Mr Locke said.

It was likely some of the prisoners were mistreated by a regime which Amnesty International says administers the "systematic and routine torture of suspects".

"The Government should reconsider the SAS role in Afghanistan," he said.

- NZPA