Top Australian Military Officers Referred to Hague Over Afghan Leadership

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is seen in The Hague, Netherlands, on Nov. 7, 2019. Peter Dejong/AP Photo

Top Australian military officers have been referred to the International Criminal Court of Justice (ICC) over their leadership during the Afghan war campaign after allegations that Australian soldiers committed war crimes.

Speaking in the Australian Senate on June 20, Tasmanian Senator Jacquie Lambie said that there was a culture of covering up incidents that went right to the top and that she had filed an Article 15 communication with the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

The communication asked the Prosecutor to look into the commanders of the Afghan campaign through the lens of command responsibility.

Article 15 of the Rome Statute allows any individual, group, or organization to send information on alleged or potential ICC crimes to the Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) of the ICC. The prosecutor then determines if the situation meets the legal criteria for prosecution. 

Senator Jacqui Lambie following a television appearance in the media gallery at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on Mar. 18, 2021. Photo by Sam Mooy/Getty Images

“There is a culture of cover-up at the highest levels of the Australian Defence Force,” Senator Lambie said.

“Today, I say enough is enough. There will be no more marking your own homework. There will be no more throwing our diggers [soldiers] under the bus. When the war crimes investigation was formed, Major General Brereton ruled out investigating senior commanders, and the previous government said: ‘Yes, sir. No worries.’

“This government is following suit. Let’s be quite clear here: the senior commanders have not been examined through the hard-core legal lens that they have put our diggers through.”

Private Ethan Wright, from 1st Battalion Royal Australian Regiment, plays with Afghanistan evacuees at a temporary camp in Australia’s main operating base in the Middle East. LACW Jacqueline Forrester/ADF

Government Allegedly Stonewalling Calls to Investigate Top Brass

Lambie, who is a former soldier in the Australian Army and a former corporal in Australia’s Military Police, alleged the Albanese government had been stonewalling her call to investigate the senior commanders.

“The Chief of the Defence Force and the top brass, the government are, no doubt, hoping this will all just go away. They’re hoping that Australians will forget that when alleged war crimes in Afghanistan were investigated, our senior commanders got a free pass while the diggers got thrown under the bus. Well, we don’t forget. I won’t forget,” she said.

However, both the government and the Coalition expressed their willingness to support the ICC communication in the Senate.

The senator also said there was evidence from multiple sources—independent of the government’s Brereton inquiry—that indicated that commanders of the SAS, the special forces unit of the Australian army, had allegedly been aware of the unlawful behaviour for years.

“The leadership knew. This went beyond the patrols. This was known up the chain,” Lambie said, quoting a witness testimony.

The comments from Lambie come after an ex-Australian SAS soldier who served in Afghanistan was arrested and charged with a war crime in March.

Chief of the Australian Defence Force General Angus Campbell delivers the findings from the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry on November 19, 2020 in Canberra, Australia (Mick Tsikas Pool/Getty Images).

The AFP and the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI) said in a joint statement the 41-year-old had been charged with one count of a war crime—murder, which carries a penalty of life imprisonment.

This follows the Brereton inquiry 2016-2020 into the allegations relating to possible breaches of the law by members of the Special Operations Task Group in Afghanistan.

The Inquiry found there was evidence up to 25 Australian soldiers while serving in Afghanistan, were involved in the alleged murders of at least 39 Afghan civilians and prisoners.

The Inquiry recommended formal charges be laid against 19 defence personnel.