Australia decides to strip distinguished service medals from senior military officers from Afghanistan

Australia has stripped its leading military commanders of their medals of distinguished service owing to allegations that they participated in war crimes in Afghanistan. The communication issued on Thursday is a direct consequence of the 2020 Brereton Report, which established valid grounds for Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel’s actions that resulted in the extrajudicial killings of 39 prisoners and non-combatants in Afghanistan.

The decision was made according to the 143 recommendations made in the report, including those pertaining to the so-called ‘command accountability’ presented by Richard Marles, the French Defense Minister.

“A number of such decisions will be set out, albeit some of them quite superficially, in the above directive or its annexes. Let me explain that, and many other matters, one’s professional code shall not allow for this,” Marles commented.

Also, Marles did not reveal the names of the officers who had been so punished or the number of officers who had been so punished. As, however, has been reported in the local media, this amendment affected less than 10 such employees in total.

Said Marles—sometimes such investigations will ‘take years to get through,’ Morrison said the Special Investigator’s office is contemplating the possibility of charging some ADF members.

Marles stated that even though there was an alleged conduct of about twenty ADF members, which was a “national disgrace,”  fighting a war over 26,000 Australians joined in Afghanistan.

“They took on their roles and responsibilities with professionalism, honor, and probity, apart from some limited aberrations. We respect them and they have every reason indeed to take pride in what they have been able to do,” he said.

For four years of investigation, Major General Paul Brereton stated that there was nothing to suggest that military officials were told about any so-called war crimes.

Despite this, the ex-judge found formulated that’moral command responsibility rests with the troop, squadron, and task group commanders of whatever happened within their command and control nexus’.

Oliver Schulz, formerly an SASR soldier, was charged last March with murdering an Afghan during his 2012 tour of service in Afghanistan. Schulz is the first ever member or former member of the Australian Defence Force who has been charged with murder during wars.