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| Date | 22 March 2023 – (in progress) |
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| Location | London, United Kingdom |
| Also known as | Afghan Unlawful Killing inquiry |
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| Website | www |
The Independent Inquiry relating to Afghanistan is a 2023 British public inquiry into extrajudicial killings that took place in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013, during the War in Afghanistan. [1]
The UK Government's plan to hold the inquiry was initially announced by Defence Sec Ben Wallace in December 2022. [2] It followed a BBC Panorama investigation that reported that British special forces killed 54 Afghan detainees in suspicious circumstances during their tours of Afghanistan. [3] [4]
The inquiry was launched on 22 March 2023 and is chaired by judge Charles Haddon-Cave. [1]
The inquiry planned to focus on night-time raids, known as Deliberate Detention Operations, including the 2012 Shesh Aba raid. Terms of reference included investigating the alleged cover-ups of the fatal incidents. [5]
Law firm Leigh Day represents families of the bereaved, [1] Brian Altman represents the Ministry of Defence. [6]
The judge, Lord Justice Haddon-Cave has the authority to compel witnesses to testify. [3]
The inquiry centres around the activities of British special forces. The Ministry of Defence initially made an application to prevent the British public from hearing criticisms of the special forces, but abandoned that ambition on 3 July 2023. [6]
Minister of State for Veterans' Affairs Johnny Mercer gave oral evidence to the inquiry on 21 February 2024. [7]
Hundreds of former members of the Afghan Special Forces have been refused resettlement to the UK. [8] [9] One former UK Special Forces officer told the BBC that "At a time when certain actions by UK Special Forces are under investigation by a public inquiry, their headquarters also had the power to prevent former Afghan Special Forces colleagues and potential witnesses to these actions from getting safely to the UK." [10]
The Australian contribution to the war in Afghanistan has been known as Operation Slipper (2001–2014) and Operation Highroad (2015–2021).
Human rights in Afghanistan are severely restricted, especially since Taliban's takeover of Kabul in August 2021. Women's rights and freedom are severely restricted as they are banned from most public spaces and employment. Afghanistan is the only country in the world to ban education for women over the age of eleven. Taliban's policies towards women are usually termed as gender apartheid. Minority groups such as Hazaras face persecution and eviction from their lands. Authorities have used physical violence, raids, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture, enforced disappearances of activists and political opponents.
Maya (Anne) Evans is a councillor on Hastings Borough Council representing Hollington ward in East Sussex. Since being first elected in 2018, Maya has been Armed Forces champion of Hastings, led a working group to reduce single-use plastics, and appointed cabinet member for climate change, natural environment and leisure. During the pandemic she held a senior position within the council; this ensured Hollington was always prioritised and received essential services. Maya is currently cabinet member for Environment and was described as the ‘climate change champion’ in 2019
In English law, unlawful killing is a verdict that can be returned by an inquest in England and Wales when someone has been killed by one or more unknown persons. The verdict means that the killing was done without lawful excuse and in breach of criminal law. This includes murder, manslaughter, infanticide and causing death by dangerous driving. A verdict of unlawful killing generally leads to a police investigation, with the aim of gathering sufficient evidence to identify, charge and prosecute those responsible.
Baha Mousa was an Iraqi man who died while in British Army custody in Basra, Iraq in September 2003. The inquiry into his death found that Mousa's death was caused by "factors including lack of food and water, heat, exhaustion, fear, previous injuries and the hooding and stress positions used by British troops - and a final struggle with his guards". The inquiry heard that Mousa was hooded for almost 24 hours during his 36 hours of custody by the 1st Battalion of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment and that he suffered at least 93 injuries before his death. The report later details that Mousa was subject to several practices banned under both domestic law and the Geneva Conventions. Seven British soldiers were charged in connection with the case. Six were found not guilty. Corporal Donald Payne pleaded guilty to inhumane treatment of a prisoner and was jailed for a year and dismissed from the Army. On 19 September 2006 with his guilty plea to inhumane treatment of Mousa, Payne became the first British soldier to admit to a war crime.
The 2006 Trincomalee Massacre of NGO Workers, also known as the Muttur Massacre, took place on 4 or 5 August 2006, when 17 employees of the French INGO Action Against Hunger were shot at close range in the city of Muttur, Sri Lanka, close to Trincomalee. The victims included sixteen minority Sri Lankan Tamils and one Sri Lankan Muslim.
The Shinwar Shooting or Shinwar Massacre was the alleged killing of a number of Afghan civilians on 4 March 2007, in the village of Spinpul, in the Shinwar District of the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. United States Marines, fleeing the scene of a car bomb attack and ambush by Afghan militants, fired on people and vehicles surrounding them, according to initial reports, killing as many as 19 civilians and injuring around 50 more. A later U.S. Navy investigation found that between 5 and 7 adult men were killed, and 2 civilians, a 16-year-old boy and a woman, were injured. However, the exact figures remain unknown, as U.S. Military Police did not find any dead or wounded civilians when they arrived 30 minutes after the shooting.
The Canadian Afghan detainee issue concerns Government of Canada or the Canadian Forces (CF) knowledge of abusive treatment of detainees in Afghanistan. The abuse occurred after Afghans were detained by Canadian Forces, and subsequently transferred to the Afghan National Army (ANA) or the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) during the War in Afghanistan. The issue has sparked heated debate since Article 12 of the Third Geneva Convention states that "the Detaining Power [Canada] is responsible for the treatment given [to prisoners of war]". If the allegations of torture are true it would mean Canada is guilty of war crimes.
British war crimes are acts committed by the armed forces of the United Kingdom that have violated the laws and customs of war since the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, from the Boer War to the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021). Such acts have included the summary executions of prisoners of war and unarmed shipwreck survivors, the use of excessive force during the interrogation of POWs and enemy combatants, and the use of violence against civilian non-combatants and their property.
Benjamin Roberts-Smith is an Australian former soldier. In 2023, a civil defamation trial initiated by Roberts-Smith in the Federal Court of Australia found that he committed war crimes in Afghanistan during 2009, 2010 and 2012. An appeal to a Full Court, comprising three judges, of the Federal Court, commenced on 5 February 2024.
Sir Charles Anthony Haddon-Cave, styled The Rt Hon Lord Justice Haddon-Cave, is a British judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and served as the Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales from 2021 to 2022.
General Sir Mark Alexander Popham Carleton-Smith, is a senior British Army officer who served as Chief of the General Staff from June 2018 to June 2022. He previously served as Director Special Forces and commanded 22 Special Air Service Regiment.
Mark Willacy is an Australian investigative journalist for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). He, along with ABC Investigations-Four Corners team, won the 2020 Gold Walkley for their special report Killing Field, which covered alleged Australian war crimes. He has been awarded six other minor Walkley awards and two Queensland Clarion Awards for Queensland Journalist of the Year. Willacy is currently based in Brisbane, and was previously a correspondent in the Middle East and North Asia. He is the author of three books. In 2023, Willacy was found to have defamed Heston Russell, a former special forces commander, after making unproven allegations of war crimes.
The International Criminal Court investigation in Afghanistan or the Situation in Afghanistan is an ongoing investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) into war crimes and crimes against humanity that are alleged to have occurred during the war in Afghanistan since 1 May 2003, or in the case of United States Armed Forces and the CIA, war crimes committed in Afghanistan, Poland, Romania or Lithuania. On 5 March 2020, the investigation was authorised to officially begin.
The Afghan Files are a set of Australian Defence Force documents about the operation of Australia's special forces in Afghanistan. The documents were leaked to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) by David McBride, upon and seven stories were ultimately published as a result. The documents covered a wide range of topics, however most notably it detailed multiple cases of possible unlawful killings of unarmed men and children. In response to the leak, the Australian Federal Police raided the ABC's offices in June 2019, confiscating all material related to the matter.
David William McBride is an Australian whistleblower and former British Army major and Australian Army lawyer. McBride provided the Australian Broadcasting Corporation with documents that contained information about war crimes committed by Australian soldiers in Afghanistan.
The Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force Afghanistan Inquiry Report, commonly known as the Brereton Report, is a report into war crimes committed by the Australian Defence Force (ADF) during the War in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016. The investigation was led by Paul Brereton, who is both a New South Wales Supreme Court judge and a major general in the army reserve. The independent commission was initiated by the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force in 2016, and after a long investigation, delivered its final report on 6 November 2020. The redacted version was released publicly on 19 November 2020.
War crimes in Afghanistan covers the period of conflict from 1979 to the present. Starting with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, 40 years of civil war in various forms has wracked Afghanistan. War crimes have been committed by all sides.
The war in Afghanistan ended with the Taliban victorious when the United States withdrew its troops from Afghanistan. The aftermath has been characterized by marked change in the social and political order of Afghanistan as Taliban took over the country once again after the fall of Kabul in 2021.
The Shesh Aba raid was a raid by the British Special Air Service in Shesh Aba village, Nimruz Province, Afghanistan on August 7, 2012 during which British armed forces killed two young parents and injured their two sons. The commander of the special forces did not report the fatal incident to military police.
