NZDF seems overly defensive

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Out of the fog of war, New Zealand is now dealing with the strong possibility that seven Afghan children were killed five years ago by an unexploded munition the NZ Defence Force failed to clear from a firing range in Bamiyan province.The NZDF itself has been grappling with this possibility since June 2018, when it received a report from Human Rights Watch asserting a link between victims of unexploded ordnance and New Zealand’s live firing ranges in Afghanistan.A Stuff Circuit investigation revealed on Sunday that 17 civilians were either killed or injured in connection with unexploded ordnance on the five firing ranges used by the NZDF in Bamiyan during its deployment from 2003 to 2013.The seven children, aged from five to 12, died in an explosion near the Beersheba Range in April 2014 after a child discovered a device and carried it back to their village.Stuff journalist Paula Penfold told RNZ that it was most likely the device was linked to the NZDF. The UN Mine Action Service had said that while it was mathematically possible the ordnance was the responsibility of somebody else — say the Soviets or Afghan forces — this was not a reasonable likelihood.However, today Chief of Army Major General John Boswell is reported saying there is “minimal” chance it was NZDF munitions that caused these civilian deaths and injuries, while acknowledging this can’t be ruled out.“Afghanistan is a country, and certainly Bamiyan province, full of unexploded munitions from a range of conflicts,” he told the NZ Herald.Boswell said the NZDF would clear any unexploded munitions they knew of when they conducted range practices, and they also cleared all five ranges to the international standard then required — clearing the surface — when they left.That changed to also requiring a sub-surface check six months after the NZDF left Afghanistan. In 2014 the previous government set aside $10 million to clear these ranges to the new standard, but this has yet to happen. Boswell said an agreement with a third party to complete the clean-up was expected soon, with work starting in April next year (when snow and weather allow).The long delay in arranging this clean-up is highly concerning, as is the NZDF’s refusal to properly acknowledge its possibile responsibility for these civilian deaths. It seems as though the contractor it hired to do the original clearance at Beersheba — as it ran out of time to do this itself — may have failed to do the job properly.