Australia strips military commanders of medals over war crimes allegations in Afghanistan

MELBOURNE, Australia — Several current and former Australian military commanders have been stripped of their medals over allegations that they committed war crimes during the Afghanistan war, Defence Minister Richard Marles said on Thursday.

Major General Paul Brereton's war crimes inquiry recommended holding commanders to account for alleged misconduct by Australian special forces between 2005 and 2016. Brereton found that about 25 soldiers from Australia's Special Air Service Regiment and Commando Regiment were involved in the unlawful killing of 39 Afghans.

“The allegations that are the subject of the Brereton report are arguably the most serious allegations of Australian war crimes in our history,” Marles told Parliament.

Marles wrote to the commanders of those troops, speaking about the medals they had received for their service during the periods when war crimes were allegedly committed. He did not tell Parliament how many he had written, nor did he name their rank, citing privacy concerns.

The chairman of the Australian Special Air Service Association, Martin Hamilton-Smith, condemned the withdrawal of the medals as a betrayal of the courage and sacrifice of the soldiers in Afghanistan.

“The government's decision overlooks the brave leadership of these young officers on the battlefield and relies on unsubstantiated allegations that an unlawful act may have occurred during their tenure somewhere in a remote village that the commanders cannot see or know about,” Hamilton-Smith said in a statement.

Marles later stated that the medals were not revoked because of the officers' misconduct.

“Nobody is claiming they knew what happened, were aware of it or did not act – that is not the issue,” Marles told reporters.

“But the problem is that as a commander of a unit, you often receive the benefits and awards for the achievements of that unit, regardless of whether you were personally on the front lines, and accordingly take responsibility for the unit when mistakes occur,” Marles said. “If we had known what was happening, would we have received the medals?”

No Australian veteran has ever been convicted of a war crime in Afghanistan. But whistleblower and former military lawyer David McBride was sentenced to nearly six years in prison in May for leaking classified information to the media that exposed allegations of Australian war crimes.

In 2023, former SAS soldier Oliver Schulz became the first of these veterans to be charged with a war crime. He is accused of shooting a civilian in a wheat field in Uruzgan province in 2012.

Also last year, a civilian court found that Australia's most decorated living war veteran, Ben Roberts-Smith, probably unlawfully killed four Afghans while he was an SAS corporal. No criminal charges were brought against him.