We need an independent inquiry

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) calls for a full and independent inquiry into the details surrounding Australia’s involvement in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

The inquiry should look at the issue of detention and detainee treatment. The Inquiry should address the following questions:

• Why did Australia enter the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq without knowing how it would manage detainees?
• What formal arrangements were put in place to ensure a US soldier was always present with ADF troops to take legal responsibility for their capture?
• Is this practice, of having one US soldier with ADF troops, still being used in Afghanistan?
• What was the legal advice that supported this ad-hoc detention practice?
• Did Australia express concern to the US regarding its illegal detention practices?
• The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) investigated the coalition forces’ abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and produced a report in October and November 2003. What did these reports reveal?
• What lessons has Australia learnt about embedding Australian personnel in Coalition Operations?
• What safeguards are in place to ensure that Australian troops no longer hand detainees over to the US, or other coalition members, without proper regard for their rights under the Geneva Conventions? 

A public inquiry is needed to answer these questions. The inquiry must have the powers of a Royal Commission, and specifically:

• full investigative powers, including the power to subpoena witnesses to give evidence; 
• access to the key players so that they can give evidence; and
• access to the key documents, including those that have been withheld from PIAC to date.

Without such an inquiry, Australians will never know the full story about their involvement in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In addition, the Australian military leadership can only learn from any mistakes, by confronting those mistakes openly.

Have there already been inquiries into the wars?

To date, there has been no in-depth inquiry into Australia’s involvement in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan in relation to detainee treatment and handling.  

The Australian Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee held an inquiry into the duties of Australian personnel in Iraq in 2005. The inquiry did cover Australia’s knowledge of, and concerns regarding, the treatment of Iraqi detainees. However, the inquiry did not have access to the key documents or ADF personnel who were stationed in Iraq

The Inquiry’s Report concluded that “ineffective record keeping, unclear and haphazard reporting processes, and poor communication networks meant that both departments [Defence and Foreign Affairs and Trade] were unable to present a coherent, detailed and accurate account of the matters of concern to the committee.”

Have other countries had inquiries into the conflicts?

An international effort is underway to examine the lawfulness of the tactics the Allies used in the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts. 

In 2003, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records relating to the abuse and torture of prisoners in US detention centres overseas.

Since then, the US Government has released more than 100,000 pages. These documents are available on the ACLU website. They show that hundreds of prisoners were tortured in the custody of the CIA and Department of Defense, and that the torture policies were devised and developed at the highest levels of the Bush administration.

The ACLU launched court action against Donald Rumsfeld and a Boeing subsidiary firm, Jeppesen Data Plan Inc, following release of these documents. The ACLU is campaigning for a full investigation by the Justice Department into the authorisation of the torture program.

In the UK, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition (APPGER) has sought information about the UK’s involvement in extraordinary rendition.

Membership of APPGER includes MPs and Peers from the British Parliament who are interested in the truth about extraordinary rendition.

APPGER has successfully lobbied for an independent inquiry, to be led by Sir Peter Gibson, into allegations of British involvement in the torture of detainees.