Campaign to expose Australian war crimes meets with silence

Information about Australian war crimes against prisoners of war in Iraq has been ignored for more than a decade, writes Rosemary Sorensen.

When former British military lawyer Nicholas Mercer received information that a senior non-commissioned officer in Australian special forces had alleged war crimes against prisoners in Iraq in 2003, he knew he had to report the allegations and call for an investigation.

The former British lieutenant colonel, who was the senior military legal adviser to HQ 1st Armoured Division (UK) during the Iraq War in 2003, left the army to become an Anglican priest in 2011. Shortly after leaving, he was alerted by a journalist to what became known as the “black sites” detention centres in Iraq in 2003.

Deeply concerned that he was not informed of these facilities despite being responsible for them “Battlefield Audit” and recognizing that they appeared to be acting illegally under international law, Mercer launched a campaign to uncover the truth.

Mercer’s attempt to make a statement to the British Military Police in 2012 was initially blocked. He persisted and was eventually able to make a statement in 2016, but was then told in 2019 that the matter had not been investigated because it was not “proportionate” to do so.

It was in 2020, while discussing the issue with a former military lawyer, that Mercer was informed of “The Australian involvement in this facility and the fact that he had heard that prisoners had been killed”.

In a recent interview with ABC Radio National’s Andrew West for the Report on Religion and EthicsMercer quoted the military lawyer as saying that a senior non-commissioned officer in Australian special forces had told him that prisoners at H1, H2, as the facilities were called, had been “shipped” — in other words, killed.

The interview is brief, punchy and chilling. Mercer, now rector of Bolton Abbey Priory Church in North Yorkshire, carefully describes how he raised his concerns first with the British Army and then, two and a half years ago, with the Inspector General of the Australian Defence Force.

” I did not hear anything “ he told West, adding:

If it was simply a matter of prisoners being placed in the POW chain, well, just tell me it’s not complicated, but the longer it goes on – and I’ve been interested in this for 12 years – the stranger it seems.

There comes a time when delay becomes unacceptable.

The same week this interview aired here in Australia, news broke that Ben Roberts-Smith was one of the Victoria Cross recipients to be honoured by King Charles with a medal, which came just weeks after former military lawyer David McBride was jailed for stealing classified documents exposing war crimes committed by Australian special forces in Afghanistan.

Despite the Brereton Report Between the reports of war crimes committed by the ADF in 2020 and the revelations made public in Roberts-Smith’s defamation trial against the media that published McBride’s leaked documents, McBride is, to date, the only person facing prosecution. A year ago, the Federal Court ruled that the former special forces officer had been involved in unlawful killings of Afghan prisoners and dismissed his defamation case. Roberts-Smith, who maintains his innocence, is appealing the verdict.

Speaking to West on ABC RN, Mercer stressed his adherence to the rules.

“I will always do it by legal means,” he said, stressing that his complaint was about the rule of law itself.

However, he continued:

“I think my case illustrates that if you do that, I’ve been taken for a ride for over a decade.”

Mercer has had some success with his efforts in the UK. He was named Human Rights Lawyer of the Year in 2011 for his work in applying human rights laws to prisoners of war. Refuting MoD allegations that greedy law firms were behind Iraqi accusations that British forces had committed war crimes, he said there was a link between human rights and prisoners of war. “moral ambivalence” in the way prisoners are treated.

Mercer said:

“I think we’ve gotten too close to our American colleagues in terms of the way people are interrogated and the disregard for international legal norms, and some of that has spilled over into our own armed forces, which is unfortunate.”

In 2003, as legal officer, he was responsible for ensuring that British forces (operating in coalition with the US and Australia in the controversial search for Saddam Hussein’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction) acted in accordance with international law. He then received information which, if true, indicates war crimes. And it is this information he now wants to investigate.

Following “strict protocol”He filed his report on the information he had received with the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force. As with his reports requesting responses from the UK, he received no response.

Independent AAustralia contacted Rector Mercer who confirmed his frustration at being “dodged” by the UK and Australian military authorities, and the importance of investigating alleged war crimes. It is not yet known whether “The fate of prisoners who were transported and held in these “black sites” known as H1 and H2 in the western desert of Iraq in 2003″.

Mercer says:

Twelve years later, I have still made no progress in establishing the truth about this matter. It also reminds me that these concerns are not just about Afghanistan, but also about Iraq.

It’s time to get some answers.

Rosemary Sorensen was a newspaper, book and arts journalist based in Melbourne and then Brisbane before moving to regional Victoria, where she founded the Bendigo Writers Festival, which she ran for 13 years.

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