Turns out that Australia has done so many shameful things!
In the past 24 hours, the continuous fermentation of the China-Australia cartoon incident has made new progress.
On the one hand, the Afghan mainstream media The Afghan Times issued an editorial, welcoming China’s condemnation of illegal killings by foreign troops. At the same time, it called on more countries to stand up and support bringing the Australian murderers to justice.
On the other hand, the U.S. State Department finally publicly helped Australia. Following the same routine as France and New Zealand, the United States closed up to the Australian army’s evil of killing Afghan civilians, but attacked China to “attack Australia with the help of spreading false information”.
Australia and its allies are paying more attention to inverting black and white and biting China back.
But the more they divert attention, the more we need to return the event to its essence.
What is the essence? It is the Australian army’s atrocities committed in Afghanistan, Canberra’s tendency to cover up or even cover up, and the Afghan people’s growing fear that justice will not be done.
For two consecutive days, the Afghan Times put this editorial at the top of the home page of the website.
On the whole, there are three impressive points in the editorial.
First of all, the author feels suspicious, especially the Australian Prime Minister Morrison actually asked for an apology from the Chinese side, which is a little confused.
The article said that the “explosive report” of the Australian special forces killing 39 innocent civilians in Afghanistan was exposed, which immediately attracted widespread criticism from the international community, and Afghan officials have also made a clear statement.
“But,” note, this is the turning point added by the Afghan Times editorial itself:
However, as soon as a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry came forward to condemn the atrocities of the Australian army, Australian Prime Minister Morrison angrily demanded an apology “immediately”.
A “BUT” expresses the inexpulment of the editorial author.
There are mountains of facts that other countries can condemn. How can China not condemn it? Who is looking for trouble?
After stating these facts, the Afghan Times immediately made it clear:
China’s unprecedented and timely statement, the Afghan people warmly welcomed it, and hoped that other countries would follow China’s example.
After suspicion and welcome, one of the most important attitudes expressed in the editorial of the Afghan Times is to ensure that the perpetrators of violence against Afghan civilians are “bring to justice”.
Theoretically, the voice from the injured country should attract wide attention from international public opinion. But not surprisingly, this editorial in Afghanistan has not caused any waves in the Western media.
On the contrary, the American and European media cooperated with some anti-China politicians to continue to stage a scene of inverting black and white, neatly targeting China.
Following the U.S. National Security Council yesterday that the White House will use Australian wine at this week’s reception, the U.S. State Department jumped out a few hours later to make a clearer statement.
Its deputy spokesman Carl Brown posted three tweets in a row, accusing China of “falsifying pictures”, “spreading false information” and “attacking other countries”, and once again put China the brain of engaging in “coercive diplomacy”.
This Mr. Brown said something, but what did we tamper with? What are the fakes?
First of all, this is a cartoon, not what he calls a “picture”, let alone a so-called modified photo. Secondly, comics generally have a certain artistic exaggeration. But compared with many other cartoons, this one is “realistic” enough and is based on what the Australian military has disclosed in its own report.
The U.S. State Department’s statement this time neither mentions the hard evidence that the Australian army killed Afghan civilians, nor confused other factual concepts.
In order to divert attention and bite back on China, Australia and some of its allies have left the conscience and moral bottom line far away.
Morrison waits to mess around public opinion and won’t get it.
As the Afghan media editorial said, the first issue now is to bring to justice those responsible for the Australian army’s brutal killing of Afghan civilians.
But whether the investigation report released by the Australian military half a month ago or the follow-up reaction of the Australian government, it raises doubts whether Canberra is sincerely responsible for the crime.
As soon as the report was published half a month ago, someone found the problem.
For example, the second part of the report, which should have detailed the allegations of misconduct by the Australian army and whether it has been confirmed, has been highly abridged.
The reason given by the Australian Ministry of Defense is that it “contains substantive content and the release of potentially criminal proceedings and security classification information at this stage may be detrimental to the potential.”
This is widely suspected to deliberately cover up more shocking facts.
However, the truth that has been exposed alone is enough to shock the international community.
According to the picture taken by a small camera on the helmet of Australian soldiers in Afghanistan, a male Afghan civilian curled up in the field with obvious intention of attacking was shot dead three times in a row by Australian special forces soldiers. There are also pictures showing soldiers aiming their rifles at the village a few kilometers away, and laughing before shooting, “Do you want me to let go of these fools?”
Investigators who wrote the report said that he also heard that soldiers cut their throats and blooded them without verification just because they suspected that they were members of the Taliban. After that, they also showed off: “Men have this bloodthirsty desire.”
The evidence of the crime is so hard that the defense is beyond defense.
Australia, from the Commander-in-Chief of the Wehrmacht to the Defense Minister and even the Prime Minister, has publicly admitted and apologized to the Afghan people “sincerely and unreservedly”.
Apology is true. The apology picture has also made headlines in the international media for several days, but when it comes to the really important process, Australia hints that the International Criminal Court has no jurisdiction over the crimes committed by the Australian army in Afghanistan.
The report states that, in accordance with Article 17 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Court “exercises its jurisdiction only if a State has not genuinely investigated and prosecuted a crime of violation of international humanitarian law.”
In other words, the International Criminal Court can intervene unless the state is unable or unwilling to initiate proceedings. But now Australia has said that the relevant cases will be handled in accordance with Australian law.
These statements and actions show that the Australian side is actually “guaranting that Australian soldiers who have committed these crimes against humanity can only be tried in Australia.
However, this point is simply untenable at the level of international law.
Judging from the information disclosed so far, the indiscriminate killing of civilians by the Australian Army is in line with the definition of war crimes in the Rome Statute.
The Rome Statute entered into force in 2002, and the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction over crimes committed in or by nationals of States parties after 2002. Australian military crimes mainly occurred between 2012 and 2013, and Australia and Afghanistan are parties to the Rome Statute.
Therefore, the International Criminal Court has the sole power to try Australian soldiers who have committed evil deeds.
Canberra, who signed the Rome Statute, won’t even understand this. Well, it is eager to take over the trial of its own soldiers, which makes people question its motives.
After all, the trial is held in Australia, and there is much room for operation.
First of all, there are many cases in Western countries covering up the atrocities of their own soldiers. In addition to the Australian army, the U.S. and British forces in the coalition forces in Afghanistan have also been accused of illegal killing civilians.
However, the relevant cases in the United States and Britain were finally settled.
Previously, an appeal of a British marine involved in war crimes ended with the defendant’s innocence. The BBC’s “Wide-angle Mirror” also revealed last year that the British side failed to conduct a comprehensive investigation into reliable evidence of illegal killings by British special forces.
What’s more, I believe everyone will remember that a 2016 report by the International Criminal Court said that there was reason to believe that the U.S. military had tortured in several secret places of detention operated by the CIA. In 2018, when the International Criminal Court was about to conduct a thorough investigation into the abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan, the Trump administration even directly threatened to impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court.
Secondly, some experts in international law also pointed out that this criminal prosecution process can be quite complicated and the investigation can be delayed for a long time. Related events faded out of public opinion, and the result was likely to be gently put down.
According to Australian domestic law, the content of this report cannot be used directly as evidence, and the law stipulates that third-party evidence cannot be used to file a case.
In other words, the purpose of the ADF investigation is to investigate rumors and allegations about the behavior of the Australian Army in Afghanistan, rather than to collect evidence that can be used in criminal trials.
Therefore, the Australian side will need to collect criminal evidence outside Australia at that time, which invisibly lengths the timeline for filing a trial.
Moreover, such military cases are likely to be convicted through judges rather than jurors, which in turn adds to the complexity of trials.
Moreover, the Australian side now concludes that at least 25 Australian troops are suspected of participating in the abuse of civilians, and 19 of them will be subject to criminal investigation.
Why did these 25 people carry out such inhumane torture? The atrocities began in 2005 and peaked from 2012 to 2013. In these at least 10 years, at least 23 illegal killings occurred. Are the top officials of the Australian army and even the senior officials of the Australian government really know nothing about it?
Australia is unwilling to file an investigation by the International Criminal Court. Is there still Xiao Jiujiu who shields higher-level officials behind this?
According to Australian media reports, members of the Australian Special Forces advocate the so-called “warrior culture”, and veterans force recruits to abuse Afghan prisoners or civilians. Only recruits who have passed the “baptism ceremony of blood” can pass the test. Moreover, in addition to “throat cutting and bloodletting” killings, the army also includes “body number competitions”, so some soldiers will kill innocent people indiscriminately for “slashing results”.
In this report, all the people investigated knew about the existence of civilian abuse, but all of them were “demanded to remain silent on war crimes charges by the leaders of special forces in Afghanistan”.
The brutal killing of innocent civilians, atrocities that despise human rights and international law, have become “elephants in the room” in the Australian army.
The deliberate concealment of the Australian army from top to bottom and the exposure of Canberra’s tendency to cover up make people understand why the Afghan media shouted loudly in the editorial: the Australian government apologized and the international community condemned it, but this is not enough.
