Kabul, June 1 : Families of victims of a deadly raid conducted by Australian forces in Afghanistan’s southern Uruzgan province have called for compensation, local Tolonews TV reported.
At least 60 people, including women and children, have been reportedly killed and 59 others wounded in the night raid on July 5, 2010 in Kakrag village of the provincial capital Tarinkot City, Xinhua news agency reported.
“The aircraft landed over there. They would shoot anyone who would try to escape. Nothing was visible. In the morning, we say many were martyred. There was no grave left without a corpse,” Wali Mohammad, a relative of the victims, told the Tolonews in an interview on Wednesday.
The residents, in their interview with the TV, demanded the International Criminal Court to ensure their rights to justice.
“We have this demand that they should be brought to justice because we have been oppressed. There was no Daesh and no Taliban and no outsiders. They would shoot at anyone who would flee from the area during the attack,” another relative of the victims Noor Mohammad told the TV.
“Twenty members of my family were martyred or wounded in the raid,” said Mohammadullah, 38, another local resident and relative of the victims.
“Our people want the prosecution of these people. If the foreigners consider themselves the real defenders of human rights, then this is the wish of the Afghans. The Afghans were human and were oppressed,” he said.
On November 27, 2022, an independent source reportedly said there was evidence that scores of unarmed Afghans were killed by Australian soldiers.
In March, a former member of the Australian military was charged with a war crime over the killing of an Afghan civilian.
Angus Campbell, head of the Australian Defence Force, has declined to give details about how many soldiers could face criminal prosecution over alleged war crimes in Afghanistan, but warned of “uncomfortable days”.(IANS)