SAS in Afghanistan

On 10 August 2009 the Government made a decision to send New Zealand's SAS troops back to Afghanistan, setting an 18 month deadline for deployment. Recently, following a visit to the troops in Afghanistan, the Prime Minister stated that he would consider extending the SAS tour of duty. The Green Party opposes the presence of the SAS in Afghanistan.

There are two major foreign operations present in Afghanistan. New Zealand's Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) are presently in Bamyan as part of the multination mission ISAF (International Security Assistance Force). NZ's Special Air Service (SAS) forces have previously toured Afghanistan on three occasions from December 2001 to November 2005 as part of the US-led Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). The present tour of duty began in September 2009 under ISAF.

Previous SAS tours of Afghanistan have potentially contravened Geneva Conventions on the treatment of prisoners. In 2002, SAS troops transferred 50-70 prisoners, without documenting their names, to Americans forces at the Kandahar detention centre in southern Afghanistan, where torture took place. Until US and Afghan government detention facilities have been given a clean bill of health, New Zealand cannot risk its involvement in human rights abuses.

What can you do?

• Contact your electorate MP to let them know why the SAS deployment in Afghanistan should not be extended.
• Contact Prime Minister John Key and Minister of Defence Wayne Mapp to let them know why the SAS should not return to Afghanistan.
• Write a letter to your local paper about this issue.
• Subscribe to get more news on this and other campaigns

Find out more

• Amnesty International Afghanistan country page
• Sunday Star Times article on the 2002 Kandahar detention centre incident
• Jon Stephenson replies to critics