[Onthebarricades] SOLOMONS/AUSTRALIA: Occupation forces accused of murdering protesters

[Andy]

Claims AFP officer broke rules in riot
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22134361-29277,00.html

By Jane Bunce

July 25, 2007 08:33pm

Article from: AAP
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AUSTRALIAN Federal Police (AFP) have probed claims a senior officer instructed staff deployed to the Solomon Islands to aim for rioters' necks with non-lethal weapons, breaching the rules of engagement.

World Vision made the allegations in a submission to a Senate commission's inquiry into Australia's involvement in peacekeeping operations.

The aid group also raised allegations the AFP broke the rules over the weapons it used during the Honiara riots in April.

It said it was concerned standards were dropping as the organisation came under pressure to expand its international deployment group to 1200 over two years.

Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade chair senator Marise Payne today told the AFP that the committee took the allegations raised in the submission "very seriously".

AFP International Deployment Group (IDG) acting national manager Commander Mark A Walters today did not say whether the claims had been substantiated.

"I can say that those issues have been fully investigated but I can provide responses to those (in writing)," he told the committee.

In its submission, dated March 20, World Vision said AFP "use of force orders" prohibit shooting above the shoulders except in the most extreme circumstances, such as the threat of death or serious injury and when there is no other option.

People fleeing were unlikely to be posing an immediate threat, so shooting them in the back with bean bag rounds was not acceptable, the submission said.

Serving AFP officers witnessed an IDG team leader giving "inappropriate, and possibly illegal information" during a presentation to ADF and New Zealand police force members in the Solomon Islands.

"The team leader concerned ... reportedly informed participants that, from his experience in mine security in PNG, a person's neck was a good place to aim with a 12 gauge bean bag round, since this could render the person unconscious, and that shooting people in the back as they were fleeing was also acceptable," World Vision policy and programs director Paul Ronalds said.

World Vision said it was also concerned the training was given by someone who was not an AFP operational safety trainer and therefore not certified to deliver it.

AFP officers had also expressed concerns that some weapons used during the riots in Honiara on April 18 last year had not been approved, including 12 gauge bean bag rounds, CS Gas and possibly Stinger grenades containing rubber balls.

The rules were amended retrospectively the next day to allow the munitions, it said.

AFP Operations Response Group manager Commander Steve Lancaster told the inquiry that the use of lethal force was not common in Australia's current peacekeeping operations.

The use of deadly weapons in the Solomons was "limited".

In East Timor it was "quite rare" and weapons had always been fired as warnings and not towards anyone.

Commander Walters, meanwhile, said the IDG was on track to meet its recruiting targets and the quality of applicants had been of "a good standard".

The group - which will take about one third of the AFP's resources - was necessary because failed states required a long-term "generational" commitment to rebuild, he said.

He said missions expected over the next few years would likely take the group to its full operating capacity of 750 AFP officers being deployed at once.

Currently about 400 officers are on duty overseas. 
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