The High Court has heard that the UK Special Forces have attempted to hide evidence of war crimes committed in Afghanistan with MOD documents appearing to show that investigators hid certain cases. The documents show senior officials’ made various concerned comments about the legality of the killings.
The case was brought by an Afghan man called Safiullah, whose relatives were allegedly murdered during UK military operations in 2011. Safiullah says that the cases weren’t investigated properly and his lawyers are asking the judge to order the release of more MOD documents.
Over two days in February 2011, seventeen people were allegedly killed by UK Special Forces. The soldiers involved claimed that they had captured men and then taken them into their houses to search the premises. At this point, they claim, the captured men reached for hidden weapons so they were killed in response.
But, interestingly, the senior officials mentioned previously do not seem to believe these tales. One expressed that he thought the claims were “quite incredible” whilst another said, “I find it depressing it has come to this. Ultimately a massive failure in leadership.”
The court also heard that documents pertaining to these cases were kept in a “controlled-access security compartment”.
This case serves to highlight the hilarity of justifying UK operations in the Middle East and elsewhere as ‘fighting for freedom’ when people are brutally murdered execution-style then have their murders essentially covered up.
As agents of the capitalist state, the fear that soldiers instil in war-torn countries with these acts of savagery helps the ruling class ensure conformity, and the price to be paid for going against these norms is blood.
These abuses inflicted upon the people of Afghanistan and other nations by the UK Special Forces is indispensable to the ruthless economic, political and social repression required for the war industry to make its profits. Therefore, It is based on these atrocities that the ruling class lives in comfort and wealth in their ivory towers.
Subsequently, these war crimes must remain invisible, or at the very least justified by blatant lies, so that the war machine can keep on spinning, kept safe by the fact that the working classes are unaware of the atrocities that they would surely resist.
This is why, as communists, we oppose wars waged by the capitalists and struggle for the liberation of the working classes at home and abroad. The British working class cannot achieve its own freedom independently of workers subjugated to the British ruling class’ barbarity and greed.
Georgina Andrews, is a member of the YCL’s Merseyside branch
