Last updated 14:17, June 23 2018
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Fatima, 3, an Afghan child allegedly killed during the Defence Force Operation Burnham raid in 2010.
Fatima, 3, an Afghan child allegedly killed during the Defence Force Operation Burnham raid in 2010.
The Defence Force has put together a special unit to defend the SAS against claims its soldiers were responsible for Afghan civilian deaths.
And they've hired top QC Paul Radich, paying him $546 an hour.
The 12-man special inquiry office, led by senior naval officer Commodore Mathew Williams, was set up to respond to the government-ordered inquiry into Operation Burnham.
Paul Radich QC will assist a special NZDF unit set up to respond to an inquiry into Operation Burnham.
Attorney-General David Parker gave the inquiry the green light in April, after examining claims in Hit & Run, a book by investigative journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson.
The book detailed a raid by the by New Zealand Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers in August 2010 in Tirgiran Valley. The authors said six civilians - including a three-year-old girl - were killed and 15 injured, and the events later covered up by the military.
Nicky Hager, New Zealand investigative journalist and co-author of Hit and Run.
Hager said it looked like the Defence Force was trying to influence the inquiry, not assist it. "I hope people can see how unusual and inappropriate this is. If the Department of Corrections or Police, or any other government department, had a government inquiry into wrongful actions by some staff, they wouldn't set up a whole new unit of PR and legal people to fight the allegations.
"All they have to do is hand over the paperwork and make staff available to be questioned, and leave it to the inquiry. It feels like a government department...defending themselves from criticism rather than letting the government inquiry find the truth."
The SAS, based out of Kabul, was acting as part of the International Security Assistance Force. The book alleges the soldiers were motivated by revenge on insurgents for the death of Kiwi Lieutenant Tim O'Donnell, who was killed two weeks earlier.
The Defence Force has always maintained the book contains errors. Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant General Tim Keating said Operation Burnham was "lawfully carried out, with clear rules of engagement."
The Government ordered an inquiry into Operation Burnham - the New Zealand Defence Force raid at the centre of investigative journalism book Hit and Run.
NZDF vociferously challenged the location of the raid as described by the authors, but was later forced to concede the operation took place in the same village.
The inquiry, by Supreme Court Judge Sir Terence Arnold and former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer is expected to take a year and has an initial budget of $2m.
Keating steps down at the end of the month, and will be replaced by Air Vice-Marshal Kevin Short.
"I hope the incoming CDF will realise how improper this is, and reconsider and close it down," Hager said. "He isn't an ex-commanding officer of the SAS like Tim Keating, who was trying at all costs to avoid criticism of the SAS. The new CDF's appointment is an opportunity for the defence force to do this properly."
A spokesman for the Defence Force said Keating established the team "to properly participate and assist the Government Inquiry into Operation Burnham and related matters."
Commodore Mathew Williams will lead a special unit within the Defence Force set up to respond to the government inquiry into Operation Burnham.
He said a budget for the office for July 1 to June 2019 "is yet to be confirmed."
"It is expected to be confirmed by the end of this month. This will be NZDF's best estimate at this early point of the possible costs of the Office. However, until we go through the inquiry process, NZDF won't know the actual costs."
Williams has been in the navy for almost thirty years. He commanded HMNZS Te Kaha from 2008-11. He served in the Middle East alongside the US Navy and was a naval attache based in Washington.
Defence Minister Ron Mark said the inquiry was necessary because the Defence Force's reputation was "tarnished".
"I think the Defence Force right now faces allegations it cannot defend," he said, when the inquiry was announced in April. "It is right and proper that we have an inquiry of this nature that lets the matter be cleared up."