A decision to ban alcohol on military operations and exercises was issued by the Australian Defense Chiefs after drinking practices of special forces, at their secret pub in Afghanistan, has proved a causational relation to failings when war crimes were committed, reported The Times.

The new directive, said the outlet, replaced the term "advice" and employed the drinking ban on all deployed defense force personnel in order to contain the troops that used to drink, with their commanders' approval, during Australia's 20-year war in Afghanistan, under the pretense that "advice" is not necessarily mandatory.

The notice was issued as part of the Australian defense force's long-lasting war crimes investigation, said The Times, which discovered that the prevalence of drinking practices by special forces personnel in Afghanistan was confirmation of lax standards inside the Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) of the Australian Army.

It is worth noting that The Times underlined that in the investigation, whose initial findings were released in 2020, SAS personnel have been suspected of about 39 murders.

The outlet also revealed that a war crimes unit is collecting evidence for possible prosecutions after the investigation uncovered credible information that SAS personnel had committed war crimes during their operations in Afghanistan.

“A member who fails to maintain a zero [blood alcohol level] through random testing will have administrative action commenced against them resulting in potential removal from the operation, exercise or activity,” the directive says.

As for members who refuse to undergo regular testing for alcohol, they, according to the directive, must be “removed from the workplace immediately and be banned from access to weapons and ammunition, and access to vehicles."

Alcohol consumption would, following the new directive, require a risk assessment to be submitted 21 days before exempted national events, which would include Christmas, Anzac Day, and Australia Day, and would be conditioned that the person requesting authorization be on “non-warlike operations”. Only then would the person be allowed to consume two alcoholic drinks maximum each on a national holiday.

Among the things revealed by the investigation, photographs showed troops drinking from a prosthetic leg stolen as a memento from a killed Afghan at a bar party.

Despite the fact that drinking was meant to be prohibited, one soldier informed Justice Paul Brereton that the bar was a location "where we can do certain stuff but we're not going to get caught and it's not going to be regarded misconduct because that's who we are and that's what we do."

Brereton had earlier raised the November 2020 war crimes report for the inspector-general of the Australian Defence Force which uncovered the existence of a pub named the Fat Lady’s Arms within the SAS base in Afghanistan.

Australian to be tried over Afghanistan war crime sets precedent

Former Special Air Service (SAS) soldier Oliver Schulz became the first decorated Australian veteran to be charged with war crimes in Afghanistan.

Arrested in regional New South Wales, the 41-year-old was charged with one count of War Crime as per the Murder under the Commonwealth Criminal Code.

After conducting a joint investigation with the Office of the Special Investigator (OSI), the Australian Federal Police (AFP) confirmed the charge and noted in a joint statement noted that Schulz "has been remanded in custody and is expected to appear in Downing Centre Local Court at a later date," adding that "it will be alleged he murdered an Afghan man while deployed to Afghanistan with the Australian Defence Force."

According to the statement, Schulz could be faced with a maximum penalty, given that the offense carries a lifetime sentence.

#Australian soldiers film themselves murdering a young, unarmed #Afghan man. pic.twitter.com/y5d5XfOuh2

— tim anderson (@timand2037) March 18, 2020

Moreover, the statement confirmed that “the OSI and AFP are working together to investigate allegations of criminal offenses under Australian law related to breaches of the Laws of Armed Conflict by Australian Defence Force personnel in Afghanistan between 2005 and 2016.”

The decision by Australian authorities to hold war crime trials in civilian courts, according to international law expert Tim McCormack, is "unprecedented".

McCormack suspected that "this will be an important precedent for the British, for the Canadians, for the New Zealanders and, hopefully, for other state parties [to the ICC]."

The decorated veteran was abandoned by the ADF after a Four Corners - ABC Investigation revealed the crime he had committed during one of his many Afghanistan tours.

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