Government faces questions over SAS role

The Government will face questions when Parliament resumes next month over the role of New Zealand's Special Air Service in Afghanistan.

The issue blew up last week when several media outlets published photos of two New Zealand SAS members, including Victoria Cross winner Corporal Willie Apiata, at the scene of fighting in the Afghanistan capital Kabul between Taliban fighters and Afghan commandos.

Cpl Apiata was photographed by French freelance photographer Philip Poupin moments after he came out of a building where three bodies were found.

Prime Minister John Key, criticising news media for running the photographs without pixilating the faces of the men, said the SAS had a "very limited" role in the battle and fired no shots.

Defence Minister Wayne Mapp also said that the SAS members were not as close to the fighting as Poupin suggested.

But Poupin said the men were there to fight and he personally saw three dead bodies in the building they came out of.

Now Green Party MP Keith Locke says the Government's credibility is on the line.

Yesterday he said that Cpl Apiata and his colleague, in the picture published last week, did appear to be on a joint mission with Afghan commandos responding to a Taliban attack in Kabul's Pashtunistan Square. Foreign journalists had confirmed the SAS were involved in some way.

"I will be asking questions of government about this when Parliament resumes in February," Mr Locke said.

"We have been given far too little information about what the SAS is doing in our name in Afghanistan, and not all the information we are given appears to be accurate.

"Whatever the rights and wrongs of Cpl Apiata's photo being published in the New Zealand media, our Defence Force can't escape some responsibility for putting Cpl Apiata at risk. They sent him back to Afghanistan, knowing his picture was everywhere. Even now the NZDF website carries a photo of a bearded Willie Apiata, apparently in the field."

Meanwhile political activist John Minto said on Saturday that Cpl Apiata was "no hero" compared to three peace activists who attacked Marlborough's Waihopai spy base.

"The real heroes of Afghanistan are the three Kiwis who popped the dome two years ago," he said speaking at a protest outside the spy base, where up to 40 banner-waving demonstrators shouted "close Waihopai down".

Sam Land, Adrian Leason and Peter Murane from the Anzac Plougshares group will stand trial in Wellington on March 8 accused of causing $1 million worth of damage to the Waihopai base in April 2008.

Mr Minto, himself is due in court on February 7 after being arrested for protesting against an Israeli tennis player at the ASB classic in Auckland earlier this month, said: "They are real heroes because what they did goes against the mainstream of New Zealand public opinion and was a truly brave, inspiring and courageous action.

"Unfortunately Apiata is involved in a very dirty war on behalf of America and the people of Afghanistan don't want him there.

"I don't see him as a hero because people have to take personal responsibility for their actions and I am not sure he realises the real reason why he is in Afghanistan."