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Govt keeping quiet on protecting troops

Author
Barry Soper, Felix Marwick ,
Publish Date
Tue, 31 Mar 2015, 10:16AM
(NZME.)
(NZME.)

Govt keeping quiet on protecting troops

Author
Barry Soper, Felix Marwick ,
Publish Date
Tue, 31 Mar 2015, 10:16AM

UPDATED 6.12PM: The Government isn't saying what protection is being put in place for New Zealand troops when they land in Iraq.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully reached some sort of an agreement with the Iraqi Government when he was in Baghdad last week.

The government has committed 143 NZDF soldiers to train their Iraqi counterparts in the fight against the so-called Islamic State. 

A traditional Status of Forces agreement (SOFA) would grant New Zealand troops immunity from Iraqi law during the military mission. 

Foreign Minister Murray McCully says the Government could come back with further details on the arrangements in 24 to 48 hours, after he's briefed his cabinet colleagues, but he's making it clear the deal isn't a standard arrangement.

"It's always been clear that we would need to have some form of arrangement that met our needs that wasn't a conventional status of forces arrangement." 

Prime Minister John Key told Newstalk ZB he's had assurances from McCully that a "satisfactory" agreement had been reached.

"At the moment we may or may not publicly announce what we do. We may not." 

Neither Mr McCully nor Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee would say how the protection agreement would work.

"That's an arrangement between two governments," Brownlee maintains. "It relates to the activities that our guys will be involved in."

"As you know there are security concerns around that. Like all other cases the arrangements we have with another country won't be public."

Today Brownlee confirmed around 40 to 50 New Zealand troops are now in Australia preparing for their deployment after the story broke in the Australian media.

Earlier today, the Prime Minister seemed unaware of the deployment.

"I'll need to check with mister Brownlee's office if one or two people have gone," Key said, "but certainly not the bulk of them."

Labour Leader Andrew Little claims that if troops have been mobilised then the public should have been told, and that on an issue that's split the nation, the government has to be up front.

"It does seem to be the way this government conducts itself on this issue. It just does what it likes and tells people afterwards."

Green Party Co-leader Russel Norman believes the agreement should be made public if the Government has one, and he's challenging the Foreign Minister's claim it was always clear there was never going to be a standard status of forces agreement.

"That's not my understanding of how they went to war. When they went to war I thought they were pretty clear that they wanted such an agreement.

"I don't know where mister McCully is getting that from."

New Zealand First MP Ron Mark says it's becoming more disappointing by the day the way the Government is handling the Iraq situation.

"This is just a continuance of the way they've behaved through this whole thing. And it's very disappointing. They should have disclosed that to parliament. They should have told the people of New Zealand."

Mark maintains a status of forces agreement should have been locked down well before a decision to deploy was made.

"It's just proving to New Zealand First that McCully is pretty damn incompetent when it comes to negotiating anything with anyone else outside of New Zealand shores."

 

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