Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to amend general business notice of motion No. 169 by omitting paragraph (b) and substituting these words ‘regrets the death of these innocent civilians and condemns the Taliban for deliberately targeting civilians and using civilians as unwilling shields for attacks on Afghan and international forces, and’.

Leave granted.

I move the motion as amended:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes the finding by the United Nations and Afghanistan Government that the military of the United States of America (US) killed at least 90 civilians, including 60 children, in the Afghan village of Nawabad on 21 August and 22 August 2008;

(b)

regrets the deaths of these innocent civilians and condemns the Taliban for deliberately targeting civilians and using civilians as unwilling shields for attacks on Afghan and international forces, and

(c)

calls on the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Mr Smith) to urge the US to acknowledge the civilian death toll of its military operation in Nawabad and to support the Afghanistan Government’s call for a full-scale review of US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization military operations in the wake of the country’s mounting civilian death toll.