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Last Australian troops leave Afghanistan's Uruzgan province Last Australian troops leave Afghanistan's Uruzgan province
(35 minutes later)
The last Australian troops have left the Uruzgan province in Afghanistan, Tony Abbott and the defence minister, David Johnston, announced on Monday. The last remaining Australian troops have exited Uruzgan province, leaving a group of 400 personnel to preside over ongoing training and support for Afghan soldiers and police.
The last troops left the province on Sunday and were “in the air”, the defence minister, David Johnston, told reporters in Sydney. At a press conference to mark the withdrawal of Australian forces, the prime minister, Tony Abbott, said on Monday that people could reflect with pride on Australia’s contribution to the conflict. “Uruzgan today is a very significantly different and better place than it was a decade ago,” he told reporters in Sydney.
Abbott said the responsibility of maintaining conditions in the province now belonged to the Afghanistan government, security forces, and people. Afghan national security forces assumed control of Uruzgan on Tuesday 3 December. Forty Australian soldiers were killed in the Afghanistan conflict, and more than 261 people have been seriously wounded.
Once the troops are back on Australian soil there will be around 400 ADF personnel left in Afghanistan in training and support roles, working out of Kabul and Kandahar “for at least the next year or so,” said Abbott. The remaining Australian presence will be located in Kabul and Kandahar in administrative and training roles, and Australia will also provide ongoing funding of $100m per year.
The Australian government will be providing around $100m a year towards the Afghan national forces. Tony Abbott and the defence minister David Johnston suggested the Australian withdrawal was coming at the appropriate time given the progress that had been made by the Afghan National Army over the past fighting season.
The ADF personnel – some of who will work with police training in Kabul – are not expected to be involved in any combat situations. Abbott also argued the conflict had been, on balance, worth it, despite the heavy losses. “We have seen the replacement of the Taliban, we have seen the driving out from their safe havens and bases al-Qaida and al-Qaida sympathisers,” he said.
Over the course of Australia’s involvement in the Afghanistan war 40 soldiers have been killed and 261 seriously wounded of the more than 26,000 personnel deployed. “That sacrifice has not been in vain,” said Abbott. The prime minister said the return of relative stability to Afghanistan had manifested positively in neighbouring Pakistan, and in the region. “There’s little doubt Pakistan is in a substantially better position than it was three or four years ago and our efforts in Afghanistan have been a material contributor to that.”
“I want to say thank you, a very deep thank you, to all of our service men and women who have been in Afghanistan. I want to say a very deep thank you to their families who have suffered grievous absences as well as in some cases grievous shattering loss.” “We have helped to stabilise, pacify and improve Afghanistan,” Abbott said.
Abbott also thanked the Australian public for their support of the armed forces. In the “totality”, progress had been made. “If you look at the benefits for our country, Afghanistan and the wider world then yes, it has been worth it – but not for a second would I under-estimate the price that has been paid by individuals and families, and the price that will continue to be paid.”
Johnston said Sunday was a very significant day for the ADF. Johnston downplayed the views of some analysts that the drawdown of international forces in Afghanistan is coming too early to ensure the current relative stability is maintained into the future.
“We will bring home, not just our personnel, but we will bring home our lessons learned,” he said. The Australian defence minister said the ANA had entered combat in recent times with very little supervision. “We are not leaving without being assured the government has a reliable force at its disposal,” the defence minister said on Monday.
The ADF is working through the removal or redeployment of Australian elements at Tarin Kot including 2,700 pieces of infrastructure, and more than 1,200 20ft containers, for closure of the base by the end of the year. Abbott said it was easy to be “defeatist” at the moment of a major milestone - such as the exit of Australian troops from Uruzgan province - but he said there wasn’t much evidence to justify pessimism.
“We can’t predict the future. We have no crystal ball,” Abbott said on Monday.
“It’s very easy to be defeatist at a time like this. I don’t think there’s all that much evidence to justify it. As the minister has just pointed out, the Afghan National Army has performed with distinction over the last fighting season. Certainly our soldiers are very happy with the progress of the Afghan brigade that they’ve been mentoring over the past few years,” he said.
The prime minister said the government would move quickly to either remove or ensure the safety of local contributors to the Australian war effort.
He was asked questions about the fate of Afghan interpreters after a weekend report revealed that an interpreter who worked for the Australian army in Afghanistan had been killed in a suspected Taliban revenge attack while waiting for promised resettlement in Australia.
Abbott said it was logistically complex to remove some people operating in remote areas, but he said action was under way. “We are determined to ensure everyone who has provided material support for our armed forces is looked after and provided with a guarantee of safety,” Abbott said.
“The operating principle of the Australian army is no one is left behind. We are getting them out as quickly as we can.”
The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, who travelled with Abbott to the Australian military base at Tarin Kowt recently, said the Australian Defence Force should be proud of its contribution to the conflict. “Australia’s military forces have done an outstanding job,” Shorten told reporters in Perth.
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