The New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) remains committed to a smooth handover of its responsibilities in Afghanistan’s Bamyan Province to the Afghan authorities after two New Zealand soldiers were killed and six wounded at the weekend, the NZDF’s most senior officer said Monday.
Lance Corporal Rory Patrick Malone and Lance Corporal Pralli Durrer, both aged 26, were deployed with the New Zealand Provincial Reconstruction Team in April and were both on their first deployment in Afghanistan, said Chief of Defence Force Lieutenant General Rhys Jones.
They died when NZDF personnel came to the assistance of local security forces who encountered suspected insurgents near a village south of Do Abe, in the northeast of the province.
The NZDF was working to return the bodies to their families as quickly as possible and was receiving great support from coalition partners, Jones said in a statement.
The six New Zealand soldiers injured in the attack were all in a stable condition, and five of them would be transferred Monday to a military hospital in Germany, with the sixth likely to follow when his condition allowed.
The NZDF remained committed to ensuring a smooth and measured handover of responsibility to Afghan authorities, he said.
“As Chief of Defence Force, I remain proud of the work we do there. The families of all those who have lost their lives in Afghanistan need not ask, ‘Why?’ for in Bamyan the answer to that question lies in the classrooms built; the wells and village water supplies hooked up; the roads that have been paved; the bridges and flood protection constructed; in the hospitals refurbished,” said Jones.
“It lies in the lives that have improved; in people participating in the life of their communities and country voting at elections; in girls and women being able to gain an education. It is under the umbrella of security that the Provincial Reconstruction Team provides, that these gains have been made,” he said.
“The events over the weekend reinforce to all that ours is a dangerous profession, and while we accept these risks the death of colleagues and friends is always difficult to take. But New Zealand can be proud of the contribution being made, and so too the families of those who have been killed in the service of New Zealand in Afghanistan. Their sacrifice has not been in vain.”
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key told Radio New Zealand on Monday that the deaths would not prompt any changes to next year’s scheduled withdrawal of the Provincial Reconstruction Team, which was a large logistical undertaking.
