Australia Marks 25 Years in Afghanistan While War Crimes Cases Continue
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese honoured Australians who served in Afghanistan at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on 11 October 2026, 25 years after Australia's involvement officially began. The Guardian
About 600 veterans attended the national service. The Sydney Morning Herald Former prime ministers John Howard, Tony Abbott and Scott Morrison attended, alongside Governor-General Sam Mostyn and Opposition Leader Angus Taylor. The Guardian
Ben Roberts-Smith was in the crowd with his partner Sarah Matulin. A judge changed his bail conditions so he could travel to Canberra. He remains charged with war crimes, formal accusations of breaking the laws of war that a court must decide.
Albanese told the gathering that more than 35,000 Australian Defence Force members deployed over two decades after Operation Slipper started. Operation Slipper was the Defence Force name for the Afghanistan mission. He said 47 personnel died as a result of service in Afghanistan and 263 were wounded. The Guardian
Australia dates its service in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2021, with 11 October 2001 recognised as the official start. The Memorial described the 11 October 2026 gathering as the national commemorative service for the anniversary.
Roberts-Smith, 47 when arrested in April 2026, received the Victoria Cross for service in Afghanistan. The Victoria Cross is Australia's highest award for bravery in battle. Police arrested him that month on five counts of war crimes linked to the alleged murder of five people in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012. Reuters He was later freed on bail. He denies accusations that he murdered five unarmed detainees during his deployment.
His presence recalled an earlier court case. He brought a defamation trial, a lawsuit over published claims said to harm reputation, against Nine newspapers and The Canberra Times. In that case, the media defendants said they would call 21 current and former SAS soldiers to give evidence. The SAS is the Army's special forces unit. The court heard an allegation that he directed soldiers to give a false account of an unarmed, handcuffed Afghan man being kicked off a cliff, and testimony from a serving SAS member who said he saw an Australian soldier shoot an unarmed disabled man during a 2009 raid. The court was also told Roberts-Smith wrote an anonymous threatening letter to another SAS soldier and set fire to his own laptop. Calls were later made to remove his uniform from public display at the Memorial.
The broader context here is a commemoration held while accountability processes are still active. A memorial ceremony and a criminal trial do different work, like remembrance and judgment running on separate tracks, yet they converged in Canberra in the same physical space.
Stepping back, the overlap tests how a country can honour collective service without prejudging individual cases. It also tests how memorial institutions handle display, ceremony and fair legal process. Veterans policy, alliance history and public trust are all tied to anniversaries like this.
Looking at what this means for the period ahead, the anniversary will likely sharpen attention on how the 2001-2021 commitment is taught in military training, schools and veterans support, and on keeping pending criminal cases separate from collective recognition.
