UK MOD Bristles as Junior Minister U-Turns on 'Inaccurate' Claim of Suicides Among Afghan War Vets
09:39 GMT 06.09.2021 (Updated: 15:15 GMT 28.05.2023)
© REUTERS / UK MOD Crown copyright 2021
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Earlier, a junior UK defence minister told Sky News that some British military veterans from the Afghan war had taken their own lives. He claimed they were devastated by the humiliation of the lightning-swift Taliban* takeover of Afghanistan in the wake of the West's chaotic withdrawal after the 20-year war that cost hundreds of thousands of lives.
The British Ministry of Defence has dismissed claims of Afghan war veterans taking their own lives due to the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO forces from the country, reported Reuters.
While looking into the reports of alleged deaths, the MoD clarified that it had no confirmed suicide cases among Afghanistan veterans due to the recent withdrawal.
The statement came after a junior British defence minister had already backpedalled on his own previous statement regarding war veterans having been devastated by the events in Afghanistan.
“Actually the thing I was referring to was inaccurate… We're looking very, very carefully at whether or not it is true that someone has taken their life in the last few days,” James Heappey told BBC TV.
James Heappey(armed forces ministers) then told #BBCBreakfast that what he told #KayBurley was inaccurate. pic.twitter.com/Nac4XmnLoV
— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) September 6, 2021
In earlier remarks on Monday morning, Heappey told Sky News that the developments in Afghanistan were taking their toll on the British veterans' mental health. According to him, UK servicemen and women had been hugely affected by the abrupt withdrawal of UK and US troops and the subsequent swift takeover of the South Asian country by the Taliban* Islamist group.
“I know how much the veterans community is hurting.”
— Sky News (@SkyNews) September 6, 2021
Armed Forces Minister James Heappey and former veteran gets emotional when he talks about former military members taking their own lives, following the Afghanistan withdrawal.#KayBurleyhttps://t.co/p24eySTutY pic.twitter.com/l1Pg41UUYq
Heappey, who served in Afghanistan during his own time in the British Army, said he "knows how much veterans are hurting".
"And that's why the government, the nation needs to put our arm around our veterans and tell them how proud we are of what they did," he told Sky host Kay Burley.
This comes as the Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government has been under fire over its handling of the situation in Afghanistan and the evacuation effort that ended ahead of the 31 August deadline for foreign troop pullout.
UK military personnel board an A400M aircraft departing Kabul, Afghanistan August 28, 2021
© REUTERS / UK MOD Crown copyright 2021
Questions are being raised over how the Taliban was able to wrest back control of the country at such speed.
Fears have also been cited that Afghans eligible to resettle in the UK, many of whom worked with or served alongside the British armed forces or government, have been left stranded in the war-torn country.
The last British and US troops left Afghanistan at the end of August, bringing their 20-year military campaign in the country to an end.
*The Taliban is a terrorist organisation outlawed in Russia and many other states.
