By Spike Mountjoy

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Prime Minister John Key has “verbal assurances” that detainees handed over to Afghan forces will be treated humanely

• PM’s Presser: Audio on Demand of NZ Prime Minister John Key's weekly press conference.

  New Zealand’s Special Air Service left for Afghanistan on Wednesday, but the PM says he has a verbal assurance from the Afghan Government that any detainees NZ troops hand over to Afghan forces will not be tortured.

  Previous SAS deployments raised concerns about handing detainees over to US forces, where they suspected the prisoners may be tortured. Knowingly handing people over to be tortured is an offence under the Geneva Convention.

  When asked by Scoop, Key repeated the verbal assurances he had been given by the Afghan Government - that detainees would be treated humanely, and in line with the Geneva Convention.

  Key said it was his understanding that some changes had been made in NZ Defence force operations since reports of prisoner abuse by the US first surfaced in 2002. He said the current deployment would be operating under the same conditions as the 2005 deployment.

  Scoop understands that New Zealand troops have been instructed to keep a record of the personal details of captured fighters, which they failed to do when handing prisoners over to US forces in previous deployments.

  The 71-member Special Air Service task force which has just departed is the first of three rotations scheduled to be deployed over the next 12-18 months.

  It will be under New Zealand command in the field, but under the overall direction of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force.

  Much of today’s press conference was devoted to a planned review of safety in the adventure tourism industry.

  Key was also asked about the Bill English allowance scandal. He said English has been “fully compliant with the rules”, and he thinks the ongoing questions have not damaged the Finance Minister’s credibility.

  Listen below for more …

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