He Toki Huna: New Zealand in Afghanistan

Concerned about the reality gap between what our soldiers do and what their military and political masters say they do? He Toki Huna is invaluable.

– Frances Morton, reviewing the documentary in Metro magazine, August 2013

... not just a summary of our time in Afghanistan, it's a story of a man driven to speak truth to power, to get down on the ground away from the military surveillance to talk to real Afghans about their perspective and their stories. This documentary will no doubt enrage many of the powers that be, who would prefer to curate the message we see on our TV screens.

– He Toki Huna's editor James Brown

The problem with the Afghanistan war right from the beginning was that it was the wrong war in the wrong place.

– Writer Nicky Hager

New Zealand's troops have been in Afghanistan almost since the Americans first started invading the country and bombing in 2001. It's New Zealand's longest troop commitment - longer than World War One and two combined, and yet we've heard almost nothing about it.

– Academic Donald Matheson

[The Geneva Conventions] prohibit the torture and degrading treatment of prisoners. The conventions also say that any country transferring prisoners to the authority of another country must be "satisfied" the receiving country is "willing and able" to abide by the conventions. Since 2001, the NZ Special Air Service (SAS) has been required, in effect, to ignore these rules. This has led to the torture of innocent civilians, helped build support for the Taliban in Afghanistan, and exposed New Zealand troops to the risk of criminal prosecution. Every government we have had since that time has denied this is happening.

– Jon Stephenson, in his Metro article on rhe New Zealand military in Afghanistan, May 2011