Australian MP and ex-soldier blasts release of 'unproven rumours' alleging Afghan war crimes

The release of a report detailing “unproven rumours” of Australian soldiers murdering Afghan children has given China an opening to malign Australian troops, a federal government MP and former special forces member has argued.

Andrew Hastie also used a speech to parliament on Thursday evening to blast Twitter for refusing to take down an inflammatory tweet by a Chinese foreign ministry official amid increasing tensions in the relationship between Beijing and Canberra.

Hastie, the chair of parliament’s joint committee on intelligence and security, contended that Australia was experiencing “a toxic mix of economic coercion and political disinformation enabled by Silicon Valley social media oligarchs in the United States”.

After the Chinese official tweeted a digitally-created image depicting an Australian soldier cutting the throat of a child in Afghanistan, Twitter flagged the image as sensitive – meaning it doesn’t show up by default – but did not remove the tweet altogether.

Related: Australian army to investigate soldiers' use of dead Taliban fighter's prosthetic leg

China’s foreign ministry has denied accusations the tweet was a case of disinformation, with a spokesperson saying it was based on the report on alleged war crimes released by the Australian defence force last month.

Hastie said he disagreed with the decision to release details of the findings of military sociologist Dr Samantha Crompvoets, whose 2016 report triggered the four-year inspector general’s investigation by Maj Gen Paul Brereton.

“The Crompvoets [report] detailed unproven rumours of Australian soldiers murdering Afghan children,” the backbencher and former soldier told parliament.

“It may have prompted the Brereton report, but its evidentiary threshold was far lower. The Brereton report neither rules these rumours in or out. So why are they in the open? It has undermined public confidence in the process and allowed the People’s Republic of China to malign our troops.”

The 465-page inspector general’s report published by the ADF in November included details of Crompvoets’ early interviews with sources including special forces insiders.

It said that Crompvoets had been told of “an incident where members from the SASR were driving along a road and saw two 14-year-old boys whom they decided might be Taliban sympathisers”.

“They stopped, searched the boys and slit their throats,” the report said. “The rest of the Troop then had to ‘clean up the mess’, which involved bagging the bodies and throwing them into a nearby river. Dr Crompvoets says she was told this was not an isolated incident.”

The report added, however, that Crompvoets did not detail any specific incident and did not identify any perpetrator or unit involved.

“Rather, she described the information she received as ‘a whole lot of vague, nameless scenarios’, in conversations which she characterised as ‘off the record’,” the report said.

The Brereton investigation subsequently found there was credible information to support the alleged unlawful killing of 39 individuals, perpetrated by 25 current or former ADF personnel – either as principals or accessories.

The alleged killing of two 14-year-old boys is not mentioned in any unredacted parts of the Brereton report.

Hastie told parliament he was “particularly angry at the leak of the Crompvoets report two weeks prior to the release of the Brereton report” and was “unhappy that the author of the report appeared on 60 Minutes four days prior to the release of the Brereton report”. Crompvoets was contacted on Thursday but declined to comment.

In an interview with Guardian Australia earlier this week, she warned Australians against dismissing the Afghanistan war crimes scandal as the work of a “few bad apples” and expressed dismay at the tenor of the public debate since the report’s release.

Hastie’s speech was triggered by an article in the West Australian newspaper by the broadcaster Alan Jones, who accused the prime minister, Scott Morrison, of giving China an opening to attack the special forces. Jones argued the prime minister had lit the match by warning Australia to expect “brutal truths” to be revealed in the Brereton report.

Hastie said he felt very strongly about the matter, given he was a veteran of the Special Air Service Regiment and a member of the Morrison government.

Hastie said the tweet by the People’s Republic of China was “a repugnant slur” that was “calculated, deliberate and designed to undermine the political and social cohesion of our country, at the same time Australian exporters – across a number of sectors – are being hit with tariffs designed to hurt their businesses and our national prosperity”.

Related: The war crimes report has reawakened old traumas for Afghan-Australians | Nasreen Hanifi

Hastie argued Morrison had stood up for the ADF by demanding an apology from the PRC and by calling on Twitter to delete the post.

He said Australia was “seeking to be honest and accountable for alleged wrongdoing by a small number of individuals entrusted to wear our flag” and “owning our mistakes” in stark contrast to the People’s Republic of China.

A Twitter spokesperson said in response to questions about the Chinese foreign ministry official’s tweet: “The image contained within the tweet in question has been marked as sensitive media.”

On Tuesday, the Guardian revealed new images showing Australian special forces drinking from the prosthetic leg of a dead Taliban fighter.

The former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott on Thursday urged the Morrison government to hold firm in the face of pressure from Beijing. He argued the Chinese government “might succeed in making us a little poorer but we can never allow them to make us less free”.

• Anyone affected by the Brereton report should call Hayat Line on 1300 993 398, a free and confidential line for those going through difficulties. In Australia, support and counselling for veterans and their families is available 24 hours a day from Open Arms on 1800 011 046 or www.openarms.gov.au and Safe Zone Support on 1800 142 072 or www.openarms.gov.au/safe-zone-support