Australian special forces Instagram account mocks war crime allegations, calls to 'Make Diggers Violent Again'
Current and former Australian special forces soldiers are operating an Instagram account mocking allegations of war crimes allegedly committed by their comrades in Afghanistan.
The public Instagram account, titled State Sanctioned Violence, is also selling merchandise, including bumper stickers reading "Make Diggers Violent Again" and "Taliban Tears", and T-shirts with "High Velocity Atrocities" emblazoned on them.
The account, which has amassed thousands of followers, is littered with crude memes and jokes that make light of killings that occurred during combat.
The ABC has been told that the account is operated mainly by one former and one serving special forces soldier. Those men have not responded to questions from ABC Investigations. Other content, such as photographs, is supplied by former and serving special forces.
The account states it is operated by: "A group of current & former Aussie Soldiers keeping the legacy of the boys we lost alive."
One video, which includes a mock advisory warning normally used on ABC broadcasts, features a mash-up of aerial footage of people being killed by missiles, gun fire and drone strikes, while rap music plays in the background.
Another photo features text reading: "I've got two command priorities this year: proxy wars and smashing whores."
Some posts trivialise an ABC Four Corners story from earlier this year, which showed footage of an Australian SAS trooper allegedly murdering an unarmed Afghan in a field, while others joke about killing Afghan children, making lampshades out of the skins of dead Taliban and hacking off the ears of village elders.
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