English and in Farsi and, in the latter case, that was done by the interpreter. The interpreter was in the vicinity of the tunnel entrance.
485 Person 42 said that either he or another member in the patrol started calling out into the tunnel using broken Pashtun. He did not recall an interpreter being present. He said he was unsure whether there was an interpreter on the task at all, but that it would be highly unlikely that they would be there at that phase of the assault anyway. Person 42 said that he believed that it was Person 29 who called the people out of the tunnel. Later in his evidence he said that he was not one hundred per cent sure that it was Person 29 who called them out.
486 Person 43 said that he and others were shouting out for an interpreter and that he was shouting out in English for the people to come out of the tunnel. The effect of Person 43's evidence is that someone appeared crawling out of the tunnel before the interpreter reached the tunnel.
487 The respondents submit that the fact that different witnesses recall different people calling out is unremarkable as the scene was likely to have been a chaotic one. In answer to the suggestion made by some of the applicant's witnesses that calling out into the tunnel would not have been performed because it would have alerted any occupants of the tunnel to the presence of Australian soldiers, the respondents submit that that suggestion should be rejected as it was readily accepted that anyone in the tunnel would have been aware that it had been discovered as soon as the cover to the tunnel had been removed. For example, the evidence of Person 38 was as follows:
It's correct, isn't it, that the presence of SAS operators outside this tunnel would have been obvious whether or not a callout was performed?---You could assume that. Yes. It would have been obvious.
Because once the tunnel covering has been removed, light would have flooded into the tunnel?---That – that would be an assumption.
And there's no way that anyone in the tunnel wouldn’t have heard the noise going on in the tunnel courtyard; correct?---You could – you could say that would be a good assumption.
488 Thirdly, the respondents submit that the evidence of Persons 40, 42 and 43 was consistent as to Afghan men coming out of the tunnel.
489 Person 43 remembered a person emerging from the tunnel who he described as an elderly Afghani male with a beard and dressed in local clothing which was light coloured. He helped pull the man out of the tunnel and then in PUCing the man. He does not recall anyone else coming out of the tunnel. He is not sure whether any other person came out of the tunnel.
