Charged soldiers deserve support

THE lack of any official statement of support for the three Australian commandos charged with crimes by the independent Director of Military Prosecutions (DMP), Brigadier Lyn McDade, is an absolute disgrace.

So too are the weasel words from army chief Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie distancing himself from the men in the interests of the integrity of the military justice system. Our soldiers go to war zones on our behalf and have every right to expect our support. Ours is a volunteer army, and the men and women who serve deserve the total backing of their superiors and the public. They do not deserve to have their commanders do a Pontius Pilate and wash their hands of them at the first hint of a problem. In her September 27 statement regarding the charges, which relate to a night-time raid on a residential compound in Afghanistan's Oruzgan province, in which six civilians died, including five children, Brigadier McDade makes it clear the decision to charge the men was hers alone. "I have decided to charge three former members of the Special Operations Task Group with service offences arising out of a compound clearance operation conducted on 12 February 2009 in Afghanistan," Brigadier McDade said. She said she received the results of am Australian Defence Force (ADF) investigation in November, 2009, and answers to her requests for further information throughout 2010. She sought representations from the Defence Force of its interest in relation to the charges and received a response on September 1. "After careful, deliberate and informed consideration of the available evidence, some of which was only received recently, and the representations to me made pursuant to section 5A of the Defence Force Discipline Act 1982, I have decided in accordance with my prosecution policy to charge three former members of the Special Operations Task Group with service offences," she said. "The accused persons will be charged with various service offences, including manslaughter, dangerous conduct, failing to comply with a lawful general order and prejudicial conduct." In her nine-paragraph statement, Brigadier McDade used the words I, me and my 13 times. There can be no doubting her understanding that she owns this case. When news of an online petition calling for the cancellation of the prosecution of the men reached Defence Headquarters in Russell, Canberra, General Gillespie said: "To undertake any course of action that is disrespectful, and not supportive, of this process would be to undermine the integrity of the military justice system." He said the army must not be party to pressure being applied by people outside defence, adding: "The army is simply not above the law." The brass at the ADF should wake up and realise that the petition is a manifestation of the deep concern ordinary Australians feel about the conduct of the military leadership in this case - and rightly so. The public wants to be assured that our fighting men and women have not been let down by their commanders, or those in government responsible for them. Opposition defence spokesman David Johnston said yesterday he has been told the senior military officials failed to properly defend the three men, treating their responsibility to prepare a pre-charge submission as a bit of a doddle. "I don't think it's good enough," he said. Queensland barrister and former member of the RAAF reserves specialist panel, Greg Egan, who is also president of the United Service Club, the nation's largest private club for former military personnel, said the men should have been offered the chance to employ the most experienced senior legal counsel from within or outside the military justice pool. Egan, who has been at the Bar for 26 years and has wide experience nationally and internationally, said he was extremely concerned that the charges were not laid for more than a year-and-a-half after the alleged incident. While the tin-hats at Russell duck for cover, the Gillard Labor Government has also been missing in action. Its comment that the current system of military justice evolved under the former Howard government doesn't stand scrutiny. While it inherited the system, the charges were laid with its authority under its rule. Since 2002, 21 Australian soldiers have died in Afghanistan with another 151 wounded, and the Gillard Government has not dampened expectations that the Australian forces will be in Afghanistan for another four to six years. Prime Minister Julia Gillard went on a so called morale-boosting trip to Afghanistan a fortnight ago but has done nothing to show she cares about the legal constraints that this case raises, nor has Defence Minister Stephen Smith. Though the film about the Boer war execution of Breaker Morant and his men was a mix of fact and fiction, it did make made a salient point about the gulf that can exist between headquarter troops and the actions of men in the field. General Gillespie and Brigadier McDade have played into the hands of those who want to believe that Harry "Breaker" Morant was sacrificed for political purposes. The responses of General Gillespie and the DMP are as far removed from the realities of fighting an Afghan-style insurgency as Lord Kitchener was from the activities of the Bushveldt Carbineers. The Australian Defence Force has failed to satisfy the public that it has done everything it might have to protect the commandos facing charges and ensure that they have received the best possible legal counsel. The ADF brass and the Government sent these men into a conflict zone, they did not expect to be sent into a courtroom. Very few civilians have any concept of the scenarios that erupt during a fire-fight, let alone a fire-fight at night. No matter how it is portrayed, the military and Government appear to have fundamentally abandoned these men. Our troops put their lives on the line for us. The least we can do is go into bat for them.