Future Australian
Defence Force casualties will be be brought home on Australian
aircraft escorted by a minimum of two fellow soldiers, defence
head Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston said today. Air Chief
Marshal Houston said the changes were prompted by the blunder
involving Australia's first military casualty in Iraq, Private
Jake Kovco, whose body was mistakenly left in a Kuwait mortuary
and that of a Bosnian man brought home instead. How the blunder
occurred is the subject of an inquiry now being finalised.
A draft report on the mistake was also lost this month and
leaked to the media.
Private Kovco was
shot dead when his handgun discharged in his barracks in Baghdad
on April 21. His death is the subject of a defence and coronial
inquiry. Air Chief Marshal Houston said he had implemented
a series of changes in the way the bodies of Australian personnel
were repatriated. "Defence will endeavour to make sure
that the bodies of ADF personnel will be repatriated on an
Australian aircraft," he told a Senate estimates committee
hearing. "A minimum of two Australian personnel will
also travel with the body at all times. We will also avoid
where possible using non-military mortuaries in the Middle
East."
Air Chief Marshal
Houston said much would depend on the precise circumstances
of each situation, including the location and the numbers
of casualties involved. "The key principle, as always,
is that defence people will handle repatriation matters with
the utmost respect for their fallen mates and with concern
for their families," he said.
Air Chief Marshal
Houston said the defence board of inquiry into Private Kovco's
death would be open and transparent, with proceedings open
to the public unless privacy or security matters dictated
otherwise. He said the board would determine what occurred.
"I do not want to say anything that will jeopardise this
important process," he said. "Further speculation
on the cause of his death or how it was handled only adds
to the pain and distress Private Kovco's family have already
endured." "The mistake in bringing Jake's body home
and the loss of draft report into this repatriation error
have been a very distressing situation for everyone involved,
but most especially for Jake's family."
Air Chief Marshal
Houston said that as part of ongoing reforms to the military
justice system, dedicated military police investigators have
been deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, the Solomon Islands and
East Timor. "These investigators will be responsible
to me through the provost-marshal ADF. "This further
assures that the ADF military justice system delivers impartial
rigorous and fair outcomes both at home and importantly on
deployed operations. They are all in place at this stage,"
he said.