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Allegations
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Two high-profile
ex-Army men have defended discipline enforced at an Army training school as
no worse than at boarding school. New Zealand First MP
Ron Mark, who entered the Regular Force Cadet School in Waiouru at the age of
16 and ended his Army career as a major, said people were threatened in any
organisation. He told National
Radio's Nine to Noon programme yesterday that while he was aware violence did
occur he had never suffered any physical abuse. "I had a lot of
mates in the Wairarapa who went to boarding schools. I can say the same
stories that were touted around about regular force cadet schools were the
same stories coming out of many of the nation's boarding schools at the
time," Mr Mark said. "In that respect I
would have thought what was happening in regular force cadets was no
different." His belief was echoed
by New Zealand Maori rugby coach Matt Te Pou, who was a student in 1967-68.
Te Pou went on to become a warrant officer in the Army. "I didn't
experience it, but bullying was certainly there. It's a fact of life in most
establishments like that, it mirrored what was going on in boarding schools
in those days. Mr Te Pou, however,
questioned the value of applying current ideas on violence to practices that
were more acceptable in the 60s. "Today's world is
a different world. You don't condone those type of practices, but we are
talking some years ago. "We were trained
in peace for war - we were expected to be the future leaders - some people
went outside the boundaries. That's how it was." The cadet school was
set up in 1948 by men returning from the "carnage" of battle in
World War II, Mr Mark said. "Many of those men
realised that New Zealand went into World War II totally ill-prepared, we had
no leaders and we suffered the casualties and consequences of it." The Army established
the cadet school to ensure it would not be short of leaders in the future. "You were there
not just to be trained to be a soldier, but to be trained to be a leader in
the Army." Many of the cadet graduates became Army leaders, he said. "A number went on
to diplomatic careers after that and all over the world many of these men are
highly sought-after by the United Nations, for peacekeeping roles, and by the
Red Cross." Mr Mark said he would
"take some issue" with Mr Fraser's report because, although he
didn't remember him, he was also at the school in 1971 and did not see the
scale of abuse he claimed occurred. "He seems to have
dragged together a whole bunch of incidents over a range of 40 years and
brought them together with the impression they happened in his year and I
think that's a little inconsistent with actuality." But it was
"probably essential" that an inquiry be conducted because the names
of some outstanding men would be besmirched by the actions of a few, Mr Mark
said. "But when you get
an inquiry motivated by people who see it as a cash cow and an opportunity to
create another gravy train, and would have everyone believe that $20,000
would make their nightmares go away, I have reservations about them," he
said. The Army may be in a
position by tomorrow to indicate the shape of the inquiry ordered by Defence
Minister Mark Burton into the brutality claims, an Army spokesman said. Major Murray Brown said
about 20 former cadets had approached his office since a call for
information, but their comments had all been "positive overall" and
did not reflect claims highlighted in media reports. Tour of duty * Known as the Regular
Force Cadet School, it opened in 1948. * The school provided
military apprenticeships for 15 to 17-year-old boys hoping to enter the Army
at 18. * Cadets signed up for
12 months but some stayed longer depending on their age. * After graduation,
they were eligible to enter the Army to do trade or basic training. * The school closed in
December 1991 due to funding cuts. Women were admitted only in the final year
of the school's operations. * Recruits enlisting
with the Army now go straight into basic training. |
