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Allegations
of Abuse in Institutions |
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You can't change
history -- but you can certainly understand it better and that's clearly the
aim of two families of former soldiers who are taking the New Zealand Army to
task. First there were the
Bains of Te Awamutu, whose son and brother, Grant Bain, was shot dead by a
fellow cadet at the Waiouru Army Cadet School in 1981. Recent publicity over
the death and of claims of abuse at the cadet school have forced police to
review their investigation and the Government to appoint a former High Court
judge to look at the allegations. The cadet who shot
Bain, Andrew Read, escaped with the relatively minor charge of careless use
of a firearm causing death and it has always rankled with the Bains. They may
at last find out why police took the course of action they did. Now there is the family
of Private Owen Dawson, who was killed in Malaysia in 1964. At the time of
his death, from a major trauma to the head, it was put down to a fall in the
shower. But a Waikato Times investigation has turned up a Ngaruawahia
colleague of Pte Dawson's, Graeme Stuart, who alleges the injuries were in
fact caused by another cadet, Pte John Jobe, who allegedly pummelled Dawson
in a fight. The family of Pte
Dawson, finally tracked down by this paper after publicity about Mr Stuart's
claims, says they always had doubts over the official version of events. Pte Dawson's aunt,
Maureen Ryan of Manawatu, even said yesterday the family had been visited by
a returning soldier who said he was under orders to say nothing, but that
their family member's death was not as it seemed. Surely it will mean the
army reopening another investigation. The Waikato Times has
requested, under the Official Information Act, the official papers from the
time of Pte Dawson's death. These will arrive in time, but it is to be hoped
the army, in the wake of the family's backing of Mr Stuart's claims, will be
more proactive itself. Though it is true the
alleged beater, Pte Jobe, is also dead now, as is the killer of cadet Bain,
it is still a worthy exercise to look back at both cases -- despite there
being no chance of anyone else being found culpable in either death. The biggest
beneficiaries will be the respective families, who haven't been able to bring
closure to horrific incidents in their lives. There is little
downside for the army in clearing up incidents in the past that may now be
found to have been poorly handled; they're ancient history and no blame will
be laid with the current top brass. If the families of
people who risk their lives for their country can't trust their masters to
want to be seen to be squeaky clean, why would anyone want to get involved in
that line of work? |
