ALASTAIR GAISFORD
February 8, 2010
Source: theage.com.au
Peter Wilson is still waiting for the truth of his son's killing in Cambodia. Photo: Simon Schluter
Former Labor foreign minister Gareth Evans is the key to the truth on why the Keating government wasted five chances to bring kidnapped Australian David Wilson home alive from Cambodia in 1994.
But it is Victorian State Coroner Judge Jennifer Coate who must now turn the key to unlock the truth, which the Wilson family has so doggedly sought since David's kidnapping from a train on July 26, 1994 and murder his 44 days later.
In March 1998, her predecessor, Graeme Johnstone, ordered the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to deliver the complete case file to him but the Rudd government has only just done so, enabling Coate to resume the inquest 12 years later.
I was the consul in Cambodia in 1994 and worked on David's case for the 108 days from his kidnapping to his funeral in Melbourne on November 9, 1994. If Coate has been given the complete Wilson file, she will quickly find the truth, hidden for 15 years by three governments.
David Wilson's death was a total failure of our government's hostage policy — a policy that remains in place today. It is hoped that the inquest into Wilson's death and the call last week from Greens senator Bob Brown for an inquiry into the response from authorities to Australian citizens kidnapped overseas, such as Nigel Brennan in Somalia late last year, leads to a change in the policy.
Gareth Evans admitted to failure in the case of David Wilson: "We failed at the end of the day, for reasons that I think are pretty clear to us all. Of course we failed. And that is a matter of tragedy for all of us."
Yet despite this, Evans denied that Wilson's death was avoidable: "There is nothing more the Australian government could have done, I genuinely don't believe there were any other options available to us at any step along the way than those that we very actively pursued."
An examination of the "secret" DFAT files will show that this is simply not correct. So much more could and should have been done through the month of August 1994 to save David Wilson's life.
The files will reveal that:
* In the four months before David's kidnapping, eight foreigners were kidnapped including three Australians, one of whom, Kellie-Anne Wilkinson, was murdered. Yet our embassy in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh did nothing to warn Australian travellers of the increased risk or to plan strategies to deal with any further kidnappings.
* Gareth Evans, who was in Bangkok the week David Wilson was kidnapped, failed to take our advice to immediately come to Cambodia and use his unique influence and personality on the government to get a personal guarantee that there would be no actions taken that could harm the hostages, before their release.
* Australia's ambassador, Tony Kevin, arrived in Cambodia the week of Wilson's kidnapping, direct from Poland, without any expertise or formal briefing on Cambodia, South-East Asia and consular or hostage management.
* Australia's official "no ransom, no negotiation" policy was a lie as only a week after Wilson's kidnapping, our government had agreed to the Cambodian government's decision to quickly pay the $US150,000 ransom.
* The Australian government then blocked any attempts by the Wilson family and others such as Melbourne businessman Ron Walker to pay a ransom and also dismissed all other third party options for an independent negotiation for release. The Australian government also did nothing to stop any of the six "unofficial" illegal rival negotiations, such as Cambodian army general Eng Hong's personal $1 million deal offer to us in the embassy at Phnom Penh.
* A formal diplomatic agreement with the Cambodian government "not to take any action that would harm the hostages, without our prior consultation and approval" was another lie. The Australian government already knew and approved of a Cambodian government plan for full-scale attack on the hostage mountain, which would place their lives in danger, only a week later.
* The day the Cambodian military first attacked, the Australian ambassador was in Kampot but immediately fled back to Phnom Penh under army/police escort, leaving his consul, me, behind to report to him. That same evening, top Cambodian army generals, arriving in Kampot, confirmed to me "we're here to take the mountain, the hostages are of no consequence".
* The next day, I returned to the capital to give ambassador Kevin this lethal message, yet he and the Australian government did nothing to enforce the diplomatic agreement or try and stop the military attack.
* Evans then again failed to take our advice that he should immediately come to Cambodia to demand that the Cambodian government stop this military action and honour the diplomatic agreement until the hostages were released. Instead, both Evans and prime minister Paul Keating formally agreed in writing to guarantee Cambodia our promised military aid, regardless of the outcome of the hostage situation.
* Meanwhile, the Cambodian government negotiations for the safe release of the hostages for the $US150,000 ransom soon agreed on a release date of August 19. The Cambodian military attack intensified over the next three weeks, while our government did nothing to stop it and denied it was even happening.
The escalation of the military attack led to the murders of David Wilson, Englishman Mark Slater and Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet at dawn on September 8.
After recovering their bodies from their mountain graves, the Australian government allowed David Wilson's "second kidnapping", when corrupt general Eng Hong stole the truck and rushed the bodies to Phnom Penh, where he had done a personal media deal with a foreign TV group. Eng Hong was never charged over this appalling incident.
While Gareth Evans wept at David Wilson's funeral, neither he nor DFAT attended the one-day inquest on March 5, 1998, at which I gave my evidence on this tragic failure of our hostage policy, nor have they sworn in court that their oft-repeated statements that "there was nothing more the Australian Government could have done for David Wilson" are true and complete.
Alastair Gaisford was consul in the Australian embassy in Cambodia in 1994-95, working on both the Wilkinson and Wilson cases in 1994.
But it is Victorian State Coroner Judge Jennifer Coate who must now turn the key to unlock the truth, which the Wilson family has so doggedly sought since David's kidnapping from a train on July 26, 1994 and murder his 44 days later.
In March 1998, her predecessor, Graeme Johnstone, ordered the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to deliver the complete case file to him but the Rudd government has only just done so, enabling Coate to resume the inquest 12 years later.
I was the consul in Cambodia in 1994 and worked on David's case for the 108 days from his kidnapping to his funeral in Melbourne on November 9, 1994. If Coate has been given the complete Wilson file, she will quickly find the truth, hidden for 15 years by three governments.
David Wilson's death was a total failure of our government's hostage policy — a policy that remains in place today. It is hoped that the inquest into Wilson's death and the call last week from Greens senator Bob Brown for an inquiry into the response from authorities to Australian citizens kidnapped overseas, such as Nigel Brennan in Somalia late last year, leads to a change in the policy.
Gareth Evans admitted to failure in the case of David Wilson: "We failed at the end of the day, for reasons that I think are pretty clear to us all. Of course we failed. And that is a matter of tragedy for all of us."
Yet despite this, Evans denied that Wilson's death was avoidable: "There is nothing more the Australian government could have done, I genuinely don't believe there were any other options available to us at any step along the way than those that we very actively pursued."
An examination of the "secret" DFAT files will show that this is simply not correct. So much more could and should have been done through the month of August 1994 to save David Wilson's life.
The files will reveal that:
* In the four months before David's kidnapping, eight foreigners were kidnapped including three Australians, one of whom, Kellie-Anne Wilkinson, was murdered. Yet our embassy in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh did nothing to warn Australian travellers of the increased risk or to plan strategies to deal with any further kidnappings.
* Gareth Evans, who was in Bangkok the week David Wilson was kidnapped, failed to take our advice to immediately come to Cambodia and use his unique influence and personality on the government to get a personal guarantee that there would be no actions taken that could harm the hostages, before their release.
* Australia's ambassador, Tony Kevin, arrived in Cambodia the week of Wilson's kidnapping, direct from Poland, without any expertise or formal briefing on Cambodia, South-East Asia and consular or hostage management.
* Australia's official "no ransom, no negotiation" policy was a lie as only a week after Wilson's kidnapping, our government had agreed to the Cambodian government's decision to quickly pay the $US150,000 ransom.
* The Australian government then blocked any attempts by the Wilson family and others such as Melbourne businessman Ron Walker to pay a ransom and also dismissed all other third party options for an independent negotiation for release. The Australian government also did nothing to stop any of the six "unofficial" illegal rival negotiations, such as Cambodian army general Eng Hong's personal $1 million deal offer to us in the embassy at Phnom Penh.
* A formal diplomatic agreement with the Cambodian government "not to take any action that would harm the hostages, without our prior consultation and approval" was another lie. The Australian government already knew and approved of a Cambodian government plan for full-scale attack on the hostage mountain, which would place their lives in danger, only a week later.
* The day the Cambodian military first attacked, the Australian ambassador was in Kampot but immediately fled back to Phnom Penh under army/police escort, leaving his consul, me, behind to report to him. That same evening, top Cambodian army generals, arriving in Kampot, confirmed to me "we're here to take the mountain, the hostages are of no consequence".
* The next day, I returned to the capital to give ambassador Kevin this lethal message, yet he and the Australian government did nothing to enforce the diplomatic agreement or try and stop the military attack.
* Evans then again failed to take our advice that he should immediately come to Cambodia to demand that the Cambodian government stop this military action and honour the diplomatic agreement until the hostages were released. Instead, both Evans and prime minister Paul Keating formally agreed in writing to guarantee Cambodia our promised military aid, regardless of the outcome of the hostage situation.
* Meanwhile, the Cambodian government negotiations for the safe release of the hostages for the $US150,000 ransom soon agreed on a release date of August 19. The Cambodian military attack intensified over the next three weeks, while our government did nothing to stop it and denied it was even happening.
The escalation of the military attack led to the murders of David Wilson, Englishman Mark Slater and Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet at dawn on September 8.
After recovering their bodies from their mountain graves, the Australian government allowed David Wilson's "second kidnapping", when corrupt general Eng Hong stole the truck and rushed the bodies to Phnom Penh, where he had done a personal media deal with a foreign TV group. Eng Hong was never charged over this appalling incident.
While Gareth Evans wept at David Wilson's funeral, neither he nor DFAT attended the one-day inquest on March 5, 1998, at which I gave my evidence on this tragic failure of our hostage policy, nor have they sworn in court that their oft-repeated statements that "there was nothing more the Australian Government could have done for David Wilson" are true and complete.
Alastair Gaisford was consul in the Australian embassy in Cambodia in 1994-95, working on both the Wilkinson and Wilson cases in 1994.
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