Muddy boots ...

Correspondence with the Prime Minister, the former Defence Minister, Robert Hill, as well as Generals Cosgrove and Leahy, over the past two and a half years, has elicited repeated assurances that such serious allegations remain under investigation, even though it is now seven years since the alleged incidents occurred.

A year ago this week, I wrote a background piece on these allegations called In search of Yani Ndun, wherein I detailed the failure of the Howard Government, the then Minister for Defence, Robert Hill, the Defence establishment and the Australian Army to effectively address the allegations.

In March of this year, following his appointment as Minister for Defence, I wrote to Dr Brendan Nelson, asking him to confirm the status of the investigations.

Last month I received a reply to my most recent inquiry to Dr Brendan Nelson, from his Principal Adviser, Aldo Borgu, informing me, “The matters you have raised are currently being examined, and I will write to you again when I have further information”.

Over the course of the past seven years, Peter Cosgrove rose from the Commander of Interfet forces in East Timor to Chief of the Australian Army and then to Chief of the Australian Defence Force, before retiring from active service last year. Since then he has written a book on his life and launched a second successful career in the corporate world.

For the past three years, Australia has participated in a war against Iraq; a war that gave us, among other things, the obscene experience of Abu Ghraib.

When interviewed by Andrew Denton on the ABC’s Enough Rope in August last year, Peter Cosgrove was invited to share his thoughts on Abu Ghraib …

PETER COSGROVE: Yep. Ah … Abu Ghraib was a real, that was a low point, a low point. I think THE low point is the men and women who lost their lives in the Sea King tragedy. But a low point was the Abu Ghraib thing. I couldn't believe that … an element of the US armed forces would be involved in an improper way like that looking after detainees. I can understand that you don't … mollycoddle people who are detained for one reason or another. But that's light years away from maltreating them. And simply, as that emerged … it sent ripples … through all of the US armed forces, through the United States, through the whole alliance and understandably here in Australia. And … to that degree we were surprised, caught by surprise.

ANDREW DENTON: In war, is torture a legitimate …

PETER COSGROVE: No, absolutely not.

ANDREW DENTON: Never?

PETER COSGROVE: No, you don't descend to that level. You've lost if you maltreat people. Whatever we do, whatever we gain from people, we've got to do so in a way which leaves our morality, our integrity, intact.