‘Australian soldier told of raping and killing’

Press, 7 August 1976, Page 7

‘Australian soldier told of raping and killing’

NZPA Canberra The Australian Defence Minister (Mr Jim Killen) has stated that he will not order an inquiry into fresh allegations that Australian servicemen killed unarmed civilians in Vietnam until he has the names, numbers, and units of two people who claimed to have evidence of such killings.

A psychiatrist who treated a young soldier soon after he returned from Vietnam, and an air force officer who served in Vietnam are claimed by the Australian Broadcasting Commission to have made sworn declarations on the killing of civilians. The allegations from the two were described on the A.B.C.'s national television programme, “This Day Tonight,” but neither of the people was named or appeared. Mr Killen claimed yesterday that he had been told the people would be named but this has been denied by an A.B.C. executive who said the names would be given to the Minister when the terms of an inquiry had been announced. An inquiry into the first massacre report, made by the former Australian Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Jim Cairns, has already been announced.

One of the fresh allegations came from a psychiatrist, who treated a young soldier soon after he returned from Vietnam. The other came from a man who said he was an air force officer in Vietnam, and I personally involved in one of the incidents he described. Neither of these people actually appeared on air, but an A.B.C. journalist, June Heffernan, said she had statutory declarations from both. Miss Heffernan said the psychiatrist had said he had treated the soldier, who had complained of anxiety. The psychiatrist said he had interviewed the soldier, under ether, with the soldier’s permission. The psychiatrist said the soldier had told him, while under the influence of ether, that he had — while in Vietnam, with a small group of other Australian soldiers — raped women, and shot unarmed women and children.

The psychiatrist, said he did not know the exact number of civilians involved, but that his impression was that it was somewhere between 10 and 20.

The psychiatrist said the information was privileged, but like most privileged information would be available to certain authorities, perhaps on the order of a judge in court.

The second allegation came from an officer who is still serving in the Australian Air Force, according to the declaration. The man said he had reported the sighting to headquarters, and had been ordered to engage them. The people had been outside their designated area and walking towards Highway 15.

The man said he had tried by several means to stop them, including firing in front of them, and hovering next to them, indicating for them to stop.

The man said he had kept reporting back to headquarters, and on each occasion had been told to engage them. “Eventually, I told my gunner to shoot the man leading the group,” the man is reported to have said. “Even when he fell the others continued to walk towards the highway. “I then had no alternative but to shoot the remainder. During the incident, no retaliatory action was taken by the Vietnamese.” "In the second incident, which he had not been personally involved in, the army had caught “quite a number” of civilians (from memory, about 20) in an ambush east of Nui Dat. At a subsequent briefing he had been told that the civilians were, in fact, unarmed. “I would like to point out that the army was quite correct in setting up the ambush,” the man is reported to have said. “The Vietnamese were outside their designated area.”