New Zealand drifts further away from the ANZUS alliance:
An Australian SAS soldier charged with misconduct for allegedly kicking the corpse of an East Timorese militiaman was cleared by a military tribunal after the case against him collapsed. A defence force magistrate found the soldier not guilty of the charge after the prosecution was unable to proceed because Australian authorities could not guarantee anonymity for the soldier’s accusers from New Zealand Special Forces. The allegations centred on a gun battle on October 6, 1999, near Suai on East Timor’s border with West Timor, in which two militiamen were killed, nine wounded and more than 100 captured. Two SAS troops were also wounded in the firefight. The unidentified soldier was facing four charges of misconduct arising from complaints about his behaviour in the aftermath of the ambush. "The Defence Force magistrate decided that the identity of those New Zealand witnesses could not be protected to the extent required by New Zealand Defence Force," army spokesman Gerard Fogarty told ABC radio. "He could not do that without adversely impacting on the proper administration of justice." |