The Federal Government has spent $22.6 million on war-crimes investigation since 1987.
Of that $19.2 million was by the special investigations unit; $2.2 million by the Director of Public Prosecutions and $1.2 million in legal aid to the accused.
There is now only one case before the courts. A trial is expected later this year. After that, there will be no more war crimes trials or investigation by Australian authorities, though there have been calls to change the War Crimes Act to make it apply to all conflicts. At present it applies only to the European theatre of World War II.
Bob Greenwood, QC, who headed the now disbanded special investigations unit on war crimes until April, 1991, criticised the Government for dropping one case of alleged multiple murders by a man, now an Australian citizen who lives in Melbourne. It only required a small amount of money to wrap up the evidence, but “”the Government pulled rug out. He could have stood trial for thousands of deaths.”
He agrees that “”there is a time when you say there is a price for justice beyond which it is not acceptable to go”. However, the legislation put it in place by the Parliament and the government had responsibility to investigate.
“”If it thought it too costly, it should have gone back to Parliament for it to be done in the democratic way,” he said.
The bureaucrats had tried to keep the lid on the costs.
Compared with costs in other cases, Mr Greenwood argued the costs were not great, compared to the crimes and bearing in mind the allegations were being made against people who were now Australian citizens.
Mr Greenwood says there is now a real chance that eastern European countries will start seeking extradition of Australian citizens that Australian authorities won’t deal with. He was sure they would get a fair trial now and would not be executed: the two blocks against earlier requests for extradition.
Mr Greenwood wants to see war crimes legislation for all conflicts. He fears that there are probably Cambodians in Australia, possibly now citizens, who had taken part in the Pol Pot horrors and citizens who might have taken in ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia.