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| Kylie Russell. Image below Kylie and Andrew. |
Something diabolical happened in Canberra on Thursday. Prime Minister John Howard secretly dumped our protocols for visits by foreign leaders to construct a wholly party political event – a stunt – for the glory of himself. He didn’t tell you, but he decided that President Bush’s visit was not “a state visit” to thank Australia for helping him invade Iraq but a “government” one. This answers many queries from readers about why our head of state, the Governor-General, wasn’t Mr Bush’s host in Australia, and why Simon Crean was not invited to George Bush’s visit to the War Memorial or to the Bush barbecue.
It also explains why Kylie Russell was neither invited to see Bush lay a wreath for her husband at the War Memorial or even notified about it.
You’d have to be thinking on the purest of dehumanised political levels to either forget or deliberately snub the man’s widow. And you’d have to have kept your plans so secret that the bodies normally in the loop – the Australian Defence Force and Australian War Memorial – didn’t know about it.
I checked with both organisations today and neither knew anything of the ceremony for Sgt Russell until Bush mentioned it in his speech to Parliament just before driving to the War Memorial. The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet simply told the War Memorial at a meeting late last month to prepare a general wreath laying ceremony and not to lay on the pomp and ceremony because “this is not a state visit”. The wreath itself does not mention Sgt Russell’s name, and although Mr Bush said he would lay it, he didn’t. He never even touched it – the wreath was laid by two men in his entourage.
The War Memorial spokesperson said: “If we had been told, we would have suggested that Mrs Russell and her [baby] daughter be involved.”
John Howard’s actions speak louder than the thousands of fine words he’s uttered in countless welcome home tea parties for our troops. He cares about the political points he can get from being close to Bush and being seen with our troops. His rhetoric is empty.
There is one other explanation – that Bush decided to lay the wreath for Sgt Russell and did not tell Howard. Bush said in his speech: “… in Afghanistan, the first casualty among America’s allies was Australian: Special Air Service Sergeant Andrew Russell. “This afternoon, I will lay a wreath at the Australian War Memorial, in memory of Sergeant Russell and the long line of Australians who have died in service to this nation.”
If Howard hadn’t known until that moment, it would confirm growing evidence that in our capital and our Parliament he handed all decision making to the White House and that it responded with deserved contempt. It would also mean that Howard didn’t have the guts to tell Bush it wasn’t on in the absence of the dead soldier’s wife and daughter, and that Bush’s staff didn’t have the common decency to consider the dead man’s widow when making their plan.
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| Kylie and Andrew. |
Kylie Russell doesn’t want to speak to the media today. She has spoken out previously about the lack of appropriate entitlements for SAS officers killed in action or in training, and she and others wonder whether that’s why she wasn’t invited. Now she just wants to be left alone, after writing a letter to The West Australian newspaper:
Mrs Russell said yesterday she was told Mr Bush had laid a wreath in her husband’s honour while she was grocery shopping on Thursday.
She was honoured Mr Bush had paid tribute to her husband but devastated she was not invited to the ceremony. “What do you do in that situation – do you just stand there or go and finish the grocery shopping before going home and falling apart?” she said.
“I don’t know if I wasn’t invited because I have been a thorn in Mr Howard’s side, but if so I hope he can live with himself after denying me and my daughter an opportunity to be part of something we would have remembered forever. No apology will bring that back.”
Western Australian Labor MP Graham Edwards, a Vietnam War veteran, broke the news to Mrs Russell after Bush’s speech. He wrote to the Prime Minister the next day:
Hon John Howard
Prime Minister
Parliament House
Canberra 2600
Dear Prime Minister
I write to urge you to contact the widow of Sgt Andrew Russell and apologise for her not being not invited to attend the wreath-laying ceremony in honour of her husband at the War Memorial.
Mrs Russell was distressed that she had no prior knowledge of this event, until she was advised by media outlets about the mention of her husband in President Bush’s address to Parliament.
I am not sure whether Mrs Russell would have wanted to make the trip. I am sure, however, that she would have liked to have been advised and at least invited.
I contrast your dealings with her to your dealings with the victims of Bali. Those who lost loved ones and those who were victims in Bali have been brought to Canberra on two occasions and quite deservedly treated with a great deal of compassion, sympathy and given much support in the process of healing.
Why was Mrs Russell not extended the same comfort and support at this most important time when both you and the President of the United States made much of the sacrifices of our Defence personnel?
Mrs Russell is a constituent of mine and I know she has been very active in seeking a better deal for war widows and that she has at times been critical of you, your Government and your Ministers.
I believe the people of Australia would be affronted if this is the reason she was not invited to attend the ceremony at the War Memorial or the barbeque at The Lodge.
You may not have known that the President was going to mention Sgt Russell, although I would be surprised if you did not. You certainly knew, however, that members of the Australian Defence Forces who have been involved in the war against terrorism were invited to the Australian War Memorial for the wreath-laying ceremony.
Mrs Russell should have been extended the same courtesy and she deserves your apology.
Yours sincerely
Graham Edwards
But don’t expect accountability from John Howard. The West Australian reports today:
“It was an oversight and the Prime Minister will be writing to her to apologise,” Mr Howard’s spokesman said.
An oversight???????? I rang Howard spin doctor David Luff to ask how on earth that could be so. He opened with the standard line: “It was an oversight that she wasn’t invited.”
“How could you forget to invite the widow?” I asked in disbelief.
There was a long silence. “That’s all I want to say. We’re going to write to her and it’s best not to discuss it until she receives the letter.”
He had to be joking, right?
Will you write today, I asked? “Shortly”. Today? “Shortly” Today? “Shortly.”
When did the government know the wreath was going to be laid for Mrs Russell’s husband?
Long silence. “We’re writing to Mrs Russell so it’s not appropriate – “
“That’s not the question I asked.”
Long silence. I finally broke it by asking if he could put me through to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet person organising the trip who might be able to help. He said he’d get back to me.
He won’t, of course. I’m afraid that if you want to get the truth from this profane Prime Minister you’ll have to contact Mr Howard’s office yourself. Good luck.
Here are the Sydney Morning Herald stories on the death of Sgt Russell and his funeral.
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Cosgrove laments soldiers ‘rotten’ death in combat
Sydney Morning Herald, 19 February 2002, Source AAP, The West Australian
The Army is coming to terms with a tragedy it has not faced in a generation: a death in combat, with the loss of a soldier in Afghanistan our first battlefield fatality since Vietnam.
The Chief of the Army, Lieutenant-General Peter Cosgrove, said the service was mourning the death of Special Air Service Trooper Andrew Russell, who was killed by a landmine at the weekend. “It’s a great tragedy, a young soldier in the prime of his life who was serving his country and was cut down by a rotten landmine,” he said. “I just feel awful for his family and his loved ones and his colleagues.”
General Cosgrove said morale remained high, and that Trooper Russell’s colleagues would get on with their work in Afghanistan. “They’re professional soldiers; they’ll mourn, they may say a quiet prayer, they’ll feel very sorry for their comrade and his loved ones,” he said.
Although many defence personnel have died during peacekeeping missions, Trooper Russell’s death is the first in combat since the Vietnam War. He was stationed at the SAS’s Campbell Barracks in Perth when he was deployed to Afghanistan. The base is home to about 800 SAS members, although 150 are in Afghanistan, part of the 1550-strong Australian force.
Bart Maverick, a former member of the SAS and president of the West Australian branch of the SAS Association, said Trooper Russell’s comrades in Perth were stunned. “Even though you expect this sort of thing to happen in the dangerous environment they work in, it is still a terrible shock to lose someone,” Mr Maverick said.
Trooper Russell’s body is likely to be returned to Perth later this week, and he is entitled to a funeral with full military honours. It is not yet known whether his family will opt for the military funeral.
His widow, Kylie, gave birth two weeks ago to the couple’s daughter, Leisa Abigail, who was born after Trooper Russell was deployed to Afghanistan. Ms Russell,who lives in suburban Perth, has asked the media for privacy.
Trooper Russell was travelling in a vehicle with four other soldiers when they drove over an anti-tank mine in southern Afghanistan late on Saturday night. The other soldiers escaped but Trooper Russell was critically hurt, and died shortly after arriving at a United States military hospital.
Political leaders expressed their sympathies to his family yesterday, with the Defence Minister, Senator Robert Hill, saying the incident highlighted the dangers faced by Australian forces in Afghanistan.
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Last Post for first Australian military casualty of war on terrorism
Sydney Morning Herald, March 2, 2002, Source AAP
Australia’s first military casualty in the war against terrorism was farewelled yesterday by his widow and the baby he never knew.
Special Air Service Regiment Sergeant Andrew Russell, 33, was lowered into his grave as the strains of the Last Post, played by a uniformed soldier, rang through the tranquil surrounds of Pinaroo Valley Memorial Park in northern Perth.
His casket, draped with an Australian flag, was carried to the grave on top of a gun carriage towed by an army vehicle decked with flowers. The procession followed a private ceremony, attended by about 200 family and friends.
After a short graveside ceremony, mourners wept as they watched his widow, Kylie, holding the couple’s month-old baby, Leisa Abigail, place two red roses into her husband’s grave.
Sergeant Russell never saw his daughter.
He was killed on February 16 after the vehicle in which he was travelling struck a landmine in southern Afghanistan. His body was returned to Australia last week and was received by members of the elite SAS Regiment with full military honours. In Afghanistan, Sergeant Russell’s body had been farewelled by his mates, as bagpipes wailed across a remote desert air base.
Originally from Adelaide, Sergeant Russell was stationed at SAS headquarters in Perth at the time of his deployment to join the fight against terrorism.
Yesterday’s ceremony was a private affair at the request of the family, who chose to bury Sergeant Russell in a grassy grave surrounded by bushland and kangaroos.