Four Corners: Oct 27

Next Monday on Four Corners Quentin McDermott investigates the ‘green on blue’ killing of three Australian soldiers in Afghanistan: Lance Corporal ‘Rick’ Milosevic, Sapper James Martin and Private Robert Poate.

On the 29th August 2012, three Australian soldiers were gunned down inside their patrol base in Afghanistan. The killer was an Afghan soldier they had been helping to train. They believed he was a comrade in arms. They were wrong.

The soldiers, Lance Corporal ‘Rick’ Milosevic, Sapper James Martin and Private Robert Poate, had been sent to a remote patrol base they knew very little about, amid a surge of ‘green on blue’ attacks by Afghan soldiers on Coalition troops.

Defence maintains there was no failure of intelligence prior to the mission, and that the platoon commanders were responsible for security arrangements on the night in question.

“There was no intelligence available to Australia or the Coalition to suggest there was a specific insider threat.” – Air Marshal Binskin

For two years, Robert Poate’s father, Hugh, has pushed for an independent inquiry to examine the circumstances that led to the death of his son and the other soldiers.

“You see there’s no transparency… it follows that there’s no accountability. Defence have never had to submit to a civilian court before.”

For the past two weeks, a Queensland Coroner has conducted an inquiry which has shed new light on the deadly insider attack.

This week on Four Corners, reporter Quentin McDermott examines the chain of events that led to the killings. He talks to eye witnesses, piecing together what happened on the night. Four Corners also seeks answers from the killer, now held in an Afghan jail.

Four Corners examines allegations that failures in planning and confusion higher up the chain of command may have led to insufficient force protection measures at the time of the attack.

Ultimately the question remains; could the deaths of the three Australians have been prevented?

Monday 27th October at 8:30pm on ABC.