War Crime – Murder, an individual’s accountability

The arrest of Ben Roberts-Smith, however imminent, seemed only too real for a public that’s been raised on a regular diet of the Anzac myth, the valiant, gallant, moral, and unflinchingly courageous hero soldier sacrificing all to protect the values of kin and country. In fact, of course, Mr Roberts-Smith is not the first Australian defence force veteran to be charged with war crimes under Australian law. Oliver Schulz, another Afghanistan war veteran, is slated to stand trial in 2027. He is charged with shooting dead an unarmed non-combatant or civilian. The evidence provided That it’s the media that’s brought about this historic investigation and prosecution into the actions of an Australian Army veteran au combat is both the most interesting and also most disenchanting aspect of the saga. The charge of War Crimes – Murder under s268.70 of the Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth) carries a hefty punition of life imprisonment, which is, given the essence of the crime, just and appropriate, as its commission violates a cross section of legal principles in both the domestic and international contexts, as well moral and ethical humanitarian codes. And yet, the question for those of us who might still aspire to a time of idealistic naivete, why is, as always, the fourth estate tasked with this endeavour, in bringing about truths that must be let up to the light, as it has been with similar controversies in our society? It’s that it must fall to the dogged determination of journalists who look like they haven’t had decent sleep in decades before meaningful change follows? Whistleblowers and the media together looks set to test not just Australia’s domestic criminal codes but eventually change the face of international criminal law.