MITCHELL:
In our Canberra studio, the Prime Minister, Mr Howard good morning.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning.
MITCHELL:
What does a Prime Minister think when he is woken up in the middle of the night?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I didn't mind given the circumstances, for heaven's sake.
MITCHELL:
But you would immediately think that something enormous happened?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it was not too late, I think it was about half-past-eleven or something, I am not quite sure of the time. Brendan had spoken to me earlier and had told me about the mix-up and he rang me later and said that Mrs Kovco had wanted to speak to me and I said of course. She was very distressed, she was very angry, she was very upset and all of that is totally understandable. She has been through the anguish of losing her husband; with two tiny children, trying to explain to her four-year-old boy that your father is not coming back anymore, that is a terrible trauma. On top of that you have this situation, I felt desperately sorry for her, I still do, I said so. I felt sorry for her late husband's parents who are also going through this terrible upset and to have this additional painful, unexpected aggravation is really more than you can expect anybody to bear and I fully understood how she felt, heavens above. My convenience in the matter is totally irrelevant.
MITCHELL:
What did she say to you?
PRIME MINISTER:
She said she was very angry about it and she wanted everything done to try and get her husband's body home as soon as possible and I understand that. I think people in a situation like that have got a perfect right to feel angry and upset, it is just one of those incredibly unfortunate things. I feel for people in the Army who have been involved in some way with the handling of the body. It would appear on the information I have been given that it wasn't the fault of anybody in the Army, but it happened. I understand how people feel and in those situations they've got a right to express their anger, if they want to express it to me, I mean I am the person in the end who's, I guess, more than anybody else responsible for people in uniform being overseas. I am the head of the Government, I ultimately have to accept responsibility more than anybody else in the country for sending people abroad. I therefore feel very personally whenever anybody is killed or injured, even though in this particular case he was not killed on the battlefield, he did not die under enemy fire, he nonetheless died on active service.
MITCHELL:
He is a war related death
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course it is and he is there because the Government I lead sent him there. I accept that, I have never sought to evade that responsibility, never.
MITCHELL:
Were you angry as well when you were told what had happened?
PRIME MINISTER:
Of course I was, of course I was. But I felt more concerned for Mrs Kovco and for her parents in-law and all of the other members of the family, of course I was upset. It's one of those things that you never dream could happen, you think it is tragic and it's enough that the poor man's life has been lost, but then on top of that you have this. But it has happened and we're now doing our level best to get the body back as quickly as possible. I don't want to go into the detail of that, in that Brendan Nelson is across it. I've been tied up at a meeting on something else over the last couple of hours and I know Brendan's spoken to you and I know arrangements are being made as soon as humanly possible and all the avenues are being explored.
I do want to say though that from the information I've been given, the criticism oughtn't to be sheeted home of course to any of Private Kovco's Army mates and so forth. It does appear as though there was a mistake made when the body was in the civilian mortuary in Kuwait. Now that's based on what I've been told and obviously there will be a proper inquiry and that will get to the bottom of it. But I feel very much for the family above everybody else. They've got the grief of losing their loved one and on top of that they have this. I also feel very deeply for Private Kovco's Army friends because they will be feeling the double anguish and whenever you're an Army mate and you're involved in some part of the process of dealing with a body you think 'gee, did I make a mistake? Did I do something wrong?' and I just hope they don't feel that because it doesn't appear as though any blame can be attached to them.
MITCHELL:
There was of course a body escort. Is there anything else that can be done for Jake Kovco's family? Is there anything else we can do now?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well the best thing that we can do is get the body back as quickly as possible and there are obviously coronial formalities that must be gone through and then of course there will be a military funeral. I know she's receiving a lot of support from her late husband's regimental Army colleagues and in circumstances like this, the people with whom her husband worked and associated and fought are the best friends that she can have.
There are different ways obviously through the designated levels of assistance and compensation that will be made available, but there's no point in my going into these at this time. Providing moral support to the family, and I just want to say, again, how incredibly sorry I am for what has happened and I wish that in some way I could have altered it, but I can't. It has happened and I want Mrs Kovco to know that on behalf of the Government we are desperately sorry for what's occurred. We'll find out what happened. We do not believe on the information available that the Army is to blame, but that's small comfort to her because she's lost her husband and now she's got to wait another potentially 48 hours to see his body.
MITCHELL:
Of course there's another family somewhere in the world...
PRIME MINISTER:
Indeed.
MITCHELL:
Is it appropriate, or would you be speaking to the leader of the other country where that body comes from?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I'd need to have more information about the identity of the person before I can answer that question. Obviously there is another family somewhere else in the world that's grieving as a result of this. It may turn out that, I just don't know what the...
MITCHELL:
Do you know the nationality of the fellow?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well it's been suggested to me that it's a nationality from eastern Europe but I'm not, that's not been confirmed.
MITCHELL:
Prime Minister thank you very much for your help.
PRIME MINISTER:
Okay.
MITCHELL:
Prime Minister John Howard in the Canberra studio.
[ends]