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A soldier in training
A military drill. The Australian defence force’s alleged handling of a controversial training course has prompted one ex-soldier to complain to the Australian Human Rights Commission. Photograph: Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images
A military drill. The Australian defence force’s alleged handling of a controversial training course has prompted one ex-soldier to complain to the Australian Human Rights Commission. Photograph: Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images

At least 45 Australian soldiers killed themselves after PoW training, inquiry told

This article is more than 1 year old

ADF has never investigated whether course in coping with being interrogated or tortured was linked to deaths, royal commission hears

At least 45 Australian defence force personnel who attended training to deal with potentially being captured, interrogated and tortured, subsequently killed themselves, an inquiry has been told.

But the force is yet to investigate whether the training was a direct trigger for the deaths in the two decades since 2001.

Colonel Simon Dowse, from the Defence School of Intelligence, told the royal commission into defence and veteran suicide that the force’s conduct after capture (CAC) courses were designed to help members cope if kidnapped or taken hostage.

To his knowledge, Dowse said on Wednesday, no ADF members had been captured.

There had also never been a study to establish whether exposure to the training course put members at higher risk of killing themselves.

“Given the very serious nature of people dying by suicide, does it not occur to you or your colleagues or the ADF as an institution that that’s a sufficiently high number to warrant an inquiry … into whether or not CAC training creates risk factors for suicide?” counsel assisting the commission Peter Singleton said.

Dowse responded: “For me, the numbers start at one, when it comes to being tragic, they really do.”

The inquiry, in its third day of hearings at Wagga Wagga, was told participants in the course had to sign consent forms that warned: “I shall be subjected to a close simulation of the type of treatment I might expect to receive as a prisoner of war.”

The “authorised stressors” included that “it may be required I remove my clothing”.

Pressed by Singleton about other “potentially more severe or more distressing aspects” of the training, Dowse said he was constrained from answering questions that would give Australia’s “adversaries an advantage”.

“Do trainees ever start talking in an incoherent manner, suggestive of stress, or at all?” Singleton said.

Dowse replied: “Trainees can and have talked to themselves. It’s not common. Often it’s found to be people singing, although it’s not songs as we know it.”

“It is … part of their coping mechanism, trying to think of every song they ever heard from year 4 and sing it, just to help deal with the environment they find themselves in,” he said. “That’s in line with what we suggest by way of coping strategies.”

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Guardian Australian reported in September allegations from a former soldier, Damien De Pyle, that the highest-level torture training program had caused debilitating and unnecessary trauma to some Australian soldiers by forcing them into shocking acts of humiliation, including the simulated rape of child dolls and masturbating sex toys over bibles.

The 45 deaths among those who attended CAC courses since 2001 related to all three levels of training – A, B and C.

The ADF’s alleged handling of the most controversial conduct after capture level C course – which includes mock interrogations – has prompted De Pyle to complain to the Australian Human Rights Commission and prepare a federal court case challenging its legality.

De Pyle said on Wednesday: “These 45 suicides are extremely tragic, but if they were caused by the conduct after capture course, are not surprising. Complaints about this course have been raised as early as 2005 when Cameron Murphy AM said torturing our own soldiers in this course was unacceptable.”

“Most soldiers who have raised complaints want sensible reforms made to this course so that no one will be traumatised again and potentially take their own life,” he said.

“This course is a national tragedy that has been hidden from the public for too long. Torture, sexual assault and moral injury are never okay. The government and opposition needs to take this seriously and start speaking with us veterans about reforming this course. We will continue to hold this government to account until reforms are made.”

The royal commission hearings continue as the body investigates the treatment of past and present defence force personnel and their dealings with agencies in charge of providing support.

  • In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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