I read WAR CRIMINALS WELCOME by Mark Aarons a couple yrs back (which came out at the same time as the Konrad kalejs controversy was raging- for non-Aussies, Kalejs was a Latvian immigrant who'd been discovered during 1941-45 to have served as a member of the fascist ARAJS KOMMANDO who rounded up and butchered most of Latvia's Jewish population), which detailed how Australia was an unrestricted safe haven for Nazi war criminals after WWII, with thousands of mass-murderers from Germany, central and eastern Europe, the Balkans and the Baltic being allowed to emigrate to Australia without any questions asked as to their previous records. Into the 1950s and 60s, evidence did emerge of the extent to which such war criminals had been allowed in, but the Australian govt took no action on the grounds that such ex-Nazis and Nazi collaborators were useful allies during Cold War due to their anti-Communist credentials, and many were even hired by ASIO (Australia's equivalent of the FBI) to monitor possible Communist subversion within their own ethnic communities. These fascist individuals exported their extremist views in full into their new homeland, including most prominently with Dr Lenko Urbancic, the Slovenian collaborationist propaganda minister during WWII, who during the 60s and 70s became involved in protesting against Australia's anti-apartheid stance towards Rhodesia and South Africa, and who argued against increased nonwhite immigration under the new multiculturalism policy, and Srecko Rover, a Croat who served in an USTASE mobile killing squad which conducted show trials and executions of Jews and Serbs, and later became involved during the 60s with trying to establish an anti-Communist guerilla group to topple Tito in Yugoslavia, including with establishing a training camp at Bonegilla, Vic, for likeminded Croat emigres.
Only during the late 80s was action belatedly taken, when the Hawke govt i n 1987 established a Special Investigations Unit (SIU) to investigate and prosecute suspected war criminals in Australia. By 1992, the SIU had only managed to conduct a total of 4 prosecutions- against Polyukohovich, Berezhovsky and Wagner, all Ukrainian immigrants who'd participated in Nazi deathsquads during WWII, and another guy whose name I don't recall- all of which were unsuccessful due to problems with the reliability of witness testimony and the advanced age of all parties concerned, and the succeeding Keating govt shut down the SIU. Since then, Australia's had no legislation or other measures at all to facilitate criminal action and criminal accountability against suspected war criminals, with the exception of some minor immigration law rules which allow for the non-admittance of intending immigrants if they have any record of participating in war crimes or lie about it. There've also been anecdotal accounts that war criminals from more recent conflicts such as Cambodia, Chile, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Rwanda and East Timor have found refuge in Australia, including where some former victims have actually seen and recognised their former persecutors in the street, and no action's been taken by the Cth govt- 1 such case was that of Phiny Ung, a Cambodian immigrant who saw the Khmer Rouge commander who'd been responsible for the death of her father, and which case came to light in 1994 on the 7:30 REPORT, but over which nothing eventuated. In addition, there were cases in 1991-95 of Australian citizens of Croatian and Serbian extraction going back to fight for their mother countries, the most notorious of whom was Melbourne Serb Dragan Vasiljkovic, a former gangster and Army reservist who took on the sobriquet 'Captain Dragan' and led a paramilitary outfit involved in ethnic cleansing against non-Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia during 1991-93- to this day he resides in Belgrade.
AFAIK the Australian govt hasn't lifted a finger to investigate or bring to account such individuals, giving Australia arguably the poorest record of any Western country in attempting to identify and bring to justice accused war criminals. Compare Australia's inaction with other Western countries like the USA (thru the Demjanjuk case, despite the misidentification disaster), Belgium (with its highly expansive war crimes prosecution law used against Rwandan citizens resident in Belgium who were involved in the 1994 genocide and the murder of Belgian peacekeepers), Italy (trial of Erich Priebke for the 1943 Ardentine Caves massacre), France (trial of Klaus Barbie, 'Butcher of Lyon' in 1983), and Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Austria (who have prosecuted several war crimes suspects from the Balkan Wars, and which in Germany's case contributed to the Int'l War Crimes Tribunal's 1st case with the arrest and extradition to the Hague of Serb militiaman Dusko Tadic in 1995-96). When Australia ratified the ICC Statute in 2002, the domestic legislation did allow for the prosecution of war criminals domestically, and belatedly made genocide a crime in Australian law, but isn't retroactive in its operation, meaning that individuals suspected of committing atrocities prior to the date of ratification can't be prosecuted.
WI somehow from the 50s or 60s the Australian govt decided to become serious about prosecuting Nazis who'd found refuge in Australia, when evidence and witnesses were available ? How much better would've been Australia's record into the 80s and 90s in bringing both Nazis and war criminals from other conflicts to justice ? WI the SIU had been more successful, or if it had been retained into the 90s and had expanded powers to prosecute war criminals outside of 1939-45 ?
Only during the late 80s was action belatedly taken, when the Hawke govt i n 1987 established a Special Investigations Unit (SIU) to investigate and prosecute suspected war criminals in Australia. By 1992, the SIU had only managed to conduct a total of 4 prosecutions- against Polyukohovich, Berezhovsky and Wagner, all Ukrainian immigrants who'd participated in Nazi deathsquads during WWII, and another guy whose name I don't recall- all of which were unsuccessful due to problems with the reliability of witness testimony and the advanced age of all parties concerned, and the succeeding Keating govt shut down the SIU. Since then, Australia's had no legislation or other measures at all to facilitate criminal action and criminal accountability against suspected war criminals, with the exception of some minor immigration law rules which allow for the non-admittance of intending immigrants if they have any record of participating in war crimes or lie about it. There've also been anecdotal accounts that war criminals from more recent conflicts such as Cambodia, Chile, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Rwanda and East Timor have found refuge in Australia, including where some former victims have actually seen and recognised their former persecutors in the street, and no action's been taken by the Cth govt- 1 such case was that of Phiny Ung, a Cambodian immigrant who saw the Khmer Rouge commander who'd been responsible for the death of her father, and which case came to light in 1994 on the 7:30 REPORT, but over which nothing eventuated. In addition, there were cases in 1991-95 of Australian citizens of Croatian and Serbian extraction going back to fight for their mother countries, the most notorious of whom was Melbourne Serb Dragan Vasiljkovic, a former gangster and Army reservist who took on the sobriquet 'Captain Dragan' and led a paramilitary outfit involved in ethnic cleansing against non-Serbs in Croatia and Bosnia during 1991-93- to this day he resides in Belgrade.
AFAIK the Australian govt hasn't lifted a finger to investigate or bring to account such individuals, giving Australia arguably the poorest record of any Western country in attempting to identify and bring to justice accused war criminals. Compare Australia's inaction with other Western countries like the USA (thru the Demjanjuk case, despite the misidentification disaster), Belgium (with its highly expansive war crimes prosecution law used against Rwandan citizens resident in Belgium who were involved in the 1994 genocide and the murder of Belgian peacekeepers), Italy (trial of Erich Priebke for the 1943 Ardentine Caves massacre), France (trial of Klaus Barbie, 'Butcher of Lyon' in 1983), and Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and Austria (who have prosecuted several war crimes suspects from the Balkan Wars, and which in Germany's case contributed to the Int'l War Crimes Tribunal's 1st case with the arrest and extradition to the Hague of Serb militiaman Dusko Tadic in 1995-96). When Australia ratified the ICC Statute in 2002, the domestic legislation did allow for the prosecution of war criminals domestically, and belatedly made genocide a crime in Australian law, but isn't retroactive in its operation, meaning that individuals suspected of committing atrocities prior to the date of ratification can't be prosecuted.
WI somehow from the 50s or 60s the Australian govt decided to become serious about prosecuting Nazis who'd found refuge in Australia, when evidence and witnesses were available ? How much better would've been Australia's record into the 80s and 90s in bringing both Nazis and war criminals from other conflicts to justice ? WI the SIU had been more successful, or if it had been retained into the 90s and had expanded powers to prosecute war criminals outside of 1939-45 ?