New Zealander's body visually examined by UN, Goff says

Phil Goff

The body of New Zealander Hamish Sands, who died in an Ivory Coast prison, has been visually examined by a United Nations (UN) team and moves are being made for a full autopsy, Foreign Minister Phil Goff said today.

Mystery still surrounds the cause of the Hawke's Bay man's death.

The New Forces rebels, who had been holding Mr Sands, 36, since March 11, said he died of natural causes on Monday but Mr Goff said yesterday there was an early report he might have committed suicide.

He said foul play was a third possibility that could not be ruled out.

Mr Goff said today he hoped Mr Sands' body could be transferred from the rebel-held city of Bouake to proper morgue facilities in the government-held capital city of Abidjan, in the south.

The three-person UN team, which included a surgeon, had not examined Mr Sands internally and this needed to be done to help determine cause of death, Mr Goff said.

"We're now negotiating to get the body out (of Bouake) -- the head of the UN agency is working with the FN (crct) (New Forces) and he's confident the body will be released," Mr Goff told National Radio.

The New Zealand Government had been working with the government of South Africa, where the New Forces leader was in talks, to secure his co-operation.

"We'll then be taking the body to Abidjan, a five-hour road journey, and we have arranged with the Canadians who are represented there to organise for admission of the body to a refrigerated morgue in a hospital," Mr Goff said.

After an autopsy, the Government would try to get Mr Sands' body to New Zealand, as his family wished.

Mr Sands was found dead in his cell in the town of Korhogo. He had been transferred there from a Bouake prison last Friday.

Mr Goff said today comments that the Government had not done enough to help Mr Sands were "ignorant".

"It's funny, last week the media were saying we were helping too much," he said.

"Right from the start we have been in touch with the Red Cross, the UN, and the British embassy... Hamish actually said he wanted no involvement from the British embassy or the New Zealand Government, but we continued to make efforts on behalf of his family."

Mr Sands' sister, Catherine Sands-Wearing, said yesterday the family did not believe he had been suicidal. She thanked the Government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for their efforts.

Mr Sands, whose full name was Brian Hamish Thomas Sands, was being held on the claim he had told rebels he had planned to assassinate their leaders.

The New Forces, who have run Ivory Coast's northern region since a 2002 rebellion, said Mr Sands had told them he had served in the French Foreign Legion and had been a New Zealand army captain.

Mr Goff said there was no record of him having served in New Zealand, and he was only with the French Foreign Legion for 10 months, before he was dismissed for unpredictable and unstable behaviour.

His family believe mental health problems were the reason for Mr Sands' actions.

Amnesty International New Zealand said in a statement today that three weeks ago it had issued an "urgent action" on behalf of Mr Sands, fearing he was in grave danger of torture and ill-treatment.

It urged the New Forces to carry out an impartial and independent investigation into his death.

Meanwhile, friends and associates are remembering the man at the centre of this affair.

Robert Walker, 41, of Carterton, who spent six years with Mr Sands in Australia in the 1990s, described Mr Sands as a "happy go lucky guy".

He said Mr Sands' ex-partner, Lisa, the mother of their 16-year-old daughter Leah, had called him on Tuesday night to tell him of the death.

"Until then I sort of had hope because the Red Cross was in there," Mr Walker said.

He said Mr Sands was "a very brainy, intelligent guy" who carried a briefcase and checked the stock market listings, and the idea of him committing suicide sounded out of character.

"To take his own life, from when I knew him, not in a million years would he do a thing like that."

During their time in the Australian outback, they had enjoyed going shooting.

Mr Walker said Mr Sands had a temper, but was generally a happy-go-lucky guy who never got into punch-ups.

He did have strong views on how governments treated certain groups.

"He used to dress up in old army gear every now and then."

Mr Walker said Mr Sands was adopted and was not close to his family, who lived in Havelock North.

Mr Walker had also heard that Mr Sands had a son to a Swedish woman.


- NZPA