UN compo threat as Army delays Timor crash report

The United Nations has threatened to withhold more than $100,000 in compensation to the family of a New Zealand soldier who died in East Timor because the Army has delayed releasing a report of the accident, a UN official says.

Linton-based Staff Sergeant Billy White died last April when a Unimog utility truck in which he was travelling rolled after careering down a 30m bank.

The UN pays $US50,000 ($114,390) compensation to the family of soldiers killed while on peacekeeping missions, but only after holding an inquiry into the death.

It does not begin the inquiry until an investigation from the Army the soldier belonged to has been completed, an official at the UN's Dili headquarters said yesterday.

But the UN had still not received the New Zealand Army's court of inquiry report, the official said.

This contrasts with the less than three months it took to complete the report into the death of Private Leonard Manning.

The official said many people were concerned at the delay, because the UN imposed time limits.

However, Defence Force spokesman Warren Inkster said last night that the delay in sending the report to the UN was not connected to the compensation issue.

The "routine report" had been completed in July, but the Army had difficulty working through UN protocols, and it had not been seen as a high priority, Mr Inkster said.

Mr Inkster said he did not know what the report said, and it would not be made public, as was standard military practice.

A summary of the Manning report was released because of the public interest.

A spokesman for Defence Minister Mark Burton said that to his knowledge, the minister had not been briefed about the Army investigation, which was an internal Defence Force matter.

The Government's involvement was only to guarantee that the UN money would go to the families of deceased soldiers and not remain in state coffers, as was the case in some countries.

The cabinet had signed off that guarantee some time after Christmas.

- NZPA

Herald Online feature: Timor mission

UN Transitional Administration in E Timor