By Eamonn Duff and John Kidman
June 2 2002
The Sun-Herald
It began as something that has sadly become an almost routine occurrence - a bloody beating meted out to a man believed to be a soldier by a gang of youths who hang out near Holsworthy railway station. But since that April incident, what should have been a footnote in the night log of Liverpool Police has taken on an extraordinary life of its own.
Yesterday, Sydney's leading Lebanese newspaper carried an unprecedented front-page appeal directed at Middle Eastern communities in Punchbowl and Greenacre. It asked for information about home invasions by men in balaclavas.
It will have caused disquiet among some of the most senior police and military officers in Sydney, many of whom are already asking: "Has a group of our most elite troops mounted their own Operation Revenge?"
According to one version of events, up to 40 masked commandos raided the homes of those they thought responsible for the original bashing, terrorising their families. The alleged reprisals were reportedly sparked by the assault of an soldier after he intervened to help a woman being harassed by several Middle Eastern males at the railway station in April.
Holsworthy base personnel have confirmed that the claims are in circulation, but are treating the story with a mixture of concern and scepticism. However, The Sun-Herald has spoken to a security guard who says he found the wounded soldier, and to sources who insist the paybacks did take place.
An Australian Defence Force source, who spoke to The Sun-Herald on condition of anonymity, said several senior Holsworthy officers had been notified and briefed on the affair. "It's suggested the matter started six or eight weeks ago with a woman at Holsworthy station being harassed by a number of men of Middle Eastern appearance," the source said. "Another man, said to have been a soldier, intervened. "He managed to deal with a couple of these blokes but, in the end, had the s*** kicked out of him. "At the time, it's understood that he saw, wrote down or remembered the registration number of a car involved. "It then goes that when he overcame his injuries, some week or two later, some of his mates got together and went and sorted these blokes out."
A number of officers from the base's elite 3RAR and 4RAR battalions had already been informally questioned but expressed no knowledge of the allegations, the ADF spokesman said. "No-one has even turned up anything looking like this kind of incident," he said. "So far, we've drawn a complete blank."
Still, as a second Holsworthy insider said: "They're as thick as thieves in there [the barracks]. It doesn't matter which regiment they belong to, you have to understand, it's all for one and one for all. They all stick together no matter what."
Holsworthy station security guard Ray Fowler said he found the beaten soldier during one of his midweek shifts several weeks ago. "It was about 10pm and I was doing my rounds when I suddenly found this guy lying just outside the station," he said. "He was in a pretty bad way. I told him to lie still. I rang triple 0 and told him an ambulance was on its way. "A little while later, police from Liverpool turned up and asked, `What do you know about it, Ray?' "And I told them, `Absolutely nothing, I never saw it happen'. "It turns out he got off the train and was waiting for a lift home when these guys suddenly pulled up in a car and, bang! he was robbed and bashed."
Holsworthy locals have since given their version of what allegedly followed. "Thirty of these crack commandos went out to Bankstown and Lakemba and busted all these Lebanese up," one said. "I know this because they told me. "They did everyone over and demanded the names of the three Lebanese lads responsible for bashing their own fellow up. "They also warned these guys that double the amount of trouble would come back if they didn't receive the information they wanted. "As far as I know, these Lebanese then turned their own boys over because one of the army guys later said to me, `We got 'em, we got 'em'."
Senior police have been unable to shed any light on either the bashing or the alleged reprisals. Sydney's Al-Bairak Lebanese and Arab newspaper yesterday launched its appeal after receiving a panicked call from a reader claiming that his home and that of his neighbour had been invaded by masked men.
Editor Fernando Francis said the caller said the attacks had happened at Greenacre and Punchbowl. "Lebanese people by nature are not the sort of people to be intimidated or silenced and this is why this particular call shocked me," he said. "This did not sound like your average home invasion. It was something far more sinister." He said the reader had claimed: "They are invading our houses. My house has been invaded by men in masks and my neighbour's house too." Mr Francis said that when he tried to get the caller's name and address, the man was too scared to continue. "I'm still waiting to hear back from him and this concerns me greatly," he said.
