Remember the three CARE Australia aid workers who were detained in Yugoslavia for months in 1999? Two of them are now suing the charity for "negligence" that led to their detainment. They are hoping to reach an out of court settlement before the case is brought forward in a year.
Peter Wallace told reporters:
"There were omissions of actions and actions by employees of CARE which we consider were negligent. CARE as our employer has a duty of care to us."
The third detainee, Steve Pratt, is implicated as one of those people, as his reports used military language due to his experience in the military, but has been neither sued or named - Wallace says he "do[isn't] want to get into individuals." Pratt doesn't seem to think there are any grounds for legal action.
"We were in a country which was at war and in war organisations military, civilian and otherwise are generally overstretched and are doing the best they can possibly do. So we found ourselves in a position, of course, where we were trying to read what dangers were coming our way and we were managing the best that we possibly could. So I don't quite understand the nature of their concerns at all in seeking compensation from CARE Australia in what were very, very difficult circumstances."
He's right, of course. There is absolutely no reason for Wallace and Branko Jelen to pursue legal action against CARE Australia. In fact I think it is terrible that they have decided to go down that path. I can think of no motive other than greed. They were in a war-torn country doing humanitarian work, the risk of imprisonment on trumped-up charges is part of their job. Everyone was trying their best and they happened to be unlucky.
Furthermore, suing CARE Australia will only be taking food from the mouths of hungry children and hamper the charity from functioning at a capacity that allows them to do the work they do. It's a charity, what are they thinking? This is abhorrent.