Depressed Digger Who Signed On As A Terrorist Leaves His Family In Shock
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday March 7, 2002
Residents in Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast speak highly of the Stewart family and are amazed at reports that one of three brothers, Mathew, joined the al-Qaeda terrorist network in Afghanistan.
His mother, Vicki, is said by friends to be having trouble coping with the unfolding drama. Yesterday, she took a day off work at the Stockdale and Leggo real estate agency, where colleagues are sympathetic to the strain she is under.
One colleague, when asked about reports that the family had not had contact with 25-year-old Mathew since he went overseas last August, replied: ``They have had contact."
However, this was denied by Ron Smith, who is acting as a spokesman for the family at the request of a mutual friend.
The Stewarts are deeply disturbed at claims that Mathew, who served in the Australian Army's peacekeeping force in East Timor, slipped into Afghanistan via Iran and trained with al-Qaeda.
Mr Smith was asked if Mathew, who was with the Townsville-based 2RAR regiment, was suffering from depression when he returned to Australia from East Timor.
``When he came back, he was ill and his mother asked the army for some assistance," he said. ``He did spend six weeks in an army hospital and he continued to have serious problems. I think he would have seen a fair amount of atrocities."
One Australian, who was based in East Timor during the post-ballot explosion of violence, noted yesterday that members of 2RAR had been under great pressure.
``They were the people who pulled decaying bodies out of the sewerage system," he said. ``They had to go to the site of massacres, including at the Aitarak militia headquarters in Dili."
Friends say Mathew could not readjust to life back home and quit the army before leaving Australia on August 4 without telling his family.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday that despite making inquiries through the Australian embassies in Iran, Pakistan and Russia, Mathew had still not been found.
A number of people who know the Stewarts said details of the trauma were largely kept to a small circle of family and friends. A business associate of Mrs Stewart said there was no proof that Mathew was still in Afghanistan.
On December 20 last year, the Defence Minister, Robert Hill, and Attorney-General, Daryl Williams, said the Government was aware of two Australians who were ``probably" in Afghanistan and ``who are believed to have received training in an al-Qaeda terrorist camp".
The case of fellow Australian David Hicks has added to the distress of the Stewart family.
Hicks, detained in December while allegedly serving with al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, was transferred to a makeshift United States prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Australia has declined to give him consular assistance.
A spokesman for the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said yesterday it was too early to saywhether the Australian Government would seek special treatment for Mathew Stewart on compassionate grounds.
The family stressed that Mathew should be viewed as a person with a depressive condition who needed to be found and returned home.
© 2002 Sydney Morning Herald
