AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
SYDNEY: Prime Minister John Howard on Thursday publicly apologised to the angry widow of Australia's first soldier killed in Iraq after she was sent a stranger's body by mistake.
Howard was woken up to take a call from the furious widow of Private Jacob Kovco, who died in a firearms accident last week, once the bungle was discovered on Wednesday night.
Government officials said another body, believed to be that of an eastern European soldier, was flown to Australia while Kovco's corpse remained in a mortuary in Kuwait.
Howard said Shelley Kovco was very angry about the mix-up when he spoke to her in the middle of the night and demanded every effort be made to return her husband's body as soon as possible.
He said he understood her anger and had apologised to the widow, who has two young children.
“I just want to say how incredibly sorry I am for what has happened and I wish in some way I could have altered it but I can't,” he told commercial radio.
The government blamed a private contractor that operates a mortuary in Kuwait for the mistake.
Australia's defence force chief, Air Marshal Angus Houston was at a loss to explain the mix-up and said a departmental inquiry had been launched.
“It just seems one of those situations where we can't figure out what happened,” he told reporters.
Kovco, a 25-year-old private, accidentally shot himself with his own weapon in Baghdad on Friday in circumstances that remain unclear.
Nelson said earlier reports that the soldier had been cleaning his weapon were incorrect, but that there was no evidence to suggest that it was anything other than a “tragic accident”.
Kovco, who leaves a four-year-old son and an 11-month-old daughter, was due to receive a funeral with full military honours, which will now be delayed.
The defence department said Kovco's body would be flown to Australia immediately and the cause of “this unacceptable, terrible mistake” would be thoroughly investigated.
Opposition defence spokesman Robert McClelland called for an immediate change to the contracting out of the handling of bodies of Australian defence personnel killed overseas.
“I think all Australians would have expected that in the case of an injured or deceased service man or woman that at all times it be dealt with by the Australian military,” McClelland said.
Australia has some 900 troops serving with the US-led coalition in Iraq.
