{"id":4929,"date":"2009-07-10T14:45:13","date_gmt":"2009-07-10T03:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/?p=4929"},"modified":"2009-07-10T14:45:13","modified_gmt":"2009-07-10T03:45:13","slug":"fromelles-claims-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=4929","title":{"rendered":"Fromelles Claims Response"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align:center;\"><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-4938\" href=\"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/2009\/07\/10\/fromelles-claims-response\/cwgc-2009-june-dna-procedures-2_sml\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4938\" title=\"CWGC 2009 June DNA procedures 2_sml\" src=\"http:\/\/fffaif.files.wordpress.com\/2009\/07\/cwgc-2009-june-dna-procedures-2_sml.jpg\" alt=\"CWGC 2009 June DNA procedures 2_sml\" width=\"448\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/cwgc-2009-june-dna-procedures-2_sml.jpg 448w, https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/cwgc-2009-june-dna-procedures-2_sml-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 448px) 100vw, 448px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align:center;\">Photo: Oxford Archaeology Team at work. [CWGC]<\/p>\n<p>Chris Bryett, President of Recovering Overseas Australia\u2019s Missing Inc (ROAM) and FFFAIF Member, who\u00a0was one of the key people\u00a0supporting Lambis Englezos in his efforts to convince the Australian Army\u00a0to investigate the claim that following the Battle of Fromelles in July 1916 the German Army had buried up to 400 British and Australian soldiers in pits &#8220;before Pheasant Wood&#8221;, near Fromelles,\u00a0has responded to the issues raised in\u00a0the article <em><strong><a title=\"Fairfax Reburial project in crisis Paolo Totaro 6 July 2009\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theage.com.au\/national\/reburial-project-in-crisis-20090705-d96z.html\" target=\"_blank\">Reburial project in crisis<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Fairfax Press journalist Paolo Totaro.\u00a0His detailed response comments that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>in evaluating the tenders for the exhumation, which was awarded to Oxford Archaeology, lower cost &#8220;does not of itself warrant the inference that cheaper is also of lower quality&#8221;;<\/li>\n<li>the assertion that \u201cthe lack of a contingency plan for drainage and toxic groundwater dispersal have derailed the dig at Fromelles, silting soldiers&#8217; remains and graves and potentially lifting vital artefacts from their original resting place\u201d is not supported by\u00a0evidence and that the evidence is to the contrary i.e. the graves were kept dry\u00a0and cites the information on the <a title=\"Oxford Archaeology website Fromelles project\" href=\"http:\/\/thehumanjourney.net\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;task=view&amp;id=501&amp;Itemid=40\" target=\"_blank\">Oxford Archaeology website<\/a> as evidence of a the comprehensive approach taken to drainage and ground water treatment;<\/li>\n<li>the approach to forensic work and the need to prevent contamination of DNA during the exhumation requires special protective measures;\u00a0 and<\/li>\n<li>assertions that the preparations for the exhumation process had not been completed when the media was invited to an open day when Oxford Archaeology officially began work in May does not mean that they were not ready when needed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In his response <strong><em><a title=\"Australia.TO NEWS Fromelles crisis Chris Bryett 10 July 2009\" href=\"http:\/\/www.australia.to\/index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=12292:fromelles-crisis-support-for-oxford-archaeology-as-recovery-continues&amp;catid=72:australian-news&amp;Itemid=200\" target=\"_blank\">Fromelles crisis. Support for Oxford Archaeology as recovery continues<\/a><\/em><\/strong> that is posted on the website <em>Australia. TO News<\/em> , Chris also\u00a0responds to\u00a0comments made by the Convenor\/Administrator of the Fromelles Discussion Group, Grant Triffett.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nThe Fairfax Press article has drawn a number of other responses, most notably an assurance from the Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Kevin Rudd, committing his Government to making \u201cdoubly certain\u201d that the exhumation, identification and reinterment of the Australian soldiers at Fromelles is being handled properly, and a joint supporting statement by the Minister for Defence Personnel, Materiel and Science and Minister for Veterans\u2019 Affairs and a project update from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission that are detailed in the RECENT NEWS item <strong><em><a title=\"PM Rudd assurance re Fromelles, Ministerial statements, CWGC update\" href=\"http:\/\/fffaif.wordpress.com\/2009\/07\/06\/pm-reaffirms-fromelles\/\" target=\"_blank\">PM Reaffirms\u00a0Fromelles<\/a><\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color:#008000;\">The<em><strong> Families and Friends of the First AIF<\/strong><\/em> thanks the Australian, UK and French governments for affording Australian and British soldiers\u00a0buried in mass graves at Pheasant Wood by\u00a0German soldiers following the Battle of Fromelles\u00a0on 19\/20 July 1916\u00a0dignified individual reburials in a new CWGC cemetery at Fromelles, and applauds\u00a0the joint decision to DNA test the remains at exhumation and use every reasonable method to attempt identification of each soldier.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Photo: Oxford Archaeology Team at work. [CWGC] Chris Bryett, President of Recovering Overseas Australia\u2019s Missing Inc (ROAM) and FFFAIF Member, who\u00a0was one of the key people\u00a0supporting Lambis Englezos in his efforts to convince the Australian Army\u00a0to investigate the claim that &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/?p=4929\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-top-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fffaif.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}