Afghan warriors

By Paul Pickering
AN AUSTRALIAN security contractor on leave from working in Somalia has told of his surprise at learning that the man who he says saved his life is now running for federal parliament.
David Richards, a former soldier who is now working for a humanitarian organisation in strife-torn African, returned home to Ferntree Gully earlier this month to find a familiar face emblazoned across the pages of local newspapers and campaign advertisements in his home electorate of La Trobe.
Mr Richards says he owes his life to La Trobe ALP candidate Rodney Cocks.
The men met in 2006 while both were working as security coordinators in Afghanistan – Mr Richards with humanitarian organisation International Rescue Committee and Mr Cocks with the United Nations Department of Safety and Security.
As Mr Richards recalled last week, he was travelling in a convoy through a Taliban-held region just outside Kabul one afternoon when his vehicle was rammed during an insurgent attack.
The collision – in which two Americans in the convoy were killed – crushed Mr Richards’ vehicle, trapping him and a Canadian soldier inside.
Mr Cocks soon arrived on the scene to drag them out of the vehicle and performed first aid on the Canadian soldier’s broken femur.
“It was a horrific scene,” Mr Richards said.
“(Rodney) dragged me out and then I came to and started running around doing first aid – the guy in the other vehicle had his head pinned to the roof.”
But as Mr Richards recalled, the threat had not abated just yet, with hostile Afghani police descending on the scene.
“The police put us all in a line-up by the side of the road and were going to shoot us all,” he said, explaining that an international engineer had been abducted and subsequently decapitated on the same road the previous night.
As the situation escalated, Mr Cocks advised his translator to mention the imminent arrival of American troops within earshot of the Afghani police – prompting them to flee the scene.
Mr Richards believes that the cunning scare tactic ultimately saved his life.
Reflecting on the incident last week, Mr Cocks agreed that it was “a pretty hard afternoon”.
“In retrospect, the moments that followed (the collision) were a lot higher risk than the actual accident,” he said.
Mr Cocks swapped his combat fatigues for a suit and tie earlier this year after having served in the military throughout Europe and South East Asia and in East Timor with the UN peacekeeping force.
He was reunited with Mr Richards at a barbecue on the weekend, with both men agreeing that they would always have a special bond because of the incident in Afghanistan.
Mr Richards said he was unaware of the new career path Mr Cocks had taken until he arrived home.
“I just got home and saw him plastered all over the local rag and thought ‘Geez, I know this bloke’,” he said.
While Mr Richards noted that he had no allegiance to the ALP and had in fact voted for minor parties in the past, he did offer a pertinent warning to Mr Cocks’ rivals.
“He’s pretty good under fire, so I reckon he’d be well suited to politics,” he said.
Mr Richards will return to Somalia later this week while Mr Cocks continues the escalating battle for the marginal seat of La Trobe.