Prime Minister Helen Clark has asked officials to look into reports the remains of Anzac soldiers have been dug up and destroyed by Turks widening a road on Anzac Cove.
The Sun-Herald in Sydney yesterday reported that human remains from the Gallipoli conflict were believed to have been dug up
and destroyed by Turkish workers as they widened a road for tourist buses on Anzac Cove.
Turkish authorities had decided to resume building a 20m-wide road, which has already obliterated a large section of the beach at the historic Gallipoli landing site, the newspaper said.
Work had earlier been stopped after outrage at the effect on the beach where 10,721 New Zealand and Australian troops died on April 25, 1915. Many Turkish troops also died there.
A spokesman for Helen Clark said she had asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to look into the report.
"We just need some more precise information about what has been disturbed and exactly what is going on," the spokesman said.
Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association spokesman Bill Hopper said it would be concerned if the reports were true.
"If these reports are correct, we will expect the Turkish authorities to treat this issue with due dignity," Mr Hopper said.
"[That includes] that arrangements be made properly to re-intern any human remains that may have been disturbed by the ongoing roadworks."
Australian writer and historian Bill Sellars, who lives at Gallipoli, told the Sun-Herald the roadworks must have dug up human remains as many soldiers were hastily buried on the beach and cliffside.
"I am always finding bones on that hillside from soldiers that were buried there in the first few days of the battle to get ashore," he said.
"When I saw the damage done to Anzac Cove, I was reduced to tears.
"This was one of the best-preserved battlefield sites of World War I and now it has been massively damaged."
More than 20,000 Australian, New Zealand and British people are expected to attend the dawn service on April 25 to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the landing.
- NZPA
