Police veterans win right to services interment

Oamaru Services Cemetery. File photo / Oamaru Mail

Police officers who have served on overseas deployments have won the right to be buried in New Zealand services cemeteries.

Veterans' Affairs NZ now recognises civilian police working in areas of war, danger or emergency under United Nations authority are eligible for internment in service graves, the Police News magazine reported.

Retired police inspector Ron Renz, who served in a peacekeeping force in Cyprus in 1967, successfully lobbied for the change.

The right extends to officers who served in Cyprus, Namibia, Iraq, Bougainville, Timor Leste and Sumatra.

- NZPA