Superintendent Bill Kirk, Commander of the first contingent of the Australian Federal Police ...

Superintendent Bill Kirk, Commander of the first contingent of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) with a Khmer Rouge soldier at a road checkpoint at Thmar Puok, close to the Civilian Police (CIVPOL) headquarters where the AFP contingent to the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) was based. The Khmer Rouge soldier has a red whistle clipped to his shirt pocket, and mans this checkpoint from the small wood and rattan hut just visible to the right. During their period in Cambodia, the AFP's essential duty was to promote law and order in a country where the rule of law was yet to be properly established, and to train police from all political and military factions in basic policing procedures and human rights. Members of the AFP witnessed many disturbing and extremely violent incidents and investigated 205 suspected human rights violations in the space of 18 months. Superintendent Kirk had previously operated in Thailand in the UN Border Relief Operation in the refugee camps from February to October 1989, and although he arrived in May 1992 as part of the first contingent to UNTAC, stayed in Cambodia until the second contingent's departure in September 1993. He also acted as a short term Australian Election Observer in Svay Teap District, Svay Rieng Province in the far south east of Cambodia during the election period.