Brawl fears over medal 'vigilantes'

The Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans' Association raised the alarm on Tuesday, saying false accusations could result in brawls.

''When people have had a few beers it can end up being in that situation because our members are being slandered,'' the association's national adviser Paul Copeland told Fairfax Media.

''Members of the APPVA have been targeted, had their photos placed onto a website, have been threatened and intimidated over the cyberspace by a group of vigilante veterans and their followers about medals of some members of this organisation.

''These genuine veterans, who have served their country in dangerous situations and provided many years service to Australia and have provided valuable assistance to the veteran community for 15 years, have been slandered by a group of veterans who have no evidence of irregular or inappropriate wearing of medals by members.

''This group of vigilantes are using Anzac Day as a witch-hunt for those they suspect are medals not awarded to them.

''The vigilante veterans have incited suspicion, hatred and there may well be arguments to the point of violence and assaults, potentially turning Anzac Day into a brawl.''

Mr Copeland said checking of medals was a legitimate exercise which arose after the Vietnam War. The association's national executive has checked the service records of those accused of wearing non-awarded medals.

''We are satisfied that there has been no law broken by the APPVA members concerned and that they are wearing medals that reflects their service records and military history,'' Mr Copeland said.

''Vigilante veterans have threatened to photograph any veteran on Anzac Day who doesn't 'look right'.

''We view this as an invasion of an individual's privacy and is inappropriate in the context of Anzac Day. Permission should be gained prior to any photograph taken and the identity of the person disclosed prior to the photo being taken.''

Mr Copeland is concerned about the Australian and New Zealand Military Impostors website which is hosted in the United States.

The website has extensive case studies of people who have been accused or fined for masquerading as war veterans to gain government benefits and of people it says are wearing medals they did not earn.

John King, president of the ACT branch of the RSL, said impostors were usually easy to spot on Anzac Day.

"There are a lot of would-be if-they-could-be out there on Anzac Day who pick up medals from various places and they put them on,'' he said.

"Usually they go overboard and wear medals from a conflict when they weren't even born.

"They are simply impostors in the sense that they've never served in the military.''

Mr King said parade marshals would be alert for any trouble at the Anzac Day march.''They are not going to let anything to spoil the day,'' he said.