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A man raises a New Zealand flag at a vigil in Christchurch. Photo: AFP

New Zealand to hold national remembrance service for Christchurch massacre victims

  • The national remembrance would provide an opportunity for people from around the world “to come together as one to honour the victims of the terrorist attack”, said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
New Zealand will hold a national remembrance service for victims of the Christchurch terrorist attack on March 29, the government announced on Sunday.

The service will take place in Christchurch at 10am local time, two weeks after an Australian white supremacist killed 50 Muslims and wounded dozens of others during Friday prayers at two mosques.

“The national remembrance service provides an opportunity for Cantabrians, New Zealanders and people all around the world to come together as one to honour the victims of the terrorist attack,” Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a statement.

Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old motivated by the white extremist belief that Muslims were “invading” Western countries, was arrested within minutes of the massacre and has been charged with murder.

“In the week since the unprecedented terror attack, there has been an outpouring of grief and love in our country,” Ardern said. “The service will be a chance to once again show that New Zealanders are compassionate, inclusive and diverse, and that we will protect those values.”

The service will be held at Hagley Park in Christchurch, located across the street from the Al Noor Mosque where the shooting spree began.

Police visited Christchurch attacker before granting him gun licence

The slaughter, which the terror-accused live-streamed on Facebook, rocked the normally laid-back country of 4.5 million.

Two people have been charged for distributing the gruesome video of the attack, which the country quickly moved to ban.
New Zealand on Saturday also made it a crime to share the alleged killer’s “manifesto”.
People attend a vigil in memory of the victims in Christchurch. Photo: AFP

“Others have referred to this publication as a ‘manifesto’, but I consider it a crude booklet that promotes murder and terrorism,” said chief censor David Shanks, telling anyone in possession of it to destroy it.

“There is an important distinction to be made between ‘hate speech’, which may be rejected by many right-thinking people, but which is legal to express, and this type of publication, which is deliberately constructed to inspire further murder and terrorism,” Shanks said.

Most victims were gunned down at the Al Noor Mosque before Tarrant killed seven more at the smaller Linwood Mosque several kilometres away.

Man whose wife was shot in Christchurch has message for her killer: ‘I love you’

The mosques, which were taken over by police for investigations and security reasons, were handed back to the Muslim community on Saturday.

Present for Linwood’s reopening on Sunday was Afghan refugee Abdul Aziz, who attempted to chase Tarrant away by wielding a handheld credit card machine, the closest item he could get his hands on.

“When I passed through [the door] I got this pressure in my head,” Aziz, a 48-year-old father of four, said as he joined the mosque’s imam, Alabi Lateef Zirullah, in reclaiming the house of worship.

“It brings all the memories back. But we have to move on. It takes time to heal, but we have to be strong,” he said.

Ardern said last week the country would cover the costs of burying the victims as well as “repatriation costs for any family members who would like to move their loved ones away from New Zealand”.

Opinion: As New Zealand grieves, it must come to terms with how hatred was able to take root

Shahadat Hossain, whose brother Mojammel Haque was killed in the attack, arrived in New Zealand on Saturday to bring his brother’s body back to Bangladesh.

“I can’t describe how I felt when I saw my brother’s lifeless body,” he said. “I was devastated.”

Farid Ahmed, who was at the Al Noor mosque when the shooting took place, escaped but his wife was killed. On Sunday, he went door-to-door, thanking his neighbours for their support.

“They came running ... they were crying, they were in tears,” he said of his neighbours when they found out that Husna had died. “That was a wonderful support and expression of love, and I am feeling that I should also take the opportunity to say to them that I also love them.”

More than US$7.4 million in public donations has been received so far to help families of the deceased, according to a pair of fundraising websites.

A support fund on New Zealand site GiveaLittle.co.nz had received some NZ$8.3 million from more than 91,000 donors as of Sunday, while LaunchGood.com, a global crowdfunding platform focused on Muslims, had netted some NZ$2.6 million from over 40,000 donors.

New Zealand’s deputy prime minister on Friday said the accused killer would likely spend the rest of his life in isolation in prison, and called for solidarity to eradicate “hate-filled ideologies”.

Winston Peters was speaking at an emergency session of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s executive committee called by Turkey to combat prejudice against Muslims in the wake of the attack.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: National remembrance service for Christchurch attack victims on Friday
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