New Zealand PM vows killer will face ‘full force of law’
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern promised on Tuesday that the man responsible for last week’s deadly mosque massacres would face “the full force of the law”, as preparations were underway for burial of the 50 victims of the Christchurch attacks after days of intense grieving, Agence France-Presse reported.
“He sought many things from his act of terror, but one was notoriety. That is why you will never hear me mention his name,” Ardern said in an emotional address to a special meeting of parliament, which she opened with the Arabic greeting “As salaam aleikum” — “Peace be upon you”.
“I implore you: Speak the names of those who were lost rather than the name of the man who took them,” she told the gathering in Wellington, four days after the massacres at two mosques in the southern city of Christchurch.
“He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless,” she said.
Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, was captured by police and has been charged with one count of murder, but Ardern assured parliament other charges would follow.
“He will face the full force of the law in New Zealand,” she said.
Meanwhile, bodies of the victims of Friday’s attacks were being washed and prepared for burial in a Muslim ritual process, with teams of volunteers flown in from overseas to assist with the heavy workload.
“We’ve been very conscious of the need to work sensitively with requirement of each family,” Sarah Stuart-Black, Director for the Ministry of Civil, Defence & Emergency Management, said at a news conference in Christchurch.
Families of the victims are desperately seeking to come to New Zealand for the funerals. Immigration New Zealand said 65 visas have been granted for traveling family members.
The attack also left 50 people injured of which 30 are still in the Christchurch hospital, authorities said. Nine of them are in a critical condition. One 4-year-old child was transferred to a hospital in Auckland in a critical condition.
The gunman used a semi-automatic AR-15 during the mosque shootings, police said. A New Zealand gun shop owner said the store had sold Tarrant four weapons and ammunition online between December 2017 and March 2018, but not the high-powered weapon used in the massacre.
Ardern has said she supports a ban on semi-automatic weapons and that cabinet has made in-principle decisions to change gun laws, which she will announce next Monday, Reuters reported.
But a debate is raging in the country on gun laws. While some New Zealanders have voluntarily surrendered guns, others have been buying more from gun stores to beat the ban.
A gun club in the northern town of Kaitaia burned down early on Tuesday and police were treating the blaze as suspicious.
Simon Bridges, leader of the opposition National Party, said he wanted to get details of the changes to see if there could be bipartisan support in parliament. The Nationals draw support from rural areas, where gun ownership is high.
“We know that change is required. I’m willing to look at anything that is going to enhance our safety — that’s our position,” Bridges told TVNZ.
Ardern said there would be an inquiry into what government agencies “knew, or could or should have known” about the alleged gunman and whether the attack could be prevented.
Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison also has urged world leaders to crack down on social media companies that broadcast terrorist attacks in the aftermath of the New Zealand mosque shootings, The Associated Press reported.
Morrison has written to G20 chairman Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe calling for agreement on “clear consequences” for companies whose platforms are used to facilitate and normalize horrific acts.