Christchurch attack victim burials start
A Syrian refugee and his son who fled the chaos of their homeland only to meet tragedy in New Zealand were buried on Wednesday in the first funerals of those killed in the mosque massacre.
Hundreds of mostly Muslim mourners gathered at a cemetery in the southern city of Christchurch to lay to rest Khalid Mustafa and his 15year-old son, Hamza, who were among 50 people slaughtered at two mosques by an Australian white supremacist.
The family of five had fled to New Zealand seeking sanctuary from the Syrian maelstrom but died in last Friday’s attacks, a bitter irony that New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern called “gutting”.
“I cannot tell you how gutting it is to know that a family came here for safety and for refuge, and they should have been safe here,” Ardern said at a media conference in Christchurch after the funeral.
Khalid, 44, and Hamza were shot dead at the Al Noor Mosque, the first site to be attacked, but not before Hamza called his mother in a panic.
“After that I heard shooting and he screamed and after that I didn’t hear him,” she told New Zealand media this week.
Her younger son, Zaid, 13, was also injured in the attack and attended the funeral in a wheelchair.
In a powerful scene, he held his hands aloft as he prayed alongside rows of mourners.
“I shouldn’t be standing in front of you. I should be lying beside you,” Zaid said at the graves of his brother and father, according to Jamil El-Biza, who travelled from Australia for the funerals.
Also attending was Abdul Aziz, an Afghan refugee who confronted the gunman at the Linwood Mosque. Mourners embraced him. A total of six burials took place on Wednesday and more were expected in the days ahead after police began releasing victims’ remains for burial.
The scale of the attack has caused global revulsion, including alleged gunman Brenton Tarrant’s use of social media to livestream the carnage.
Ardern, who has vowed to tighten New Zealand’s lax gun ownership laws, said the horrific events in Christchurch showed the need for a global approach to confront the dangers posed by extremists’ use of social media.
“There is an argument there to be made for us to take a united front on what is a global issue,” she said.
New Zealand on Wednesday charged a second person with sharing the gruesome livestream video of the attack.
Philip Arps, 44, was charged with two counts of distributing objectionable material under the Films Act and was remanded after appearing in the Christchurch District Court.
A teenager appeared in court earlier this week on the same charge.
The 28-year-old gunman was arrested after the shootings and is expected to spend his life in prison. –