New Zealand buries first victims

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand — Relatives of those killed in last week’s shootings at two mosques in New Zealand began to bury the dead today, as the country’s prime minister renewed her call to remember the 50 victims rather than the man accused of killing them.

Hundreds of people were gathered at a grave designated for Muslim burials as the first two funerals got underway. While many of the victims will be buried there, some are being taken back to their home countries, officials have said.

Families of those killed had been anxiously awaiting word on when they could bury their loved ones. New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush said police have now formally identified and released the remains of 21 of those killed. Islamic tradition calls for bodies to be cleansed and buried as soon as possible.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s plea not to give any notoriety to the accused 28-year-old Australian white supremacist first came in a speech to Parliament prompted by the accused gunman’s decision to dismiss his lawyer and represent himself. The move had raised concerns he would use the trial as a platform for his racist views.

During a visit to a high school that lost two students in the shootings, Ardern revisited that thought and asked students not to say the attacker’s name or dwell on him.

“Look after one another but also let New Zealand be a place where there is no tolerance for racism,” she told students at Cashmere High School. “That’s something we can all do.”

The Cashmere High students killed were 14-year-old Sayyad Milne and 16-yearold Hamza Mustafa. A third Cashmere student, Mustafa’s 13-year-old brother Zaed, is recovering from gunshot wounds to his leg.

“He is a terrorist. He is a criminal. He is an extremist. But he will, when I speak, be nameless,” Ardern said in her address to Parliament on Tuesday.

“He may have sought notoriety, but we in New Zealand will give him nothing — not even his name.”

Ardern also used her address to highlight the bravery of Naeem Rashid, originally from Pakistan, who died after rushing at the gunman and trying to disarm him. And she cited the heroism of Abdul Aziz, who ran toward the attacker screaming and threw a hand-held credit card machine at him, hoping to distract him. Aziz’s actions are believed to have saved many lives at the Linwood mosque, where seven of the 50 victims were killed.

As of Tuesday evening, 30 people were still being treated at the hospital, nine of them in critical condition, medical officials said.

“He may have sought notoriety, but we in New Zealand will give him nothing — not even his name.” — Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister