Tearful mourners paid emotional tributes to the victims of the Sydney cafe siege yesterday as workers removed a giant sea of flowers laid in their memory amid plans for a permanent memorial.
Iranian-born gunman Man Haron Monis, who had a history of extremism and violence, took 17 hostages in the city’s financial heartland last week, unveiling an Islamic flag and demanding to talk to Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.
He was killed when armed police stormed the eatery after 16 hours. Two hostages also died — mother-of-three Katrina Dawson, 38, and Lindt cafe manager Tori Johnson, 34 — while several were injured.
Photo: Reuters
The standoff touched a raw nerve in Australia and triggered an outpouring of grief that saw thousands of bouquets laid at a makeshift memorial near the cafe in Martin Place that grew bigger by the day, but a week after the tragedy and with storms forecast New South Wales Premier Mike Baird said the time was right to clear the area, with an army of Red Cross workers, volunteers and council officials moving in.
They respectfully collected the flowers, most of which will be mulched and used at a suitable site after consultation with the victims’ families, along with countless notes, messages and cards, which will be preserved.
“At an appropriate time we’ll also discuss with them [the families] the establishment of a permanent memorial,” Baird said.
Photo: EPA
Condolence books were to remain open at the state parliament and the Sydney Opera House until the end of next month, with a marquee set up near the cafe so people could continue leaving floral tributes.
“The condolence books will be bound in several volumes and one complete copy will be provided to each family,” Baird said.
A private funeral was held for Johnson — hailed a hero after reportedly trying to wrestle the gun from Monis — with hundreds of mourners arriving dressed in black outside the St Stephen’s Uniting Church just meters from where he died.
Numerous dignitaries joined them, including Baird and New South Wales Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione, whose own family were in the cafe just moments before the siege started.
Several of the hostages were also at the service. Johnson’s father Ken, partner Thomas Zinn and other relatives carried the white coffin into the church.
Unity was a theme, with the Johnson family using a phrase by Persian poet Rumi on the front page of the order of service: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.”
Tears flowed as they left, with five Buddhist priests, dressed in orange and saffron-colored robes, following Johnson’s coffin, murmuring prayers as it was loaded into the hearse.
A memorial for lawyer Dawson, who was having a coffee with a pregnant friend when the cafe was locked down, also took place at Sydney University’s Great Hall, with up to 1,000 mourners wearing black with splashes of aqua — her favorite color.
In emotional speeches punctuated with jokes, Dawson’s family and friends fought back tears as they spoke of her intelligence, generous spirit and deep love for her children.
“She was destined to change the world, just not the way it’s happened,” her elder brother, Sandy Dawson, said.
With Christmas just days away, the mourners, among them Abbott, sang Santa Claus is Coming to Town — a song chosen by Dawson’s four-year-old daughter, Sasha.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday declared martial law in an unannounced late night address broadcast live on YTN television. Yoon said he had no choice but to resort to such a measure in order to safeguard free and constitutional order, saying opposition parties have taken hostage of the parliamentary process to throw the country into a crisis. "I declare martial law to protect the free Republic of Korea from the threat of North Korean communist forces, to eradicate the despicable pro-North Korean anti-state forces that are plundering the freedom and happiness of our people, and to protect the free
CHAGOS ISLANDS: Recently elected Mauritian Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam told lawmakers that the contents of negotiations are ‘unknown’ to the government Mauritius’ new prime minister ordered an independent review of a deal with the UK involving a strategically important US-UK military base in the Indian Ocean, placing the agreement under fresh scrutiny. Under a pact signed last month, the UK ceded sovereignty of the Chagos archipelago to Mauritius, while retaining control of Diego Garcia — the island where the base is situated. The deal was signed by then-Mauritian prime minister Pravind Jugnauth and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Oct. 3 — a month before elections in Mauritius in which Navin Ramgoolam became premier. “I have asked for an independent review of the
France on Friday showed off to the world the gleaming restored interior of Notre-Dame cathedral, a week before the 850-year-old medieval edifice reopens following painstaking restoration after the devastating 2019 fire. French President Emmanuel Macron conducted an inspection of the restoration, broadcast live on television, saying workers had done the “impossible” by healing a “national wound” after the fire on April 19, 2019. While every effort has been made to remain faithful to the original look of the cathedral, an international team of designers and architects have created a luminous space that has an immediate impact on the visitor. The floor shimmers and
‘VIOLATIONS OF DISCIPLINE’: Miao Hua has come up through the political department in the military and he was already fairly senior before Xi Jinping came to power in 2012 A member of China’s powerful Central Military Commission has been suspended and put under investigation, the Chinese Ministry of National Defense said on Thursday. Miao Hua (苗華) was director of the political work department on the commission, which oversees the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest standing military. He was one of five members of the commission in addition to its leader, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Ministry spokesman Colonel Wu Qian (吳謙) said Miao is under investigation for “serious violations of discipline,” which usually alludes to corruption. It is the third recent major shakeup for China’s defense establishment. China in June
RSS