WELLINGTON, March 25, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda
Ardern on Monday ordered an independent judicial inquiry into whether police
and intelligence services could have prevented the Christchurch mosque
attacks on March 15.
Ardern said a royal commission — the most powerful judicial probe
available under New Zealand law — was needed to find out how a single gunman
was able to kill 50 people in an attack that shocked the world.
“It is important that no stone is left unturned to get to how this act of
terrorism occurred and how we could have stopped it,” she told reporters.
New Zealand’s spy agencies have faced criticism in the wake of the attack
for concentrating on the threat from Islamic extremism.
Instead, the victims were all Muslims and the massacre was allegedly
carried out by a white supremacist fixated on the belief that there was an
Islamist plot to “invade” Western countries.
“One question we need to answer is whether or not we could or should have
known more,” Ardern said.
“New Zealand is not a surveillance state … but questions need to be
answered.”
Ardern ruled out New Zealand re-introducing the death penalty for accused
gunman Brenton Tarrant, 28, who was arrested minutes after the attack on the
mosques and has been charged with murder.
She said details of the royal commission were being finalised, but it would
be comprehensive and would report in a timely manner.
It will cover the activities of intelligence services, police, customs,
immigration and any other relevant government agencies in the lead-up to the
attack.
The gunman livestreamed the attack online, although New Zealand has
outlawed the footage as “objectionable content”.
Ardern reiterated her believe it should not be aired.
“That video should not be shared. That is harmful content,” she said when
questioned about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan showing excerpts of
the footage at campaign rallies for local elections this month.
Erdogan had angered both Wellington and Canberra with campaign rhetoric
about anti-Muslim Australians and New Zealanders being sent back in “coffins”
like their grandfathers at Gallipoli, a World War I battle.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters travelled to Istanbul to meet
Erdogan and address an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation.
Peters said OIC members were full of praise for the support New Zealand had
offered its small, tight-knit Muslim community in the wake of the killings.
“A number of them were weeping and sobbing at the demonstration (of
support) by non-Muslim New Zealand towards the Muslim victims,” he told
reporters.
“It was dramatic and I was told by countless ministers that they’ve never
seen anything of that type.”
The body of an Indian student killed in the Christchurch mosque attacks,
meanwhile, was returned Monday to her grieving family in Kochi, where
relatives remembered a bright young woman dedicated to her studies.
Ansi Alibava, 25, was the first of at least five Indians shot dead on March
15 to be repatriated.
The family planned to hold a funeral ceremony for the masters student in
their nearby hometown of Kodungallur.