Australian PM Tony Abbott Pays Tribute to ‘Innocent’ Victims of Hostage Crisis
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Photo by Jennifer Polixenni Brankin/Getty Images(SYDNEY) — Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott held a press conference on Tuesday afternoon about the hostage situation in Sydney that left the gunman and two others dead, noting that the eyes of the world, “have been focused on the city of Sydney.”
“Tens, if not hundreds, of millions of people right around the world have been focused on the city of Sydney, which has been touched by terrorism for the first time in more than 35 years,” Abbott said Tuesday. On Monday night and into Tuesday morning, Man Haron Monis, a self-proclaimed Islamic “sheikh,” held 17 hostages at the Lindt Chocolat Cafe.
Twelve of those hostages escaped before police began an assault on the cafe.
In a storm of gunfire as police stormed the cafe early Tuesday morning, Monis and two hostages were killed. The New South Wales Bar Assocation identified Katrina Dawson, 38, as one of the fatalities, and Australia’s 9News identified Tori Johnson, 34, a manager of the cafe, as the second. Six people at the scene were treated for injuries.
“It’s about as innocent a thing as anyone can do,” Abbott said, “to go and grab a cup of coffee before the working day has fully started.” The victims, he said, were, “decent, innocent people who got caught up in the sick fantasy of a deeply disturbed individual.”
Monis was believed to be a self-proclaimed Islamic “sheikh” who is known to Australian police because he was allegedly involved in dozens of counts of sexual assault, according to Australia’s 9News.
He was born in Iran as Manteghi Bourjerdi and migrated to Australia in 1996, according to the station.
“The tragedy of these times,” Abbott noted, “is that there are people, even in a society such as ours, who wish to do us harm.”
Abbott also spoke of the memorial that was created in front of the cafe, filled with mounds of flowers in honor of the victims. “The spontaneous shrine which has developed now in Martin Place is so much an expression of that innate goodness and decency which is a mark of the Australian character,” Abbott said.
The prime minister and his wife visited the shrine earlier on Tuesday, laying down bouquets of flowers and signing the condolence books, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
On the shooter, Abbott did not provide any further information, noting simply that “there was nothing consistent about this individual’s life except that he was consistently weird.”
In reference to reports that Monis had demanded authorities bring him an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria flag, Abbott termed it, “interesting that the [ISIS] death cult seems to attract people like that.”
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