CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND:
The gunman involved in attacks on New Zealand mosques on Friday (March 15) that left at least 49 people dead published a racist manifesto on Twitter beforehand then livestreamed his rampage, according to an Agence France-Press (AFP) online analysis.
Police called for people not to share the video, which showed the gunman shooting repeatedly at worshippers from close range.
“Police are aware there is extremely distressing footage relating to the incident in Christchurch circulating online,” New Zealand police said in a Twitter post. “We would strongly urge that the link not be shared. We are working to have any footage removed.”
AFP analysed a copy of the Facebook Live video, which shows a clean-shaven, Caucasian man with short hair driving to the Masjid Al Noor mosque in central Christchurch, then shooting as he enters the building.
AFP determined that the video was genuine through a digital investigation that included matching screenshots of the mosque taken from the gunman’s footage with multiple images available online showing the same areas.
The manifesto detailing motivations for the attack was posted on Friday morning onto a Twitter account with the same name and profile image as the Facebook page that streamed the attack.
CONSPIRACY THEORY
The 73-page document – entitled The Great Replacement – said the gunman had wanted to attack Muslims.
The title of the document has the same name as a conspiracy theory originating in France that believes European populations are being displaced in their homelands by immigrant groups with higher birth rates.
The manifesto said the gunman identified himself an Australia-born, 28-year-old white male from a low-income, working-class family.
He said that key points in his radicalisation were the defeat of the French far-right leader Marine Le Pen in 2017 elections, and the death of 11-year-old Ebba Akerlund in the 2017 Stockholm truck attack.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday confirmed that one of the attackers was an Australian.
“We stand here and condemn absolutely the attack that occurred today by an extremist, right-wing, violent terrorist,” Mr Morrison told a press conference.
The New Zealand authorities said that three people had been arrested, but their identities were not made public.
AFP confirmed the authenticity of the livestreamed video partly by matching the distinctive features at the mosque seen in the footage with images available online. These included a fence, postbox and doorway at the entrance to the mosque.
Inside the mosque, the gunman’s footage showed distinctively patterned green carpet that also matched images tagged on Google Maps as being at the same location.
Satellite navigational audio could also be heard in the video as the gunman drove to the mosque, which AFP tracked on Google StreetView showing his route for the 2km leading there.
The gunman spoke only occasionally while in the car, speaking in what sounded like an Australian accent.
Distinctive writing on the gunman’s weapons seen in the footage also matched images posted on the Twitter account using the same name that posted the manifesto. The manifesto was the final tweet on the account before it was suspended.
Photos of weaponry with distinctive writing on them were posted on the Twitter account on March 13. AFP took screenshots of the weapons shown in the Facebook Live video, which showed some of the exact same writing.
Scrawled in English and several Eastern European languages were the names of numerous historical military figures – many of them Europeans involved in fighting the Ottoman forces in the 15th and 16th centuries. A few took part in the Crusades, centuries earlier.
The Facebook account that posted the video was no longer available shortly after the shooting. The Twitter account of the same name was quickly suspended.
Input from The Guardian:
A man identifying himself as a suspect in the Christchurch mosque attacks published a “manifesto” outlining his motivations in which he espoused far-right and anti-immigrant ideology.
The man says he is called Brenton Tarrant, a 28-year-old born in Australia. The 74-page document, called The Great Replacement, consists of a rant about white genocide and lists various aims, including the creation of “an atmosphere of fear” against Muslims.
The document, which suggests an obsession with violent uprisings against Islam, claims the suspect had “brief contact” with the Norwegian mass-murderer Anders Breivik and that Breivik gave his “blessing” to the attack.
The “manifesto” does not identify the suspect as an Australian. “The origins of my language is European, my culture is European, my political beliefs are European, my philosophical beliefs are European, my identity is European and, most importantly, my blood is European,” it says.
The document introduces its author as having grown up in a working-class, low-income family. “I am just a regular white man, from a regular family, who decided to take a stand to ensure a future for my people,” it says. “My parents are of Scottish, Irish and English stock. I had a regular childhood, without any great issues.”
In a question-and-answer section of the document, the author claims he was not seeking fame and was a “private and mostly introverted person”. He describes himself as an ethnonationalist and a fascist.
The author says the attack had been planned for two years and that though New Zealand was not the original choice for the attack, the Christchurch location was scoped out three months in advance.
“I only arrived to New Zealand to live temporarily whilst I planned and trained, but I soon found out that New Zealand was as target rich of an environment as anywhere else in the west,” it says.
The suspect wanted to send a message that “nowhere in the world is safe”, according to the document, and the choice of weapon – firearms – was designed to gain maximum publicity.
“I chose firearms for the effect it would have on social discourse, the extra media coverage they would provide and the effect it could have on the politics of United States and thereby the political situation of the world,” it says.
(Courtesy AFP and The Guardian)
