The mass shooter who killed 49 people in two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, listened to Serb nationalists songs on his way to the crime scene, Bosnia’s Ambassador to Australia, who also covers New Zealand, told N1 on Friday.
The shooter broadcasted the massacre live.
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Facebook took the video down but those who saw it say he listened to songs glorifying Radovan Karadzic, the wartime Bosnian Serb leader who was sentenced by a UN court to 40 years in prison for war crimes, including genocide against the mostly Muslim Bosniaks.
“What especially worries us from Bosnia is that the killer was a white male and born in Australia and that during the live recording which was posted on social media, on his way towards the mosques where he committed the massacre, he listened to Chetnik songs, songs of Serbian nationalists which mention Radovan Karadzic, ‘who should lead Serbs who are not afraid of anyone,’ and it mentions that Ustashas and Turks need to be killed,” Ambassador Mirza Hajric told N1.
Ustasha were a World War II Croatian fascist movement which had persecuted ethnic Serbs during the war in present-day Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In modern times, the term is sometimes used by Serbian nationalists as an ethnic slur for Croats, as well as the term “Turks,” used to referr to largely Muslim Bosniaks.
The killer, who had identified himself online as an Australian man Brenton Tarrant before the massacre, was wearing a helmet during his killing spree with a camera attached to it, Hajric said.
“I have the recording, it is horrible,” Hajric said, describing that it shows the killer driving to the crime scene and the murder of at least 20 people.
The guns he had were scribbled over with messages against immigrants, Muslims and Islam.
“During that drive, he listened to the Serb nationalist song, ‘Karadzic lead your Serbs who are not afraid of anything,’ which is especially worrying,” Hajric said.
“He is picking up the guns and killing dozens of people. The recording is horrible. We simply can’t comprehend it although we have in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina been witnesses to such scenes. The images of Srebrenica and the massacre are coming back,” Hajric said.
The attacker who live-streamed the massacre was among the four arrested suspects.
“It can’t be excluded that more people were involved. Experts say that this is a kind of action in which more people must have been involved. At this moment, four people are detained,” Hajric said.
Hajric said that a state of emergency was declared and that he expects authorities to reveal more details about the attack within the next 50 hours.
