Aussie cops ‘should have used force sooner’ to end 2014 siege

SYDNEY — The Australian police failed to respond quickly enough to the threat posed by a gunman responsible for the deadly 2014 Sydney cafe siege, a coroner said yesterday, as he recommended police to stop having misgivings about using force in terrorist attacks.

New South Wales state coroner Michael Barnes also proposed that the authorities rethink the current “contain and negotiate” strategy used to deal with terrorists, as it is almost outdated in light of numerous terror attacks around the world.

“When dealing with terrorists, this reluctance is particularly problematic,” the Wall Street Journal quoted him as saying. “Where an active shooter continues to threaten the safety of members of the public, securing the scene and waiting for negotiators to arrive may not be the most effective way of limiting casualties.”

The coroner’s findings follow intense criticism from many of the 18 hostages and families of the victims, who have long questioned why police waited nearly 17 hours to enter the Lindt Cafe and the end of the siege.

The police moved in only 10 minutes after Iranian-born Man Haron Monis fatally shot cafe manager Tori Johnson. He was then shot dead by police.

Another hostage, lawyer Katrina Dawson, was killed in the crossfire.

The siege, which began on Dec 15, 2014, was Australia’s most deadly violence inspired by Islamic State (IS) militants.

Although Mr Barnes said the only person responsible for the deaths was Monis himself, and that the strategy adopted by the police was appropriate in the beginning, nevertheless, the police had an incomplete picture of the threat posed by Monis, who had a history of violence and extremist sympathies.

Mr Mick Fuller, commissioner of the New South Wales Police that oversaw the siege response, said the police would be more prepared to storm a terror-related hostage situation in future. “‘Contain and negotiate’ has saved many lives, but if it is a terrorist incident, a deliberate action will be something that we consider,” Mr Fuller told journalists.

“The great challenge is that we need to tell people that a deliberate action may not mean less lives are lost, it just may be different ones. The outcome of the Lindt cafe siege suggests that ‘contain and negotiate’ strategy needs to be more rigorously assessed in the context of terrorist incidents.”

Australia, a staunch ally of the United States and its escalating action against the IS in Syria and Iraq, has been on high alert for attacks by home-grown militants returning from fighting in the Middle East or their supporters.

Australian intelligence services have disrupted or stopped at least a dozen major terrorism plots since 2014, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said in a radio interview yesterday.

Security at mass-assembly events in Australia is being tightened due to terrorism threats that are “constantly evolving”, he added.

“You’ll see heightened police presences, more obstacles, bollards, barriers put in the way to prevent vehicle-borne attacks. We must be more agile than our enemies. So we have to learn from every incident.” AGENCIES

New South Wales state coroner Michael Barnes also recommended that communication between government departments and police needed to be improved.

“Current arrangements for identifying and processing the risks posed by self-radicalised and isolated or fixated individuals who are not necessarily committing crimes tend to be fragmented rather than holistic, piecemeal rather than coordinated.”

Friends and family members of Lindt Cafe siege’s victims were critical of the police.

“We were confronted with systematic failures of various authorities who at times were confused, ill informed, unprepared and under-resourced to deal with Man Monis throughout the process and later on during the siege,” said Mr Thomas Zinn, the partner of cafe manager Tori Johnson.