This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/26/tunisia-massacre-anniversary-families-uk-government-staff-sousse

The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Families and UK government staff mark anniversary of Tunisia massacre Families and UK government staff mark anniversary of Tunisia massacre
(about 3 hours later)
The first anniversary of a massacre in Tunisia in which 30 Britons died will be marked by families on Sunday, with government staff observing a one-minute silence the next day. Survivors of the Sousse beach massacre gathered on the sand outside the Imperial Marhaba hotel to mark the moment, one year ago, when a lone gunman killed 38 tourists.
A total of 38 people were killed when a gunman went on a rampage in the coastal resort of Port El Kantaoui near Sousse on 26 June last year. “I came here to pay my respects,” said Charlotte Todd, 26, who was on holiday here the day gunman Seifeddine Rezgui wreaked havoc on this Tunisian beach.
Seifeddine Rezgui was shot dead by police after carrying out the attack, for which Islamic State claimed responsibility. Thirty British tourists were among those killed in an attack that saw many shot as they lay on sun loungers in swimsuits. Todd, from Leeds, was further down the beach when the gunman struck shortly before midday on 26 June. “We didn’t know what it was, they told us to run. The next thing there are police, helicopters.”
The family of 66-year-old Lisa Burbidge, from Gateshead, who was among those killed, are holding a remembrance service for the victims at St Mary’s Church, Whickham, on Sunday, followed by the unveiling of a memorial bench. The foreign minister, Tobias Ellwood, is due to visit later on Sunday with Tunisian officials, but this morning a little knot of survivors and beach workers gathered on the sand to mark the hour when the attack started.
They released a statement describing her as “a fantastic, loyal friend and a beautiful person”, adding that the past 12 months had been “incredibly difficult for us”.
Related: Tunisia keen to show tourists that it’s safe to returnRelated: Tunisia keen to show tourists that it’s safe to return
A one-minute silence will be observed in government buildings across the UK and in British embassies overseas on Monday at noon to pay respects to those who lost their lives and were affected by the attack. In the UK, the family of 66-year-old Lisa Burbidge, from Gateshead, who was among those killed, held a remembrance service for the victims at St Mary’s Church in Whickham followed by the unveiling of a memorial bench.
The minister for north Africa, Tobias Ellwood, has travelled to Tunisia for meetings with officials from the country’s government. He said: “As we mark the first anniversary of the horrific terrorist attack in Sousse, we remember the 38 people brutally murdered, including 30 British nationals. After the service attended by members of her family, a white rose was laid and a white balloon released in her memory, followed by more for each of the British, Irish, German, Belgian, Russian and Portuguese victims.
“A year on, we keep in our thoughts and prayers the family and friends who lost loved ones, those who were injured and others who witnessed this horrendous attack. We continue to work closely with Tunisia to enhance security and support economic development and reform. Tunisia will not stand alone in the face of the terrorist threat and the UK will be by its side.” The ceremony in and outside the church in Whickham, Burbidge’s home for 40 years, was one of many public and private events held on the anniversary by the families and friends of the 30 British and three Irish victims, who included several married couples and three generations of one family.
Suzanne Richards, from Wednesbury, West Midlands, said she was left devastated by the deaths of her son Joel Richards, mother Pat Evans and sister Adrian Evans in the attack. At noon on Monday, a minute’s silence will be observed in government buildings across the UK and in British embassies overseas to pay respects to the dead and those who were affected by the attack.
“We will never come to terms with what happened,” she said. “We just hope the inquest process can shed some light on exactly what happened so that all the grieving families can begin to understand how their loved ones died and whether more could have been done to protect them.” Unlike most Britons, who have since shunned Tunisia’s beaches, Todd, from Leeds, has returned to Sousse, coming to live in an apartment near the street where Rezgui was shot dead by security forces at the end of his 40-minute rampage.
Graeme Scott, from Irchester, Northamptonshire, survived the attack by hiding in a hotel cellar with his mother and father. He said his family have struggled to sleep because of what happened and he has been reluctant to visit some busy places. “I’m not afraid, there’s nothing to be afraid of, this place is as safe as anywhere,” she said. “I’ve been coming to Tunisia since I was little. If it’s going to happen [a terrorist attack], it’s going to happen. It can happen anywhere.”
“We were waking up in the middle of the night hearing gunshots and panicking,” he said. “It took me a long time to go to the local shopping centre because you didn’t know who was in front or behind you or where the escape route was. It’s there every day. You’re always thinking about the situation.” The Imperial Mahaba remains closed, the sand outside an empty gap in miles of Sousse beaches again crowded with tourists.
Scott, 44, said he would attend a private service and lunch with around 40 other British survivors on Sunday. Belgian Mark Aosse, 65, came this morning to remember three British friends who were killed in the hail of bullets. He and his wife, Nadine, 63, were part of a small community of visitors who returned year after year. He was buying a beer in the bar next to the beach when Rezgui opened fire.
Clive Garner, of the law firm Irwin Mitchell, which is representing some of the people affected by the attack at inquest hearings and in civil claims, said: “Obviously nothing can bring back those who lost their lives in Sousse, but the families who we represent rightly want to have their questions answered. “I saw the bullets flying into the sand, the clients [tourists] fell down,” he said.
“There is much that they still want to understand, including the details of what happened before and during the incident and whether more could have been done to prevent the terrible loss of life.” Shouting warnings in English, Flemish, French and German, he and his wife joined tourists who fled to an underground storeroom. There he and a British tourist each picked up a heavy clay flowerpot, standing either side of the door ready to hit the gunman if he broke in.
Since the attack, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has advised against all but essential travel to Tunisia. The country’s tourism officials have called for the guidance to be relaxed, claiming that it suggests the perpetrators are “on the winning side”. Related: The Tunisian who rescued tourists after terror attack: what happened next
Alongside an official memorial donated by the British government, tourists and hotel workers added their own imprompu sign on the beach this morning, bearing the words: “We all stand together with a great sadness in our hearts remember the devastating events of that year.”
Today there were meetings between survivors and the beach staff who had saved their lives. Aosse embraced beach worker Jihed Hassen, 34, who ran a beachcraft stand outside the hotel, and helped form the human chain of beach staff who protected tourists further down the beach from the advancing gunman.
Several dozen unarmed workers spread across the sand, barring Rezgui’s way and ignoring his threats to shoot them. “I was a bit afraid, but I had to do it,” said Hassen. “I don’t know how I did it [facing the gunman] but I knew I had to do it.”
Karim Sahloul, a front desk manager in the adjacent Palm Marina hotel, still gets sleepless nights one year after he scurried on to the beach, braving the bullets, to staunch the blood of British tourist Allison Heathcote, who survived five bullet wounds.
Finding her lying motionless on her sunlounger, close to her husband who was killed in the attack, Sahloul used rudimentary first aid training to keep her alive until medics arrived.
Sahloul hopes soon to be in contact with Heathcote, who is still recovering in England. “If she travels and visits us, I will tell her, it is not easy, you take five shots, your husband dies. But you are still alive, you have a chance to live your life.”
Related: Tourists shun resorts from Egypt to Turkey in wake of Isis attacks
Foreign office travel warnings have resulted in many Europeans, including the 400,000 Britons who once visited Tunisia every year, staying away. But Sousse hotels are full again, mostly with Russians who have switched from Egypt after the destruction last October of a Russian airliner over Sinai.
However, tourism numbers are down with many shops and businesses closed, worsening an already troubled economy. For Rafik Gadhgadhi, another beach worker who joined the human chain, the attack has cast a long shadow. His English wife, who lives in Manchester, stopped visiting Sousse with their son, who is now two and a half. “Before, she would bring him every month, we woud be together. Since then she says Tunisia is too dangerous.”
His attempts to visit wife and son in Britain have failed, with the Home Office hardening its appraisal of visas granted to Tunisians following the attack. “Its hard, most of all I want to see my son, to see him growing up, and I can’t see him,” said Gadhgadhi.
Tunisia is pressing the Foreign Office to end its travel warning, which has seen British tour companies scrap bookings, insisting the beaches are safe. “There is a big gap in the perception of security outside Tunisia compared to the real level of security on the ground,” said Tunisia’s ambassador to Britain, Nabil Ammar. “Politically speaking it is not the right answer to ban a country because it has suffered a terrorist attack.”
However, none of the 127 people arrested in the aftermath of the Sousse attack have been brought to trial, amid uncertainty about whether Rezgui operated as part of a terror cell, and weekly battles continue between Islamic State and security forces. Britain has deployed 20 troops in the south of the country to train the army in anti-terrorism skills, while the United States has quadrupled deliveries of military aid.
While the battle against Isis continues to rage, the country’s fragile democracy, delivered in its Arab spring revolution five years ago, has survived. “The bigger picture is the economy is very bad, but the politics is OK,” said Oxford University professor Michael Willis, a Tunisia specialist.