Protesters who disrupted Anzac Day commemorations in Australia have been branded “a disgrace”, as ceremonies take place across the world.
Anti-indigenous rights protestors heckled and booed at two ceremonies paying tribute to Australian and New Zealand soldiers who lost their lives in conflicts.
Their actions have been labelled an act of “low cowardice” by the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, following the disruption at dawn-lit services in Perth and Melbourne on Friday.
Anzac Day is held every year on 25 April and commemorates when troops of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) landed on the beaches of Gallipoli in northwest Turkey in 1915.
Today, it remembers the contribution of all Australian and New Zealand forces. It is considered Australia’s most unifying national holiday.
In Melbourne, a group of hecklers, including a self-described Neo-Nazi, jeered at a dawn service at the Shrine of Remembrance where 50,000 people had gathered.
Meanwhile, a man yelled briefly during a service at Kings Park in Perth before the assembled crowd of 25,000 people persuaded him to stay silent, a police statement said.
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The disruptions were triggered by the so-called Welcome to Country ceremonies, which are held at the beginning of many Australian public events. During the ceremonies, indigenous leaders welcome visitors to their traditional lands.
Hecklers in Melbourne responded “this is our country” and “we don’t have to be welcomed,” echoing a slogan of the minor Australian political party, Trumpet of Patriots.
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‘Beyond contempt’
It comes at a time of heightened political tensions in the country ahead of the general election on 3 May, in which indigenous rights are a campaign issue.
Mr Albanese called the protestors a “disgrace” and said there’s “no place in Australia for what occurred”.
“The disruption of Anzac Day is beyond contempt, and the people responsible must face the full force of the law,” he said.
“This was an act of low cowardice on a day when we honour courage and sacrifice.”
The Melbourne-based First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, an Indigenous advocacy group, added in a statement that it “strongly condemns the racist attack during the Welcome to Country” in Melbourne.
Royals attend ceremonies
In the UK, the King released a statement paying tribute to Australian and New Zealand forces both former and current. He has previously attended dawn ceremonies at Gallipoli in 2005 and 2015.
He said: “Through the generations, you have continued to enact the indomitable spirit of Anzac- forged in terrible conflict and preserved in peace – of courage, mateship and sacrifice.”
Meanwhile, the Princess Royal attended a ceremony at Anzac Cove in Gallipoli, where she paid tribute to the soldiers’ “bravery, courage and sacrifice”.
Princess Anne laid a wreath for the fallen soldiers of several nationalities and met with New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
The Duchess of Edinburgh also took part in the annual Anzac Day commemorations in London’s Hyde Park Corner and was joined by Australians and New Zealanders for a dawn service.
She also attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the Cenotaph at a service of thanksgiving at Westminster Abbey.
