Lindt Cafe siege remembered ten years on
<p>Ten years on since the horrific Lindt Cafe siege, Louisa Hope quietly placed flowers outside the former eatery where she was held hostage for almost 17 hours - a private ritual she has performed every year since. </p>
<p>“It’s something that does not go away,” she said, reflecting on the tragic day. </p>
<p>“One of my fellow hostages said to me that, every morning when he wakes up and every night before he goes to bed, he thinks about the Lindt Cafe.”</p>
<p>Hope was one of 18 people, including her mother, who were taken hostage by Man Haron Monis on December 15 2014 after he stormed into the cafe armed with a gun and explosives. </p>
<p>While a dozen people managed to escape, two of the hostages were killed, including cafe director Tori Johnson, who was executed by Monis at 2.13am the next morning, and barrister Katrina Dawson, who was caught in the crossfire when officers stormed the building.</p>
<p>On Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese laid flowers in Martin Place alongside state and federal leaders, and Dawson's parents. </p>
<p>The decision to hold a muted memorial without speeches came after discussions with the hostages and their families. </p>
<p>"It was a terrible event that traumatised this city," Albanese said. </p>
<p>Hope, who had battled PTSD symptoms, has been managing her "excruciatingly violent" thoughts and now feels a “sense of duty” to share how things can be better.</p>
<p>In August, she helped launch Victims of Terrorism Australia in August, a support and advocacy group for victims and survivors of terrorism.</p>
<p>“After the siege, when I was lying on Phillip Street, the one thing I knew in my heart was that we had to get something good out of what happened,” she said.</p>
<p>“What happened in the Lindt Cafe happened to our entire country.”</p>
<p>“There’s nothing like being in the company of people who just get it ... but also, there’s a lot of advocacy that we need to do in Australia to bring us to the international standard,” she said.</p>
<p>She has formed a friendship with Ben Besant, a former tactical operations unit officer who killed Monis.</p>
<p>Besant, who has only recently been named publicly after a suppression order forced him to be referred to as ‘Officer A’, has also opened about about his PTSD. </p>
<p>“I’ve nearly spent 20 years in the police force ... but for me, Lindt (Cafe) was always the one that I couldn’t deal with,” he told AAP. </p>
<p>The one thing he still struggles to forgive himself for was having to watch Dawson die in his arms, and the revelation that she died from fragments of police bullets. </p>
<p>“I’ve always blamed myself for that. Ultimately that’s still where a major part of the emotion comes from: that job. It was the just the one job that I couldn’t manage or deal with myself.”</p>
<p>Now a carpenter, Besant is advocating for more Australians to have an open conversation about PTSD, especially fellow police officers, first responders and military. </p>
<p>“Take the plunge, apply yourself to a fight, you have to fight to beat PTSD.”</p>
<p><em>Image: 7NEWS</em></p>
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