Friday 25 April 2014

Around the world, Anzac Day

Anzac Day is being commemorated right across the globe.
United Kingdom
Expat Kiwis and Australians have gathered at Wellington Arch in Hyde Park, London to remember the fallen.
The New Zealand and Australian High Commissions are holding three joint commemorative ceremonies in London - a dawn service, a wreath laying ceremony at the Cenotaph and a service at Westminster Abbey.
Thailand
Under a jungle canopy in the dawn light some 1200 people, including three Australian former prisoners of war, now in their 90s, marked Anzac Day at the Konyu Cutting along the Death Railway in Western Thailand.
New Zealand Ambassador to Thailand, Tony Lynch, in an address, told how the tranquility of the cutting today masked a darker era.
"I cannot even try to evoke in words what it much have been like here in 1942 and 1943. But it is said that Hell Fire Pass once looked and was a living image of Hell itself," Lynch said.
"Only those here at that time can truly know and understand the extremes of human emotion and the challenges of the human condition once witnessed in this place," he said.
The Konyu Cutting, known as Hell Fire Pass, now a memorial with a museum, was one of many excavations along the railway construction from 1942 to 1943.
Turkey
A smaller-than-expected crowd at Gallipoli for the Anzac Day dawn service has been reminded that reverential silence on the often eerily quiet Turkish peninsula is a tribute to the diggers who died in 1915.
Just 4400 mostly Australian and New Zealand pilgrims turned out this year ahead of the 2015 centenary commemorations which will see 10,500 people crammed on to North Beach.
ONE News Europe correspondent Jessica Mutch is in Gallipoli and will provide the latest details from the ceremony at Anzac Cove.
Australia's Veterans' Affairs Minister Michael Ronaldson said the soldiers who mistakenly landed at Anzac Cove 99 years ago were, by their own admission, ordinary men.
"They did not seek glory, nor did they want their actions to be glorified - for it was they who quickly came to know the true horror of war," the minister said as the sun rose over the Gallipoli cliffs.
Some 8700 Australians died during the eight-month campaign alongside 2700 New Zealanders.
It's estimated up to 87,000 Turks lost their lives.
Royals in Canberra
The Duke and Duchess have made a surprise appearance at the dawn service in Canberra at the Australian War Memorial.
The royal couple arrived just before 5am local time for the service on what is the last day of their Australia tour.
Prince William, who served in the RAF for several years, was wearing his service medals.
Elsewhere in Australia
In Australia Corporal Kevin Rankin has told reporters that Sydney's dawn service is one of the best.
"It was great, very good," the bright-eyed soldier said. "I went to Canberra last year and they're all unique. But it doesn't take away from how great this one is."
Thousands were crammed into Martin Place, standing sombrely as dignitaries, veterans and serving defence personnel arrived in the early morning dark.
Afghanistan veterans will lead this march, expected to feature about 20,000 former and current defence personnel, and retired private Weston thinks this is a "good tribute" to the younger soldiers.
Thousands have also attended a dawn service in Adelaide in South Australia. As part of the service, government, military and community representatives laid wreaths at the war memorial including acting premier John Rau and SA governor Kevin Scarce.
Brisbane's Anzac Square was also the stage of another dawn service attended by thousands in Queensland, with many in the crowd attending for the first time, spurred by the 2015 centenary of the landing at Anzac Cove.
In the state of Victoria, thousands more walked through the trees in Kings Domain in Melbourne towards the Shrine of Remembrance for their Anzac Day dawn service.
Also in Queensland, a dawn service was held on a Gold Coast beach, with crowds gathering at a dawn service on the shores of the Currumbin Surf Lifesaving Club.
Kiribati
New Zealand's Foreign Minister Murray McCully has laid a wreath in Kiribati this morning at a memorial for 17 New Zealanders who were beheaded by Japanese soldiers in the central Pacific during WWII.
The fallen kiwi men were coastwatchers, stationed in the Pacific Islands to monitor enemy movements.
ONE News Pacific Island correspondent Barbara Dreaver who is in Kiribati for the commemorations described this morning's ceremony in Kiribati as "emotional" and said the tribute to the New Zealand coastwatchers was attended by Kiribati's president.
Antarctica
The Anzac spirit has reached as far afield as Antarctica, with a special service being held at Scott Base this morning.
Two young and hardy Kiwis and Australians even braved the minus 50 degree weather to lower their flag to half mast.
 Credit: Isaac Pio, Antarctica New Zealand Tech Support  
Credit: Isaac Pio,Antarctica New Zealand Tech Support
United States
A series of dawn services are set to take place around the United States later today and overnight (New Zealand time).
ONE News US correspondent Jack Tame says a dawn service will be held at the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in New York where several hundred people are expected.
Tame says there'll also be dawn services in Washington D.C and Los Angeles. A special annual memorial commemorating the Anzac soldiers will also take place this Sunday at the Rockefeller Centre in New York on the building's rooftop gardens.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has sent out a message commemorating our Anzac soldiers. In his statement, Mr Kerry says "we will never forget those who have made the ultimate sacrifice".
"The legacy of these brave and determined individuals and their families is extraordinary and enduring. They continue to represent your countries proudly at home and around the world in support of peace, democracy, and freedom," says Mr Kerry.

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