| Already shouldering an unthinkable burden, at least three female hostages showed remarkable composure when they were forced to record videos conveying the demands of fanatical gunman Man Haron Monis on Monday. In the videos, the frightened women were made to address the lens while a fellow hostage held up Monis' Shahada flag in the background. Australians have become grimly accustomed to videos depicting hostages and Islamic flags but ones filmed in battlefields far away, not in an inner-city cafe next to a poster extolling a "love for chocolate".
The videos, in which the hostages referred to their captor as "the brother" or "our brother" contained three broad demands. Monis wanted an Islamic State flag delivered to the Lindt Chocolate Cafe, a conversation with Tony Abbott broadcast live and for media to tell their audiences Australia was under an IS attack.
The footage, uploaded to YouTube and since removed, contained claims that hostages would be released in return for the demands being met. Chillingly, two hostages - Selina Win Pe and Marcia Mikhael - spoke of three or four bombs dotted throughout Sydney's CBD. There is nothing yet to suggest this was true.
The videos appeared to be an escalation of Monis' attempts to use the media to carry his warped message. His demands had already been disseminated via his captors' social media accounts but were not spreading far, at the request of police and the hostages' families.
Two of the reluctant video messengers, Mrs Mikhael - who paramedics carried from the scene with suspected leg wounds - and Sydney barrister Julie Taylor, who grew up in Perth, said they could "not understand why" the demands had not been met.
"They are not unreasonable," Mrs Mikhael said. "He's only asking for a flag and a phone call and that's it."The videos, too, were not broadcast by mainstream media at the request of authorities.
Ms Win Pe was made to call the Daily Telegraph and Monis cynically attempted to play Sydney's newspaper rivals off against one another."He wants us to send you a video to post as soon as possible, exclusively, otherwise he wants it to go to Sydney Morning Herald," Ms Win Pe told a Daily Telegraph journalist, agitation creeping into her voice.
"Get us out of here, publish the video."
Lindt cafe worker, 19-year-old student Jarrod Hoffman, was forced to call radio station 2GB after several hostages escaped."He says an eye for an eye," Mr Hoffman said. "If someone else runs, someone dies."The call was not played live to air and Monis was denied his platform.
source au.news.yahoo.com
Read about 16 hrs of terror - SMH
Daily Telegraph about negotiations between police and Moni | 
