Norway in Sorrow

This just arrived from Finn:

A week ago today we were informed about a heavy explosion in what is known as the Government Quarter in Oslo. The possibility of a gas leak was mentioned but when we got the pictures on TV we all thought of an Al Quaida attack and a tremendous bomb blast. Soon experts disregarded Al Quaida. This did not have "their mark". Fortunately it happened late Friday in a vacation period. Relatively few people were in the departmental offices And the Prime minister was at his residence.


An hour or so later we were informed of shooting at Utoya (the outer island) where the Labour Party has conducted their summer camps for decades. Here were now six hundred youngsters and a few adults to assist them. Our former prime minster Gro Harlem Brundtland had given a speech at the camp two hours earlier.

We soon heard that the police had identified the person responsible for both the bomb and the shootings. He was ethnic norwegian and my reaction was that, as bad as it was, at least he was one of our own and not one of our new fellow citizens. After he was apprehended by the terror troop, the police reported that ten persons were killed at the camp and six at the government offices.

The next morning we were informed that the number of victims were increased to 80 plus. In addition several critically ill were at the hospital. Today we hear that the critically injured most likely will make it. Also, it turned out that in the chaos counting of the dead was a little off. So what?

After this happening we have seen an unbelivable participation in the mourning by people all of the country. Outside City Hall in Oslo there were 200,000 persons with roses in their hands listening to the Prime Minister and the Crown Prince and several others. The main theme was to avoid hate and fright and to keep our open society the way it is. Our police walks in the streets without weapons and they will continue to do so.

Breivik is now in max security prison and will remain there for a long time to come. Death penalty is out in Europe and most of us agree with that. Max legal penalty is 21 years or 30 if the crime has been socall «against humanity». Thereafter he may be kept in an insitution for mentally ill. Hardly will he ever walk streets again.

Our muslims were scared to death that it was one of theirs». It turned out to be an ultra extreme far right politically person. They are in any country. Difficult to protect against. Nobody had ever heard of this man. A goodlooking fellow with nice manners.

Foreign journalists have criticised that we were not prepared for such an incident. We did not have a helicopter ready to bring the terror troops into action. The police boat that took them to the island had motor trouble. As the prime minister said.....we should remain an open society but would not have to be naive.

These gruesome happenings from last Friday have brought as all together here ..... like you wouldn't believe. Soon we will be back to everyday life but history is there. All the hundreds of thousands of flowers shall be collected and composted into earth and later used to create a site for reminiscence, for remembering the young, 14 and up to sixty that died in this unbelievable massacre.

For Berit and myself it has been a week full of questions and TV and tears. We did not know any of the victims. We did not vote with the Labour Party, but politics are put aside. We have seen people hug each other and cry over the tremendous loss. We can so well understand the sorrow, being a parent or not.

When we see what one man's hate can do, think of what the love all these people can do.

Thanks for sending mails and for calls from far and near.