"He took some of the most beautiful roses we had, but he cannot stop the spring from coming." - Eskil Pederson, leader of the Norwegian Labour Youth Wing.
Our sympathies are with our Norse ancestors today, my home town of Dublin being an older Norse city than Oslo. Norway was hit by twin attacks - a massive bomb blast in the capital and a shooting attack on young people at a governing Labour Party youth camp. At least seven people were killed in the bombing, which inflicted huge damage on government buildings in Oslo. At least 10 more died at the camp, on Utoeya Island outside Oslo, police say. One witness said he had seen 20 bodies.
The suspected gunman was arrested at the camp and the government have confirmed that he is Norwegian. Police have said that he is also linked with the bomb attack. Reports described him as tall and blond. The prime minister and justice minister have declined to speculate on a motive behind the attack but police are saying that they believe the car bomb and the shooting are linked and that they have a suspect in custody from Utoeya.
During the day, after an initial focus on an al-Qaeda link, the possibility of domestic extremism increasingly came into focus. The choice of targets - government buildings and a political youth rally - suggested a possible political agenda rather than the mass casualty approach typically employed by al-Qaeda. Constructing a large car bomb requires a degree of sophistication and the crucial factor for the police will be establishing how many people are behind this attack, whether any are still at large and to whom they might be connected.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, whose Oslo offices were among those damaged by the bomb, described the attacks as "bloody and cowardly" in a news conference. He said that Norway had been "shaken by evil" but that Norwegian democracy and ideals would not be destroyed.
"We are a small nation and a proud nation. No-one will bomb us to silence no-one will shoot us to silence," he said.
Norway and its people have always punched above their weight on humanitarian issues, an impulse which stems from the profoundly co-operative nature of Norwegian society and the sense of mutual solidarity. It is particularly sad that this outrage happened in the home of the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Nobel Committee last Peace Prize ceremony in Oslo last December focused on an empty chair. Laureate Liu Xiaobo was still locked up in a Chinese jail, while his wife remained under house arrest.
http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/10/demand-that-china-free-liu-xiaobo.html
According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who;
“ ...shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses. ”
Alfred Nobel's will further specified that the prize be awarded by a committee of five people chosen by the Norwegian Parliament.
Blücher, Drøbak 9 April 1940
We are especially thinking of our special friends in the lovely town of Drøbak along Oslo Fjord, which played a significant part in Norway’s fight against tyranny in WW11, as many of them work in Oslo. A notable event in Drøbak's history is the World War II sinking of the German cruiser Blücher in the Drøbak narrows, on the early morning of 9 April 1940. The cruiser was transporting German soldiers and bureaucrats for the planned swift occupation of Oslo, but the sinking by the Oscarsborg fortress delayed this, and thus allowed for the evacuation of the Norwegian Royal Family, parliament, and cabinet, and for the nation's gold reserves to be denied the occupiers. The Battle of Drøbak Sound was the start of the war in Western Europe - and an end of the "Phoney War".
Our thoughts are with the good people of Norway whose open, democratic and profoundly humane society will survive this outrage and come back stronger.
Aldri så galt er godt for nook.
