It’s been 13 years since a young right-wing terrorist killed 77 of his fellow Norwegians, both in downtown Oslo and at the Norwegian Labour Party’s youth summer camp on the island of Utøya. Survivors gathered again this week to honour the victims and implore others to never forget the attacks, especially at a time when freedom and democracy are under threat.
“We’d hoped everything we learned in Norway, about what led to the July 22nd attacks, would bring a halt to expressions of hatred, violence and threats,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said during his speech outside Oslo’s bombed government complex that’s still being rebuilt. “But that hasn’t happened.”
Instead, Støre noted, new wars and conflicts from Russia to the Middle East and Africa have broken out, stifling opposition and spreading more hatred, harassment and death. “We see that radicalized, extreme attitudes still gain support, while conspiracy theories and false information spread,” Støre said.
In remarks later in the day, at another memorial held on Utøya, Støre stressed that “we must be honest about the threats our society meets today … whether they’re coming from countries invading with force, like Russia in Ukraine, or radicalized groups and criminal gangs that make everyday life unsafe.” He called upon survivors of the attacks on Utøya, and everyone else, to stand up against forces that threaten freedom and democracy.
While two survivors of the attacks are now members of Støre’s Labour-led government, others fear the tragedy can be forgotten as time marches on. Labour Minister Tonje Brenna and Health Minister Jan Christian Vestre stress that everyone is responsible for making sure that such terrorism is never forgotten.
“I think we adults must dare to speak with children and youth about July 22,” Brenna told news bureau NTB, who tried to protect and comfort terrified fellow campers on Utøya while the gunman kept shooting. Vestre added that “all of us who live in Norway are guardians of the Norwegian democracy. Everyone has a responsibility to object to attitudes that can lead to hate, violence and less tolerance.”
Norwegian schools are also being held responsible for making children and youth aware of the attacks and the extremist attitudes behind them. Some new teachers were children themselves on July 22, 2011, and admit to not remembering them clearly enough. The next young leader of Labour’s youth organization may be the last to have experienced the attacks first-hand.
Other survivors of the attacks have claimed this week that July 22 is more than just a dark piece of Norwegian history. “Even though it’s painful, we as a society must continue to let ourselves be shocked,” wrote Ina Rangønes Libak in newspaper Aftenposten on Monday, that a right-wing extremist could kill 77 people in the course of a single summer afternoon.
That’s why the memorials continue to be held, year after year, attracting government leaders, other top politicians and the general public. Outgoing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg took time once again to attend the memorial outside his old office in downtown Oslo. Stoltenberg was the Labour Party’s leader and prime minister at the time, and Støre was his foreign minister, and both lost dozens of young friends and aspiring colleagues.
Lena Fahre, director of the July 22 Center in Oslo, wrote in newspaper Dagsavisen that sorrow “has no expiration date,” stressing that the memorials are important. “We are working every day to make sure we never forget” the attacks 13 years ago, she wrote. “We aim to clarify and share the reasons for and consequences of the terrorist attacks and everything tied to them, like radicalization, racism, conspiracy theories and anti-feminism. That’s our mandate.”
A new and permanent July 22 Center will be part of the rebuilt government complex at the site of the bombing, which occurred before the terrorist moved on to Utøya. The current center has a permanent exhibit about the attacks and a new exhibit entitled “Your words have meaning,” based on comments from the public collected over the years. It will be open through the summer.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
