NORWAY-ATTACK/UTOYA ISLAND Four years after Breivik attack, Norway's Utoya island to host summer camp again

Record ID: 144984

  • Title: NORWAY-ATTACK/UTOYA ISLAND Four years after Breivik attack, Norway's Utoya island to host summer camp again
  • Date: 5th August 2015
  • Summary: UTOYA, NORWAY (AUGUST 5, 2015) (REUTERS) UTOYA ISLAND NORWEGIAN LABOUR YOUTH ORGANISATION (AUF) BUILDING ON ISLAND SIGN ON BUILDING READING "AUF UTOYA" VARIOUS OF HEGNHUSET LEARNING CENTRE POSTER READING "HEGNHUSET" TREE WITH MEMORIAL PLACARD MEMORIAL PLACARD READING (Norwegian): "UTOYA, 18 JULY 2011. IN MEMORY OF THOSE AUF MEMBERS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES." CAFETERIA THAT HAS
  • Embargoed: 20th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Norway
  • Country: Norway
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA1VRWMIWY6LW8HBCUKXYDNRIGG
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Four years after Anders Behring Breivik went on a shooting rampage that left 69 dead, the Norwegian island of Utoya was ready to welcome members of the Labour Youth Organisation once again, it announced on Wednesday (August 5).
    Breivik detonated a bomb in a government building in central Oslo, killing his first eight victims, on July 22, 2011.
    He then travelled to Utoya island, around 40 kilometres from Oslo, and shot dead dozens of people -- many of them teenagers attending a summer camp organised by the then-ruling Labour Party's youth wing AUF.
    The AUF leader said more than 1,000 youth were expected to attend the camp.
    "Tomorrow, Thursday, our island will once again fill up with committed Labour youth. But today I'm proud to tell you with certainty that we expect over one thousand Labour youth to attend this year's summer camp at Utoya," Mani Hussaini told a news conference on the island.
    Hussaini was confident that this year's camp will be a successful tribute to the victims of the attack.
    "In 50 years' time we would like the Labour youth to sit at Utoya and discuss the fact that more than one thousand Labour youths attended Utoya in 2015. That the fight we fought has been won and that they fight new ones. This is our vision for the future," he said.
    For the past three summers, the youth wing's camps have been held elsewhere while the buildings were renovated on the island.
    Most of the buildings damaged during the attack have been rebuilt, and a memorial has been erected to commemorate the dead.
    The memorial is a metal circle suspended between trees with the names of the victims engraved.
    The hardest task has been to remove the physical signs of the attack, such as bullet holes in the cafe, but at the same time create an appropriate place of commemoration.
    Project Manager Jorgen Watne Frydnes said the memorial on Utoya is meant to serve as a more private memorial for those directly affected.
    "We believe that the memorial will be a beautiful place to commemorate. It is sophisticated yet unpretentious and where anyone, regardless of their social culture or religious background, can come for remembrance and reflection," he said.
    Ragnhild Kaski, who survived the attack, said she was looking forward to seeing the youth back on the island.
    "It feels really good knowing that tomorrow there will be a lot of AUF members, young people coming to the Island maybe for the first time and that they're going to be able to attend the summer camp out here," Kaski said.
    Now aged 36, Breivik, a right-wing anti-Muslim radical who accused Labour of allowing too much immigration, is serving a 21-year prison term, Norway's maximum sentence.
    It can be extended if he is judged to be a threat at the end.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register