NORWAY: Flag over Norwegian parliament flies at half mast one week after the country's worst peace time massacre

Record ID: 530107

  • Title: NORWAY: Flag over Norwegian parliament flies at half mast one week after the country's worst peace time massacre
  • Date: 31st July 2011
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) PAUL BJOERBY FROM BERGEN SAYING: "Most of us have said we were indeed relieved it was a Norwegian and not an Islamist, whether he's Norwegian or not, but it also means in the long term that Norwegians have to look very deep inside for I believe that for many thousands of us there are issues that are not all that distant from the sort of the ramblings of hatred and estrangement and fear." BUILDINGS DAMAGED IN THE BLAST POLICE AND CONSTRUCTION WORKERS WIDE OF CATHEDRAL CATHEDRAL TOWER/ FLOWERS AT MEMORIAL SITE FLOWERS AND FLAGS AT MEMORIAL SITE PEOPLE LOOKING AT FLOWERS FLOWERS AND FLAGS AT MEMORIAL SITE
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Norway, Norway
  • Country: Norway
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA3NY4G5RCOOXDZE91HKQ29VWLH
  • Story Text: Oslo still bears the signs of last week's massacre. On Saturday (July 30) flags were flying at half mast, repairs to the damaged buildings continued and there are flowers all over the city.
    Last Friday (July 22) anti-Islam extremist Anders Behring Breivik massacred 77 people in attacks that traumatised the nation.
    "There will be a lot more restrictions for everybody here but I think Norway will stay with its peaceful way of life which is their character," said Herman Kos who used to live in Oslo and was now visiting his child there.
    Flowers have been placed at memorial sites, fences, lamp posts, statues and ponds all over central Oslo. Norway suspended import tolls on roses since Norwegian producers were unable to meet demand for the flowers that have become the symbol of remembrance -- a red rose is the Labour Party emblem.
    Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday evil had brought out the best in Norwegians and that view was shared by Paul Bjoerby from Bergen.
    "The immediate change has been absolutely astounding - the notion that you meet this kind of disaster with reconciliation and with peaceful messages and with decent talk and quiet and comfort and care for everyone. That has been a good moment for Norway," he said.
    But he also said Norwegians now had too take a deep look at themselves.
    "Most of us have said we were indeed relieved it was a Norwegian and not an Islamist, whether he's Norwegian or not, but it also means in the long term that Norwegians have to look very deep inside for I believe that for many thousands of us there are issues that are not all that distant from the sort of the ramblings of hatred and estrangement and fear," he said.
    On Friday evening, police raised the death toll at a Labour Party summer youth camp on Utoeya island 45 km (28 miles) from Oslo to 69 from 68. The shooting followed a bomb that killed eight people n Oslo.
    Norway plans to set up an independent "July 22 Commission" to examine the attacks, including investigating whether police reacted too slowly to the shootings at Utoeya island, when Breivik was able to kill for more than an hour.
    Police have said officers drove to Utoeya from Oslo because they had no helicopter available.
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