The other day, images from the CCTV at the NK department store, where foreign minister Anna Lindh was stabbed to death, leaked to the media. Until now, these images have been published in Swedish media with the face blurred.
Now, the police will publish the pictures unblurred, according to Svenska Dagbladet.
No substantial news from the police yet this morning, although they claim to be optimistic. After all, they do have what appears to be the weapon, clothes, description from many witnesses.
The killing came at a time with intense political campaigning in Sweden. This is the last week before the euro referendum on Sunday. Both campaigns appears to have saved much energy to be spent during the last days before the election. The public space - both the symbolic and actual agora - was filled with people debating, handing out information material &c. It was a feast for democracy. Now, everything is quiet. No one debates. No one hands out flyers. No one - almost - wears badges showing which camp of the referendum one belongs to. A number of stabs with a knife in a Stockholm store turned intense political activity to political silence, energy to trauma and sorrow.
That the political activities stops is understandable. The Swedish society tries to heal the wounds. Who would want to discuss politics at a time like this? Our thoughts go out to Anna Lindh’s family and others close to her. They have lost a mother, a wife, a friend.
Since political campaigning has ground to a halt (for these obvious reasons), it feels like the attack was an attack on the democratic society, even though the referendum will take place on Sunday. I suspect many voters will turn up on Sunday.
Already, there are critical voices raised about the police. Such a discussion, inevitable that it is, must wait some time. Anna Lindh still has not been buried. The nation is in chock. The police are searching for suspects.
But when all these things clears, in the coming months and years, the political system in Sweden is open to changes. A debate about fundamental political values, as well as the political practices in Sweden, will probably take place.
Yesterday, PM Persson said that he envisioned a future with more collaboration between the political blocs (traditionally sorted in two camps, left and right). That is one possibility. But some will also argue about the need for a profound discussion about the political institutions and the political culture in our country. A period of soul searching; who are we, what do we want with our politics, how do we best combine the great tradition of openness with the obvious needs of personal basic safety for all citizens, including top politicians?
Another possible development is that as the shock and terror withers away, as the nation’s present feeling of unnormality disappears and people adapt and realign with the new situation, Swedish pragmatism takes over in full force.
Who knows what will happen? I don’t. At the moment I try to cope with daily life. It is not that easy.
The police have begun to go through the footage from surveillance cameras in the Stockholm subway system according to Svenska Dagbladet.
PM Göran Persson will address the nation at 8 pm tonight.
DNA analysis of the material collected so far will take about five days. When done, the results can be matched with records in a DNA data bank, according to Dagens Nyheter. Per Snaprud and Karin Bojs, science journalists at DN, also report that Marie Allen of Uppsala university, “one of the world’s foremost experts” on mitochondrial DNA presently is at a conference in Paris but is prepared to come back home to Sweden immediately.
Dagens Nyheter, the big daily paper, reports that the ambulance arrived at the crime scene 50 seconds after the 112 call. The police: 9 minutes and 58 seconds.
Here is a statement in English from PM Persson, issued earlier today.
On the television: “a true internationalist” - Kofi Annan praises foreign minister Anna Lindh.
Erik Stattin, blogger extraordinaire, runs a ping-page that tracks Swedish blogs on the Anna Lindh assassination.
The police is having a press conference at the moment. Below are some stuff from the live broadcast. (Beware of grammatical and other errors; I type this as it happens.)
People from several branches are there; ordinary police, security police, prosecutor &c.
The forensic lab in Linköping is working closely on the material collected so far.
The police will stage press conferences at 3 pm the coming days.
The police is thankful for the amount of statements sent to them (they operate a telephone number).
A number of witnesses are being interviewed. The forensic lab is studying the knife and other artifacts but no final analysis is ready, yet. They are looking for DNA and fingerprint evidence.
They seem to think a lone guy did it.
The secret police (in charge of politicians’ security) defends their assessment of there being no security threat to minister Lindh.
They don’t want to say yet where they found the clothes.
The surveillance cameras looks unpromising; they are “direct surveillance” and do not tape the sceneries.
Danish journalist asks about why the Danish police did not get the information on the suspect’s appearance.
One journalist wonders how the responsible person (name?) for the protection of politician’s lives could remain on his post.
Nothing points to the fact that the deed was planned in advance.
One hour after the incident, police in other parts of Sweden were not informed. Why? (”No comment”.)
When was the latest threat analysis on minister Lindh performed. (Fuzzy answer.)
The knife: when will analysis be ready. No direct answer, but the police want a transparent media situation.
They do not want to give information on what kind of knife was used.
Why wasn’t the subway closed? “We did not do that interpretation”.
To sum up: I think the police doesn’t seem to have much to go on. They have a knife and some clothes and a lot of witnesses, but at the moment it seems that the police is in the dark. To me it seems the police could have been a bit more quick in closing down the immediate surroundings, closing Stockholm, closing borders &c. Just like when PM Palme was shot in 1986.
Anna Lindh had two young kids. They have now lost their mother, because she worked as a publically visible person, as a politician. The most publical sphere, the agora, meets the most personal sphere.
Will this affect the future recruitment of politicians?
When I cycled home from work - I find it hard to work at the moment - the euro campaign activities on Stortorget, the main square of Lund, were closed.
Turning on the TV I find that PM Göran Persson says that the parliament’s parties have decided to go ahead with the euro referendum on Sunday. The campaign activities will, however, cease.
At two o’clock, in a quarter’s time, there will be a press conference from the hospital where Anna Lindh was treated.
Latest Comments