Sweden: "We knew about torture all along", DagensNyheter

Article printed in Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm Sweden
May 7, 2004
*note: article is in Swedish. Translated by CLiss.
http://www.dagensnyheter.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=1042&a=263293&previousRende...

"Sweden knew about torture in Iraq all along".

The Swedish government has been informed about American troops' torture of Iraqi prisoners. Reports from Swedish Amnesty are well-supported by facts, but Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivald calls them "rumours".

"There have been rumours about the conditions in the prison, and we have brought up the issue and asked for more information."

TT: Under which circumstances did you bring up these issues?

"In conversations with representatives for the US", says Freivalds.

Swedish Amnesty International says that they are considerably more than "rumours".

The Swedish Foreign Ministry receives everything that Amnesty publishes. In some cases, it can be several reports every day, says Amnesty's Press Secretary Elisabeth Löfgren to TT.

In this situation there is concrete proof of torture from many sources, and maybe this would have been cause for Sweden to take up the issue more solidly, says Löfgren who assures that for the most part, they have an excellent relationship with the Swedish government.

<snip>

Laila Freivalds calls the accusations against the US "serious to the highest degree".
<snip>
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For once, Swedish Foreign Ministry, wouldn't it have been great if you could have set aside your neutrality and stood up and voice your outrage?

I thought that was Switzerland. But you are right. Everybody knew and said nothing.

I grew up in Sweden. My parents told me stories about how the Germans came into Sweden during WWII. They took trains from Sweden to go into Norway to beat up the Norwegians. To this day, my parents are ashamed for the cowardliness of the Swedes against their brothers.

But, time has a way of equalizing things, doesn't it? (North Sea Oil). Norway now has the highest per capita income, Sweden in the meanwhile has had a lot of financial problems.

I go there often

Well, not the U.S. media anyway. They would have gone on about socialism making them soft, and started snickering about freedom meatballs and freedom massage.

You're thinking about the Swiss. Common error here in the U.S., where war teaches us geography.

. both a good place to be interned in WW2

Sweden hasn't fought in a war in several centuries, and I think they prefer it that way.

Sweden has alwasy been very outspoken about torture and peoples freedom. Late Prime Minister Palme was known for his neverending work for human rights.

One interesting bit in the article which was not mentioned in the original post, is the question as to whether Swden has become "soft" after their entry into EU. And the answer was "At least different...", basically meaning yeah, we are not as agressive as we were prior to entry into EU.

I love swedes (coming from the country west of Sweden), but I have to agree, Sweden has changed over the past 10 years, and not for the better.

the last to find out.

And the RW is angry that our media ran the pictures, as if it somehow is going to cause new problems for the soldiers. Please. This wasn't news to anyone in the Middle East.

They, along with most of the rest of the world, are leery of the unhinged and rabid behavior of this administration. We can not rely on the rest of the world to do our dirty work.