Norway vows not to change after attacks, but fears it must focus 08/04/2011

Norway vows not to change after attacks, but fears it must

focus

08/04/2011
OSLO — Long considered one of the world’s safest and most peaceful countries, Norway is braced for changes to its traditionally open society after the deadly twin attacks on July 22.

Sweden was shaken by the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme and later foreign minister Anna Lindh, Denmark has lived with a constant threat of attacks since the Mohammed cartoon crisis, and Finland has suffered two large-scale school shootings.

For a long time, it has seemed that Norway had avoided the fate of its neighbors, but when rightwing extremist Anders Behring Breivik on July 22 first bombed government offices in Oslo before going on a shooting rampage at a Labour Party youth camp, killing in all 77 persons, the Scandinavian country in turn shed its sheltered innocence.

“There will be a before and after July 22,” acknowledged Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who has created an independent commission to draw up a report on the lessons that must be learned from the massacre..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110804com6.html