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– NATIONAL DEFEAT: Labor leader Jonas Gahr Støre says it will be a great defeat for Norway as a nation, if after ten years you don’t finish a memorial in Utøyakaia. Photo: Naina Helén Jåma / Naina Helén Jåma, VG
Labor leader Jonas Gahr Støre says it is not worthy of Norway if, after ten years, they fail to place a national monument to the victims of the July 22 terrorism in Utøya.
– I think it is good to say that enough is enough and that it will be a sad defeat for our common national action if Norway, ten years after the terror of July 22, 2011, remains without a national monument in Utøyakaia, says Støre. VG.
Next year will mark ten years since the terrorist attack in Utøya, which killed 69 participants in the AUF summer camp.
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– A great defeat for Norway as a nation
Last week, it was announced that the Ringerike District Court is upholding the neighbors’ approval for work on the memorial site at Utøya Pier to be temporarily halted. However, the construction of the road and the pier can continue.
The residents’ complaint will be heard in the district court on November 30. In his response, his lawyer accuses Støre, further down in the case, of trying to influence the courts.
DISPUTE: Construction of the memorial site in Utøya has been stopped. This is what the Utøyakaia memorial site looked like on Monday. Photo: Jørgen Braastad
Støre acknowledges that it is biased, but says there are national dimensions that go far beyond the local dispute.
– It will be a great defeat for Norway as a nation, but it is worse for the survivors and the survivors, says Støre about the nine-year process, which has yet to bring the survivors and those who survived can get a monument to collect about.
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– The trial must go its own way, but …
He says it is important to have the monument in place next year.
– We have seen that memorials are important, in part because they provide security and a point of reference that makes it easier to live with the pain and pain that you carry with you all your life, when you lose your children or some of your loved ones such a terrorist act, he says and adds:
– It will be a dignified and discreet expression of solidarity and support from our nation that we place a monument on the Utøya pier.
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– Don’t you understand that the neighbors are critical because it will cause traffic and constantly evoke bad memories?
– It has been taken into account that it has moved away from the first location of the memorial. Statsbygg has done a thorough job. Fortunately, they manage to continue working on the dock and the supply line.
– Is it the trial that will decide the outcome?
– The trial must go its own way, but now many of those most affected in Utøya feel that enough is enough. Many are rightly angry and frustrated. I understand them well. Many victims of terrorism are still fighting and the perseverance they experience with the monument is like salt in their wounds.
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– To never forget
Støre points to other memorials as well as the youth of today.
– A memorial is important in order to manage grief and loss, and show that we remember those we lost. The Ground Zero Memorial in New York is a good example. But it is also important to teach the new generations, so that something so cruel is never repeated, he says.
– Is there already a memorial site in Utøya?
– Yes, it’s the AUF memorial. But we need a national monument that everyone can visit, both to remember and never to forget. We, as people, need it.
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Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen
The memorial site will include 77 bronze columns, one for each of the 77 people killed on July 22, 2011.
He accuses Støre of not having studied the case
Attorney Ole Hauge Bendiksen represents residents who do not want a monument.
– It really does not surprise me that authorized persons speak like Støre, but I find it strange that he does, apparently without having studied the case documents and the court ruling, says Bendiksen and refers specifically to the health element.
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– It is about raising a memorial against the risk of damage to health. A good portion of the residents saved lives in the water off the Utøya pier on July 22. They were shot and some are very traumatized today. And then they should be on the lookout for reminders of trauma. The problem is that they cannot get away from the reminders, if a memorial is built, which will constantly remind them of the traumas they have been through, says Bendiksen, adding:
– For me, Støre’s statements seem adequate to influence the judiciary. Here a more humble tone should be set and, to a greater extent, express an acknowledgment of the division of power found between politicians and the judiciary.
