From: detcom-AT-sprynet.com
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 1996 23:37:06 -0800
Subject: M-G: Sweden:  From Home of the Nobel Prize to the Kingdom of Xenophobia



>FROM EL DIARIO INTERNACIONAL  - NUMBER 37
OCTOBER 1996 - PUBLISHED IN BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

-------------------------------------

SWEDEN:  FROM HOME OF THE NOBEL PRIZE TO THE KINGDOM OF 
XENOPHOBIA

Sweden is a world famous kingdom, home of the Nobel Prize for 
literature, Arts, Science and Peace. This prize was established 
by one of Sweden's most famous subjects, Alfred Nobel who, 
paradoxically, was also the inventor of dynamite.

Sweden is a country with a tradition of organising main events in 
peace promotion and its neutrality is a long established factor 
of pride for its citizens. It was the only Scandinavian country 
to remain out of the Second World War.  This "neutrality" served 
the Swedes well in the business of supplying both sides with war 
materials, steel, munitions, and other commercial goods.  They 
even supplied the Nazi regime.  Persevering in this proud Swedish 
tradition, BOFORS, the Swedish conglomerate, has recently been 
accused of illegal weapons sales to the Middle East, concretely, 
to Bahrain.

Seminars and Conferences against racism proliferate in Sweden. 
However, in a little town in the South an "invandra" - a 
foreigner - from the Ivory Coast was savagely beaten up by some 
local neo-Nazi skin head youths.  The bleeding "invandra" was 
left for dead in the middle of a local park.  His crime: to be 
black.

The next day, the victim died without receiving assistance from 
anyone.  The main culprit in this outrage was dealt with with 
typical pacifist Swedish leniency.  He was condemned to two years 
of daily attendance to a rehabilitation centre with the 
possibility of remission for good behaviour. 

While pleasure seeking sex-tourism is organised by Swedish 
subjects so as to satisfy their sexual perversions on Thailand's 
children, the struggle against child exploitation has its 
apparent champions in a Swedish organisation by the name of RADDA 
BARNEN. RADDA BARNEN collects funds in Sweden ostensibly to help 
Third World children. However, in reality, RADDA BARNEN engages 
in child exploitation of an equally perverse sort: They 
manipulate the children for the sole purpose of propping up 
brutal and tyrannical regimes. 

A pathetic case in hand is the blatant manner in which all RADDA 
BARNEN's "studies" in Peru are exclusively directed to buttress 
the criminal Fujimori gang.   

Swedish bureaucrats are specialists in screaming about those they 
regard as "terrorists".  However, not only were they unable to 
avert the assassination of Olof Palme, their Prime Minister, but 
it is also a fact that the tracks of the authors of this crime 
are lost in the labyrinthine corridors of Sweden's officialdom. 
The most prudent journalists have accused the Swedish police of 
negligence and complicity on this.  


During the period of growth in the Swedish economy and when 
labour power was at a premium, political refugees and all kinds 
of migrants were given the red carpet treatment.

Today, Swedes do no longer bother to disguise their stern and 
unwelcoming faces from those requesting political asylum.  In the 
case of Peruvians - who have been demonised as terrorists and 
Shining Path supporters - things stand quite a lot worse.  Many 
Peruvian citizens have suffered the consequences of the 
xenophobic repression dealt out by the Swedish authorities.

THE PROOFS

On two occasions, two Peruvian citizens who were being taken back 
to Peru by the Swedish police were able to escape their 
custodians while the plane made a scheduled stop over in 
Amsterdam.  They were admitted into Holland and given the status 
of asylum seekers.  Despite the protestations of the Swedish 
regime, the Dutch government found their asylum requests to be 
well grounded and granted these people the status of refugees.

After his asylum petition was denied, the Swedish police took 
Napoleon Aponte directly to Peru.  In Lima's airport, the feared 
anti-terrorist police - DINCOTE - awaited him. He was taken to a 
prison and tortured.  A year later, and thanks to international 
pressure, he was released without charge. Shortly afterwards, and 
under renewed harassment from DINCOTE, he was forced to leave his 
country again.

He returned to Sweden and once more requested asylum.  Again he 
was turned down.  Finally, thanks to an outcry in the Swedish 
press, he was accepted as a political refugee.  Today he lives 
legally in that country.

Another case is that of Jorge Paez.  His asylum request was 
turned down. Paez went underground to avoid persecution by the 
Swedish police looking for him to implement his expulsion.  While 
on the run he was able to alert the Human Rights Commission of 
the European Union to the particulars of his claim.  This 
institution - shaming and over-ruling the Swedish government's 
decision - came out in favour of regarding Paez's application as 
genuine.
David Sanchez was also turned down for asylum and ordered to be 
expelled from Sweden. Here too the local press took up the 
cudgels on his behalf and this dramatic story forced the 
reluctant Swedish authorities to review his case.  
Another poignant human tragedy is that of Amaru Zapata.  This man 
and his family were denied asylum.  The family was forced to live 
underground for a whole year until the Swedish police arrested 
Zapata's wife and children.  They took them to Arlanda airport to 
carry out the expulsion orders and deliver them into the hands of 
the Peruvian regime. In desperation, Amaru Zapata drenched 
himself in petrol and set fire to himself causing horrendous 
burns.  He was taken to the Karolina Hospital in Stockholm.

Currently, there are hundreds of asylum seekers suffering 
directly from the repressive measures of the Swedish regime.  
These people, the majority of them Peruvian citizens, have been 
turned down for asylum and are forced to live underground.  This 
harsh life is better - they say - than having to suffer torture 
in Peru's "democratic prisons".

We should support the struggle that FREDDEA, the Asylum Rights 
Defence Front in Sweden is developing.  There is a need to unmask 
the hypocritical Swedish regime as violator of all international 
laws upholding the right of political asylum for genuine 
claimants. 

(This article was written by a correspondent of El Diario who has 
lived in Sweden for a number of years).

===============================================================Posted by:
Peru Support Committee/Detroit
P.O. Box 23306
Detroit, MI     48223   USA
phone: 313 730-5213 (messages)
email:  detcom-AT-sprynet.com



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