“FREEDOM IS stronger than fear,” Norway’s King Harald told his nation yesterday, hoping to unite a people shattered by the killing of 77 people last month by an anti-immigration zealot.
The king spoke, often in a trembling voice, at a national ceremony of remembrance for those killed by Anders Behring Breivik, who detonated a car bomb in Oslo and shot young people at a Labour Party camp on Utoeya island outside the capital.
Relatives sobbed when the names of the dead were read out one by one, while pictures of them were projected onto a screen.
“I maintain a belief that freedom is stronger than fear,” said King Harald. “It is good to be together at this time . . . As a father, grandfather and spouse, I can only begin to sense some of the pain you feel. As king of the nation I feel for every one of you.”
Dressed in a black suit and with tears in his eyes, the 74-year-old monarch praised the work of emergency workers and others who helped save lives on July 22nd.
Some 6,700 people attended the Oslo ceremony, including relatives of the victims, survivors, police, firemen and emergency personnel who dealt with the attacks.
The Norwegian royal family, the presidents of Finland and Iceland, Swedish Crown Princess Victoria and Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik attended too, as did all the Nordic prime ministers and diplomats from many countries.
When the victims’ names were read out by five Norwegian actors, relatives could not hold back their tears. A man who seemed to shout out one of the victims’ names was helped out of the hall.
Prime minister Jens Stoltenberg said: “Today we are stopping the clock to remember the dead. We are doing so as a nation.” Norway, he said, must stand firm behind its democratic values to fight extremism. – (Reuters)