SWEDEN: Since Anna Lindh's murder, Swedish politicians rarely move at public events without bodyguard assistance, writes Colm O'Callaghan in Stockholm.
For Swedes, September 11th has a double significance. On this day last year, Anna Lindh, the then Swedish foreign minister, died from stab wounds inflicted the evening before.
Ms Lindh had been shopping with a friend in Stockholm's upmarket Nordiska Kompaniet department store when Mijailo Mijailovic (25) ran at her and stabbed her eight times in the chest, arm and abdomen.
Mr Mijailovic then fled and disappeared. At the nearby Karolinska hospital, surgeons began operating on Ms Lindh. But after more than 12 hours of surgery, Ms Lindh's internal organs failed. Her death sent shockwaves throughout Sweden and the rest of the world.
She became an icon in Swedish society, particularly for Swedish women. "She's given women courage and strength," says Maria Schottenius, columnist for the influential Dagens Nyheter newspaper. "As a politician, she fought for what she believed in in a spirited and charming way."
A few of Sweden's female politicians have taken over her mantle, in particular European Commissioner Ms Margot Wallström, once a close friend of Ms Lindh. Ms Wallström has become more outspoken and visible and is one of Sweden's most popular politicians. She is tipped by some as the next leader of the ruling Social Democrat party, a position Ms Lindh was expected to take one day.
Her murder has caused Swedes to question their view of themselves. The utopian notion that they lived in an open, democratic and egalitarian society was shattered. Many sociologists have described her murder as the breaking of Sweden's innocence.
"We're a bit naive," says Ms Schottenius, "and we have a feeling now that we can't be naive like that any more. We have to realise the world is not as reasonable and kind as we may have thought it was."
The open society Ms Lindh fought for and Swedes cherish has also changed following her death. Today, security arrangements surrounding the country's top politicians are much tighter. The Swedish secret police, SÄPO, has hired an extra 10-15 bodyguards and is recruiting more. "We provide dignitary protection today to any politician who feels unsafe, whether we have concrete information of a threat or not," says Mr Anders Thornberg, deputy director for the department of protection and terrorism in SÄPO.
"We have also told the government we need to look at abstract threats as well as concrete threats. That is, we need to provide protection for threats we don't know exist and not just the threats we are aware of."
The difference is visible today. At public engagements, senior politicians rarely move without bodyguard assistance.
Last September 11th, Ms Lindh had no security in the NK department store. At the time she was the leading light for the Yes side in the country's referendum on the euro currency.
The other question that her murder raised was the nature of the country's relaxed mental health laws. In the 1980s Sweden changed its system of mental health giving more responsibility to the municipal social services.
One goal was to "make life outside institutions possible". But throughout 2003, a series of incidents alarmed the authorities. Last summer, a deranged man drove a car through a pedestrian part of Stockholm's Old Town, running over 17 people and killing two. Some weeks earlier, another mentally ill man attacked several people with a metal bar, killing a 50-year-old man.
Just a few hours after Ms Lindh's death was announced, a psychiatric patient in the town of Arvika left his voluntary care and killed a five-year-old girl.
The compilation of events resulted in the Swedish government appointing a co-ordinator for psychiatric health to look into mental care in Sweden. In the short term, the co-ordinator wants 500 million kroner extra (€55 million) for mental health services next year.
The Swedish Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has noted increasing concern in Sweden about its treatment of mentally ill patients following Anna Lindh's murder.
But it will 2006 before the co-ordinator submits a full set of proposals to the government. In the meantime, the public will continue to worry about the next possible victim.