The Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oslo
Press Division – Editor: Mette S. Øwre

Norway Daily No. 160/02

Date: 26 August 2002

Could be difficult to deport suspected terrorist (Aftenposten/Saturday)

Legal experts believe it could be difficult to expel suspected Kurdish terrorist Mullah Krekar because his wife, children, mother and brother have all been granted Norwegian citizenship. Norwegian immigration legislation makes it very difficult to split families in this way. Yesterday afternoon Local Government and Regional Affairs Minister Erna Solberg was handed the Immigration Directorate’s report on Mullah Krekar. "Mullah Krekar is not in Norway. No one will therefore be harmed if we take the time we need to review all the facts in the case," said Ms Solberg.

Hagen calls for full inquiry into Krekar affair (Aftenposten)

Progress Party chairman Carl I. Hagen has demanded that the Norwegian authorities state publicly what measures they have taken with regard to Mullah Krekar after they first became aware of him seven or eight years ago. Mr Hagen is calling for a full inquiry into the case. "Are the ministries and the Immigration Directorate staffed by idiots, or does responsibility for what has happened lie with the infinitely naïve politicians who govern Norway?" asked Mr Hagen bluntly.

Three more refugees under investigation (Verdens Gang)

In addition to the militant Islamist, Mullah Krekar, at least three refugees to Norway are under investigation by the National Police Security Service (PST) for possible connections with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida terrorist network. All three are thought to have arrived in Norway at the start of the 1990s, and have been granted refugee status in this country or been given a residence permit on other grounds. They are thought to be connected to religious, Islamist activity in Norway, and previous histories and connections linking them directly to the Taliban regime and/or to al-Qaida.

Bondevik worth his weight in gold (Nationen/Saturday)

While Kjell Magne Bondevik was chairman of Worldview Rights in 1996-1997, the charitable foundation received just over NOK 10 million in grants from the Foreign Ministry. When he became Prime Minister that same year, the cash continued to flood in. Up until 2000, when Mr Bondevik resigned as PM, Worldview Rights received an additional NOK 18 million, according to figures released by the Foreign Ministry. Rune Hersvik, general secretary of Worldview Rights, says openly that it is an advantage to have a top politician on the board. "Politicians have a solid network and important insights about how to promote an organization’s key issues. They also help to give the organization necessary weight, credibility and image of integrity," he said.

Bekkemellem Orheim: Labour in-fighting damaging to party (Dagsavisen/Saturday)

Karita Bekkemellem Orheim is worried that the power struggle currently being fought out over Labour’s deputy leadership could damage the party. But she is herself prepared to fight for the position. "The 40 per cent rule should be adhered to," she said. Ms Bekkemellem Orheim fiercely opposes a party leadership consisting of three men and only one woman. "I think ordinary people are starting to get thoroughly fed up with the whole deputy leadership debate in the Labour Party. I’ve just about had enough of it, too," she told Dagsavisen. "If this gets any more intense than it is now, there will be one major loser – the Labour party as a whole," she added.

Call for end to conflict (Dagsavisen)

Labour veteran Thorbjørn Berntsen believes long-running conflicts between senior party members is damaging the Labour Party. "There has to be an end to all this quarrelling. The many long-running conflicts between senior party members in recent times has been destructive for the party," he said. Mr Berntsen was himself involved in a no-holds-barred deputy leadership struggle ahead of the 1989 annual conference. At that time an additional deputy leader was added to the Labour Party’s leadership team to make room for both Mr Berntsen, who the conference wanted, and Gunnar Berge, who was Gro Harlem Brundtland’s preferred candidate.

Special police unit to tackle asylum seekers without identity papers (Dagsavisen)

The Police Directorate is to set up a special police unit designed to uncover the real identities of asylum seekers arriving in Norway without identity papers and send them out of the country at record speed. The unit’s aim is to deport a total of 2,100 asylum seekers who remain in this country despite having had their applications for asylum turned down. The Police Directorate has ordered nine police districts to allocate a maximum of two officers each to the project, which will go into operation on 2 September. The high-speed project is due for completion by May 2003.

Call for SEFO’s investigations to be made public (Dagbladet/Sunday)

The Norwegian Bar Association has called for the Special Police Investigation Commission (SEFO) to publish the reasoning behind its decisions to prosecute police officers or not. "This could lead to more cases resulting in a decision to prosecute," said attorney Gulhild Lærum. Dagbladet has learned that the Director General of Public Prosecutions, Tor-Aksel Busch, is also considering whether SEFO decisions should be made public.

Worth Noting

• Gro Harlem Brundtland is to step down as head of the World Health Organization (WHO) after five years in the job. She has decided not to seek re-election when her current mandate comes to an end in July next year.
  (Aftenposten/Saturday)
• Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik fears that efforts to alleviate poverty and improve the environment could suffer a setback at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg. "If there is a setback in relation to what was achieved ten years ago, many people will have difficulty accepting the result," he said. Mr Bondevik is not willing to sign a bad agreement at Johannesburg.
  (Vårt Land/Saturday)
• 48 per cent of Christian Democrat voters believe the party should form a coalition government with the Labour Party, Socialist Left Party and Centre Party. The Christian Democratic Party’s leadership is therefore out of step with almost half of its own voters on this issue. "We do not switch coalition partners on the basis of opinion poll results," said Christian Democratic Party chairman Valgerd Svarstad Haugland.
  (Aftenposten/Saturday)
• "If you mean what you say about gender equality, Trond Giske, you should withdraw your candidature for the deputy leadership," said Grete Fossum, dropping what amounts to a bombshell into the Labour Party’s deputy leadership debate. Ms Fossum has been one of Trond Giske’s closest political supporters for many years.
  (Dagbladet/Saturday)
• The Norwegian Helsinki Committee is proposing the creation of a separate public prosecution service to investigate serious crimes committed abroad by foreign citizens domiciled in Norway.
  (Aftenposten/Sunday)
• The Ministry of Justice is to have discussions with the Attorney General on how terrorist acts and war crimes committed abroad may be prosecuted in Norway.
  (Aftenposten)
• This year it will cost at least NOK 2.4 billion to bus 137,000 pupils to and from school. More and more children are forced to travel by bus because village schools are being closed down.
  (Nationen)
• Agriculture Minister Lars Sponheim is planning to reserve specific areas – primarily from the Glomma river to the Swedish border – solely for wolves. Here farmers will lose their rights as landowners. In return, wolves will be kept strictly out of those areas designated for grazing sheep.
  (Aftenposten/Sunday)

Today’s comment from Aftenposten (Saturday)

Former Labour MP and government minister, Grete Knudsen, has brought embarrassment on herself through her dual role as Labour Party executive committee member and consultant for the controversial investor, Carl Fredrik Seim, based in Bergen. Like many party colleagues before her, Ms Knudsen has taken up a new and probably more lucrative occupation as a lobbyist now that her career as a member of the Storting and government minister has come to an end. There is nothing wrong with that as such, but it does call for complete openness and a strict division of roles. It also demands that the individual’s political involvement has ceased, so that there can be no doubt as to whom the former politician is working for. Grete Knudsen has broken both these golden rules. She has previously held positions as Minister for Social Affairs and Minister for Trade and Industry, as well as being for many years the Hordaland Labour Party’s leading MP, and she is still a member of the party’s executive committee. In this connection her announcement not to seek re-election at the party’s annual conference in November is completely irrelevant. Until she actually stands down, she still has a seat on the party’s most important policy-making body, with full rights and full responsibilities. This simply cannot be reconciled with being a business consultant on issues that are in the remit of political bodies – including the executive committee of which she herself is a member. Grete Knudsen seems to think that she can continue to practice the worst excesses of a closed Labour culture, which the majority of her fellow party officials have long since realized is a thing of the past. This makes her fall from grace even deeper, her responsibility even greater and her loss of honour even clearer.