By
Britt Arenander, June
1992
Translation, Britt Arenander,
September 2002.
|
Britt Arenander wrote this
letter to the Swedish Minister of Justice, Gun Hellsvik, in June 1992. The
original letter was published under the title "En
skamfläck för svensk demokrati". The author has been so kind as to
translate her letter to Gun Hellsvik into English for publishing in the
NCHR's English Article section, for our English speaking readers to see what
parents in Britt Arenander is a
well-known author, translator, former press officer at the Secretariat of the
Swedish section of Amnesty International and former international secretary
of the Swedish PEN Club. NCHR's
comments: Ulf Enerström took his life
more than ten years ago, but the letter is well worth reading as a historical
document. People are still committing suicide because of harassment by the
authorities. On |
Since
the mid 70s a violation of democracy persists in
But
in
Because
the E/P case has a long history and many people have had access to only the
distorted view disseminated by the establishment in order to shield the truth,
a short summary is justified:
· Until 1974, Enerström/Petré were loyal and
appreciated members of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP), rendering the
party a number of favours without the slightest thought of reward. Indeed, when
doctor Enerström was offered the post of director of the National Board of
Health and Welfare, after Bror Rexed, he declined. He was content working as
company physician at a cooperative enterprise in Värmland and participate in
the political arena as not more than a committed citizen.
· The conflict between E/P and the then leader
of the SAP, Olof Palme, started when the Women's
Organization of the SAP, commenting on a proposal made by the abortion
committee in 1974, argued that there ought to be no time limit on free
abortion. It should be possible to have an abortion as late as the ninth month
of pregnancy! Olof Palme was in favour of this idea. E/P were, upset by and
opposed it. Although the Social Democratic Women's Organization were later to
publicly deny ever having put forth this recommendation, parliamentary record
93 dated 29th of May, 1974, shows indisputably that the then
chairwoman of the Women's Organization, Lisa Mattson, pleaded in favour of
no-timescale abortion: ” ... It is, nonetheless, a fact that we wished to go
much further than the proposed law. In our comment on the proposal from the
abortion committee we did, of course, emphasize that it is the woman, and only
the woman, who shall decide whether she wants to continue a pregnancy or not, but we also thought that there should be no
time limit whatsoever.” (My italics.)
· The support of the SAP leadership for free abortion
with no time limit was only the first signal to E/P that something was wrong
within their party. They discovered a number of other alarming phenomena which
they challenged publicly, for example the so-called exemption law of 1974. Grotesque in a democratic society, this was
a deep and treacherous breach of the Swedish judicial system, granting 5 000
high-ranking bureaucrats complete immunity from prosecution. Enerström/Petré
were the first to inform the public of the existence of the exemption law. Not
until many years later did the Swedish press take an interest but by then the
Council of Europe had already urged the Swedish government to abolish the law.
E/P also called attention to the anti-democratic laws which the then Social
Democratic party leadership were proposing to push through, had they not lost
the elections in 1976. Freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate were
both to be eliminated from the constitution, making it possible for a simple
decision in a parliament with a Social Democratic majority to effectively
cancel them out.
· To give an account of all the harassments to
which E/P have been subjected throughout the years would call for a whole book
revealing a terrifying dictatorial machinery operating covertly. The first blow
dealt to the couple was the compulsory removal and confinement to care of Alf
Enerström's son from an earlier marriage. This dirty task was carried out by
the Social Democratic chairman of the social welfare board, and Enerström was
told bluntly that he would get his son back if he stopped agitating against the
party leadership and kept a low profile.
· Such revolting blackmail proved to be
counterproductive: E/P merely intensified their efforts to inform the public of
the dictatorial tendencies currently in force within SAP, under the direction
of Olof Palme. Next, Enerström was sacked from his job as company physician of
the Värmland cooperative. When a union representative handed in a petition in
protest he was exhorted to throw it into the waste basket. In order to crush
the couple financially, illegal measures were then taken to prevent Doctor
Enerström from running a private medical practice. When this manoeuvre was
unsuccessful Gio Petré's film company, which she had inherited from her late husband,
producer Lorens Marmstedt, was forced into bankruptcy because of a trumped up
tax debt. In 1986, the Supreme Court declared the bankruptcy unfounded, but
this verdict was not reported in the press. The media had for years anyway
allowed itself to be directed by the establishment -- accusing E/P of all sorts
of shady economical transactions, while, naturally, denying them the right to
defend themselves.
· Meanwhile, tens of thousands of so called
ordinary people continued to support E/P by sending money to them so the couple
could go on publishing their advertisements in the dwindling number of
newspapers still accepting them. A new attempt at breaking E/P was made when
the assets in their postal giro account were confiscated, on the mendacious pretext that Alf Enerström now also owed outstanding
taxes.
· On top of these harassments -- already
enough to devastate anybody else -- the couple and their four children lived in
constant fear: on two occasions there were outright attempts made on their
lives. It was a dangerous time to defend democracy in
In
order to sort out this disgrace to the Swedish democracy once and for all, the
government ought to appoint a commission to examine the abuses perpetrated
against Alf Enerström and Gio Petré over the years. Faith in justice is, as we
all know, seriously faltering; the appointment of such a commission would be a
decisive step towards restoring it.
Alexander - A confiscated child
Sven Hessle's contribution to the
Alexander Aminoff debate
Destroying the
Family: Swedish style
Demand for
compensation for the victims of the social services
Spectre of children's Gulag
haunts Sweden