For those of you gentle readers who have long believed that scandinavian countries (specifically Sweden) are models of liberty and freedom to be emulated by other societies, think again. Freedom of speech does NOT exist in Sweden. On Wednesday 13 June 2007 Dahn Petterson was convicted and fined the equivalent of $3000.00 for "Agitation against an ethnic minority" . Mr Petterson who is a member of the "kommunstyrelsen" (County Commission) of Burlöv, Skåne in Sweden was attempting to solicit governmental aid for the homeless population of the town. In justifying the request for aid he pointed out that most of the homeless people were ethnic Albanian immigrants from the Kosovo region who were suffering from a high incidence of drug addiction and that the bulk of heroin and other drugs were entering Sweden from Afghanistan via Albania and Kosovo. These are facts frequently reported in Swedish newspapers. Nevertheless as in other authoritarian countries, stating verifiable but politically incorrect facts can land one afoul of the authorities.
From this interpretation of events in Sweden, it does not sound like Mr. Petterson was trying to help the Albanians:
"Checking a bit in Swedish language sources (the local does not bing up the full story), I can see what Dahn Pettersson really said.
The source of the case is not that he said that that 95% of all heroin comes from Kosovo, but that it was the Kosovo Albanians who brought heroin to Sweden. While it is true that criminal circles among the Kosovo Albanians seem to have taken over the heroin trade in Sweden, it is not right to claim that there were no trade before there were Kosovoa Albanians in Sweden nor to accuse all Kosovo Albanians for the problem of heroin abuse in Sweden.
Dahn Pettersson made a bill to the local council about homeless people and used it to attack an immigrant group.
"95 procent av allt heroin kommer in via Kosovo, är det undra på att uteliggarna blir fler och fler när vi importerat denna drog genom att Friggebo gav 46 000 Kosovoalbaner permanent uppehållstillstånd." (original text in the bill).
"95 percent of all heorin comes in via Kosovo, it is not strange that the homeless are increasing in numbers when we have imported this drug by Friggebo [former conservative minister] gave 46 000 Kosovoa Albanians permanent residence." (my translation).
According to one newspaper, 80% of the brown smoke heroin comes through the Balkans, where Kosovo is one of the main routes. There is no basis for the 95% digit, according to the police, who also say the price of heroin has changed with the harvest of opiates in Afghanistan, but has not generally gone down since Kosovo Albanians came to Sweden, as Dahn Pettersson also claimed in his bill. According to UNODC, the heroin usage is in a slow decline in Sweden while it is increasing in the rest of the EU.
So Dahn Petterson exhaggerated and lied about heroin in Sweden and blamed it all on an ethnic group, that is the base of the case."
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