• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Swedish Foreign Minister Dies of Injuries

Posted on: Thursday, 11 September 2003, 06:00 CDT

Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh, touted as a future prime minister, died Thursday from stab wounds, the second Swedish politician to be murdered in the Scandinavian country in 17 years in a rare act of public violence.

Lindh died at 5:29 a.m. from severe internal bleeding and injuries to her stomach and liver after she was knifed in an upscale Stockholm department store by an unknown assailant.

Police didn't believe the attack was politically motivated, despite the fact it came just three days before Swedes were to vote in a referendum on adopting the euro. Lindh was an ardent supporter of the common currency and one of the "yes" side's most visible campaigners.

Prime Minister Goeran Persson said the referendum would go ahead as planned.

Lindh's death cast a pall across the Scandinavian country of 9 million, whose residents have always enjoyed wide access to their leaders. Lindh, like slain Prime Minister Olof Palme, had no bodyguards. Only Persson and King Carl XVI Gustaf have permanent security details.

Choking on his words as he announced Lindh's death, Persson said the country's tradition of openness was forever damaged by the killing.

"The attack against her also hurt the society we've built up and in which we want to live in," he said.

In the Riksdag, or parliament, lawmakers held a moment of silence, while Swedish flags flew at half-staff across the country. Churches were to be kept open in many parts of the country and a memorial service was scheduled for the Uppsala Cathedral Thursday night.

Agneta Blidberg, the lead police investigator, said every resource was being used to track down the attacker, who was last seen fleeing the store. Borders with Norway, Finland and Denmark were being monitored closely and ferry traffice between Sweden and the Baltic states were also being watched.

"We are using all the means at our disposal," she told The Associated Press, but added police had made no arrests.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, speaking in Geneva, said he "was shocked and deeply saddened" by the news of Lindh's death.

"Sweden has lost a successful and a great foreign minister, a great Swede and a great European. I have also lost a close friend and so has the United Nations," said Annan, whose wife, Nane, is Swedish.

In neighboring Finland, the government met in an emergency session following the news of Lindh's death and conveyed its condolences to her family and the Swedish nation.

"We have lost a close friend and a good colleague," Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said in Helsinki. "Anna Lindh was known in Finland as a warm, dedicated and cheerful person.

Vanhanen described the attack as "a major setback and shock" to the open societies that Nordic countries have nurtured.

Lawmakers in Germany's lower house of parliament fell silent as Parliament President Wolfgang Thierse interrupted a budget debate Thursday with news of Lindh's death.

"I can only express our revulsion at this deed," Thierse said. "Our solidarity is with the people, the parliament and the government of Sweden."

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called her death a "terrible tragedy."

"Anna was a good friend of mine," Straw said. "She had this extraordinary ability to balance the demands of one of the most active of Europe's foreign ministers in her role as one of Sweden's leading politicians and that of someone who was completely committed to her family."

Lindh was head of the Foreign Ministry since 1998, serving as environmental minister before that. She was a member of the Riksdag, or parliament, from 1982-1985. She is married and has two children.

Scandinavia is relatively immune to political violence, unlike other parts of Europe. Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic was assassinated in March by allies of Slobodan Milosevic seeking to topple his pro-Western government as he was heading to a meeting with Lindh. In the Netherlands, anti-immigration politician Pim Fortuyn was shot to death by an animal rights activist in May 2002.

---

Associated Press reporters Karl Ritter, Tommy Grandell and Susanna Loof contributed to this report.

More News in this Category