SAS EuroBonus - R.I.P Anna Lindh

Just a few hours foreign minister Anna Lindh died after the injuries she got after the knife attack yesterday afternoon.

This brings back memories from 1986 when Olof Palme was killed.

Everyone in Sweden thought that Anna would replace Göran Persson in a few years time and became the leader of Sweden.

Anna was 46 years old and has left a husband and two children.

What a terrible news. I am very sorry to hear that http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Horrible news.

Terrible story. This is a big threat to the democracy as well as the open community that Sweden really is today.

I hope they catch the perpetrator faster than quick.

Very sad and a great loss to Sweden. My sympathies are with you.

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Latitudes.

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilisation, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)

The story from Reuter and AP:

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh died after prolonged surgery today after being stabbed by an unidentified man in a Stockholm department store yesterday, Prime Minister Goran Persson said.

A leading campaigner for Sweden to join the euro zone in a referendum on Sunday, and tipped as a future prime minister, she was stabbed in the chest, stomach and arms while shopping.

"I have received with sorrow information that Sweden's Foreign Minister Anna Lindh died this morning at 5:29 am (1329 AEST) of her wounds," Persson told a news conference. "Sweden has lost one of its most important representatives."

Karolinska hospital said in a statement that Lindh died of "massive bleeding caused by knife wounds to the liver and many of the big blood vessels in the abdomen".

The stabbing took place in the final days of campaigning ahead of a Swedish referendum on Sunday on whether to join the European Union's common currency, the euro, though it was not clear whether the two events were linked.

Police are hunting for a man described as "Swedish-looking'' and about 180 cm tall. They found the man's army jacket, cap and knife and were analysing video footage from the shop's security cameras.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said earlier that Lindh's injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.

Lindh was inside the Nordiska Kompaniet department store blocks away from the parliament building when she was stabbed just before 4pm (2400 AEST), eyewitnesses told The Associated Press.

Hanna Sundberg, who was shopping at the store, said she was on the first floor of the upscale store when Lindh ran up from the escalators being chased by the man.

"She fell on the floor and the man was stabbing her in the stomach," she said. "When he ran away, he threw the knife away."

Sundberg ran to Lindh and the politician told her: "God, he has stabbed me in the stomach!" Then, Sundberg said she saw blood.

Police spokesman Bjoern Pihlblad said Lindh was stabbed in the arms, chest and stomach. He said police were searching throughout Stockholm for the alleged knifeman. The murder weapon was recovered at the store.

An AP reporter saw Lindh hustled out of the building on a stretcher by three paramedics, with police surrounding her.

Sweden has a reputation as one of Europe's safest countries and its politicians are known for walking in public with little or no security. But the country has seen violence, including the 1986 killing of Prime Minister Olof Palme as he walked home from a movie theatre with his wife. That killing has never been solved.

Lindh, 46, was popular among the nine million residents of the Scandinavian country for her doggedness in making sure Sweden was a global player in diplomacy. She was often touted by political analysts and members of her Social Democratic party as a likely candidate for prime minister.

Lindh had been head of the Foreign Ministry since 1998. She was a member of the Riksdag, or parliament, from 1982-1985. She was married and had two children.

Reuter and AP </font>

Reading about it on the web now.

Not only is it a personal tragedy for Anna Lindh and her family, but also an attack on the model of society that Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries prides themselves on.

I hope the society will still be as open as it always has been - please, don't let this be the end of that.

Since this was an attack on a public person this is a stab for every swede. Let's hope society remains the same.
Rest In Peace Anna.

My condolensces to her family, friends and nation. This is a tragedy as we have all lost a principled, outspoken friend of the world community to a madman with some military hand-to-hand training.

[This message has been edited by GUWonder (edited 09-11-2003).]

Yes, all of the above is true - a very sad time for Sweden and the Swedes, and for the rest of us who look on.

But let's take something positive from the tragedy.

Those of us who know and love Sweden know that this is very much an exceptional act. In which other modern society can government ministers go shopping without security protection? (OK, in the other Nordic countries, but few others.)

Continue to respect Swedish freedom and democracy, which will of course survive and prosper.

The Prime Minister has announced that Sunday's referendum on whether Sweden should adopt the Euro will take place as planned. Will this tragic event have any effect on the vote?

It is not just an SAS, nor a Swedish issue!

We share your pain!

How very sad! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

-Mark

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Please also see:

http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/Forum44/HTML/015516.html

[This message has been edited by doc (edited 09-12-2003).]

Indeed we do.

I am no expert on Swedish politics, but having read much recently in the aftermath of this tragedy, I have been impressed by the open nature of Swedish society. I hope it survives this egregious act. Although we never hear much about Swedish politics in Australia, from all I have read online over the past day, Anna Lindh was an impressive figure and a real loss for Sweden and the world.

It was impressive reading stories about how the politicians catch trains and shop with ordinary people. That's freedom. Unfortunately, it seems a madman has really hurt society's innocence. The loss thereof would be a real tragedy.