Protests was held outside the agricultural
departement in Stockholm, August 21.
Translation of the texts on the posters:
Protests was held outside the agricultural
departement in Stockholm, August 21.
Translation of the texts on the posters:
-The Olympic games will result in a lot of goodwill for the country
which eventually will be chosen as the host. There's also no doubt
that there's a connection between international and domestic politics
and the world of sports.
The organisers of several sportevents have shown their dissatisfaction
with dictatorships and policies of disparity such as South-africa with
their former apartheid.
The relationship between Sweden and its indigenous population could
hardly be said to be in accord with the legislation in other countries
and would rather be a question of shame for Sweden as a nation,
according to Olof Johansson, chairman of Glen Sami community and
MP of the native Sami parliament in Sweden.
If we for a moment view Sweden from an indigenous perspective, we
cannot even tell if Sweden is a democracy or not. We Sami's have no
control of the land from which we derive our livelihood.
We are in the hands of capricious politicians and administrators, both
locally and on the government level, states Lars-Anders Baer, chairman
of SSR (National society of Swedish Sami's ).
One obvious example is the free fishing and small game hunt bill -on
Sami territories- which was introduced in 1992, after preparatory work
by the former rightwing government.
The agricultural department thereafter made a set of bills to regulate
the hunt, the preparatory work for those bills had in turn been made
by a single Swedish consultant.
The local administrative boards for the three most northern regions in
Sweden was appointed to administrate this hunting and fishing on Sami
territories which by a penstroke changed the legislative status of
the Sami's land into the governments possession.
An obvious violation of both the civic rights as well as international
treaties.
-We Sami's are never part of the decision making process, not even
when the issue is of utter importance for the Sami nation, adds Ingvar
Åhrén chairman of the Sami parliament in Sweden. And it is allowed to
continue even after this government has signed the Rio Declaration as
well as Agenda 21. Both of which states that the government should act
to encourage the indigenous population to participate in politics,
creation of new laws and program for recourcemanagement and other
processes which may affect them.
-Added together we Sami's feel extremely hesitant to recommend Sweden
as a host for any Olympic game states Mr Olof Johansson and adds: We
ask the IOC to consider our predictament when it is time to vote for this candidature.
Place: Drottninggatan 21 outside dpt of Agriculture (Jordbruksdepartementet)
Time: Thursday August 21, 9.30 am - 3 pm.
For further information and presscontacts:
Olof Johansson cellular phone. +46 (0)10-250 38 05.
e-mail: otj_glen@algonet.se
You might also contact the chairman of SSR Lars Anders Baer tel. +46 (0)90-141180
e-mail: ssr@sapmi.se
The chairman of the Sami parliament Ingvar Åhren can be reached at cellular phone +46 (0)10-260 70 02.
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This page was created Aug 24, 1997
Most recent revision Aug 24, 1997.