Sweden

Kristina Johansson & Martin Smedjeback

On 29 October 2012 two peace activists from the Swedish anti-militarist network Ofog were in the district court of Malmö. The arms company Aimpoint demanded €40,000 in damages from them.

In 2008 Ofog held a rally outside of Aimpoint's Malmö base. The two activists climbed over the fence into the arms company's grounds to show their opposition to Swedish arms exports. The police arrested them quickly and calmly on the other side of the fence. Aimpoint chose to close their production that day because of the protest, and are now demanding that the activists should pay the company’s costs for lost production and security. We believe that this is a way to intimidate activists into silence.

Early this morning, peace-activists from the anti militaristic network Ofog in Sweden walked into the military testrange NEAT to prevent ongoing combat-exercise in the very north of Sweden.
Ofog has informed the Swedish Armed Forces that the activists are inside of the area. Despite this, the combat-exercise proceeds.

In this article we will explain how we understand in what ways politics about gender, sexuality and war are related to each other. We will also tell you about some actions Ofog (anti-militarist network) did against the Swedish Armed Forces participation in the last Pride festival (August 2011).

Sten Tolgfors may have resigned. But no one has so far taken responsibility for the scandal of the Saudi arms factory. The fundamental problems do not disappear with the resignation of the Minister of Defence. This is a systemic crisis on full public display, where the problems inherent in the Swedish defence and arms export policy have been made unambiguously clear to all, writes Anna Ek, president of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society.

By Cattis Laska

North European Aerospace Testrange (NEAT), Europe's largest overland military training area, covers 24 000 sq km of space in northern Sweden, right above the land that historically belongs to and still is used by the indigenous people of Sweden, the Saami. The land areas where the bombs are dropped during military exercises are the same areas where the reindeers are herded. According to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, “military activities shall not take place in the lands or territories of indigenous peoples”, but if so, the indigenous people need to be consulted through an official channel. This did not happen before military exercises started at NEAT.

After Sweden ended conscription last year, the military seems to have problems to recruit enough soldiers. Sweden's chiefs-of-staff had to admit in August that they had erred in counting how many part-time recruits had signed up to Sweden's Armed Forces. The number was not 2,700 - as originally reported - but 300. In a report, the chiefs-of-staff admitted confusing the 300 actual recruits with the target of 2,700 for the period.

Since switching to a professional military, Sweden had set a goal of recruiting 6,600 new soldiers: 3,900 on a full-time basis and 2,700 part-time.

Majken Sørensen

2 August

One week ago I participated in a civil disobedience action together with three friends from the anti-militarist network Ofog. As part of a campaign to mark the places where war starts, we went into the NEAT military test area near the town Luleå in the north of Sweden. Well inside NEAT, we marked a radar station at Palja with a pink banner saying “War Starts Here”. Immediately afterwards we were arrested by a security guard, on suspicion of entering what is called a “protected area”.

Javier Gárate

During the month of July 2011 almost 200 antimilitarists, from different parts of the world, took part in the activities of “War Starts Here” – The war starts here in a peace camp in Lulea in the north of Sweden. The ten days of activities included the WRI council meeting, a seminar under the same title, trainings in direct non violent action, and a series of actions against NEAT, the North European Aerospace Training base.

Peace activists from Ofog paint peace signs on the runway at Vidsel air base, which is a part of North European Aerospace Testrange -- an area almost as big as Belgium, that Sweden, Nato and others, are using for war preparations (military exercises).

Police plans to keep non-Swedish activists detained for three days / call for solidarity

170 international peace activists from 17 countries today entered the North European Aerospace Test range in a massive act of nonviolent civil disobedience in the north of Sweden. Some 28 activists have been confirmed as arrested or detained, among them activist from Venezuela, Spain, Germany, UK and Finland. At the end of the day, police kept ten non-Swedish activists detained, and interrogated them at the police station of Lulea.

On 26 July, more than 200 peace activists from 17 countries took part in an international nonviolent action at NEAT near Lulea in the north of Sweden. About 150 entered a "prohibited area" of the military training ground (see main text), and 28 were detained - most of them only for a short time. However, ten non-Swedish activists are being kept, and it is feared that they will remain under detention for 72 hours.

International solidarity is a powerful force. We therefore call for international solidarity for the remaining detainees in Lulea, Sweden.

Over 150 peace activist from 17 countries will take action against the military training area NEAT in northern Sweden on Tuesday (26 July).

"NEAT is used by NATO to fine tune their unmanned aircraft for assignations.  They transform murder into a click on a computer screen" said Patrick Sheehan-Gaumer from the USA.