Oslo: Norwegian police said on Thursday they
will again interrogate the 32-year-old suspect in last week`s
bombing and shooting massacre that killed at least 76 people.
Police attorney Paal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby told a news
conference they will interview Anders Behring Breivik again
tomorrow, but did not indicate what they would ask him about.
Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to the attacks,
saying he was trying to save the Western world from Muslim
colonization and justifying the rampage in a 1,500-page
anti-immigrant manifesto.
His attorney has said he considers himself a "savior"
and that he is likely insane. He has pleaded not guilty to the
terrorism charges he faces.
Breivik claimed wide contact with individuals and
groups he says support his opposition to immigration. But
questions persist about whether there was a genuine network or
if Breivik`s statements were exaggerations.
Norway`s response to the camp attack, on the island of
Utoya, has been criticized. Though it is just 40 kilometres
from Oslo, it took police 90 minutes to get there.
The crew of the sole helicopter available to police
was on vacation, and the first boat that officials tried to
take to the island broke down.
The leader of Norway`s Delta Force anti-terror police
unit yesterday defended the special operations team and said
the breakdown didn`t cause a significant delay. The team
jumped into other boats and got to Utoya quickly, police
officials said.
Police gave an eerie account of the end of the siege,
saying Breivik obediently gave up the moment police approached
him, holding his hands over his head.
"It was a completely normal arrest," said officer
Haavard Gaasbakk.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said an independent
commission will be formed to investigate the attacks and
determine what lessons can be learned from the response.
The commission also is to help survivors and relatives
cope with the aftermath. Parliament said it is willing to help
pay for funerals, and a monument will be built to commemorate
the victims.
He said Norway will never be the same, but insisted
the massacre shouldn`t change the country`s culture of
tolerance, calling on Norwegians to embrace the oppenness
Breivik said he was trying to destroy.
Perhaps mindful of many Norwegians` reserved ways,
Stoltenberg urged the country to fully grieve: "I have cried,
and I have told many people that they should not hesitate to
cry."
The national sense of heartbreak is being renewed
daily as police slowly release names of the dead. The
identities of only 17 of those known to have been killed have
been officially confirmed. Eight died in the explosion and 68
died in the camp shootings.
Georgian officials said today the body of a young
Georgian woman missing after the shooting rampage has been
found.
Tamta Liparteliani`s body had been found on the bottom
of the lake with gunshot wounds in the back. She was
identified by her fingerprints, Georgian Deputy Foreign
Minister Nino Kalandadze said.
The youngest-known victim so far was identified
yesterday camper Sharidyn Svebakk-Boehn, who turned 14 five
days before the rampage.
Another victim confirmed dead at the camp was a
stepbrother of Crown Princess Mette-Matrit, 51-year-old police
officer Trond Berntsen, who had been providing security on the
island.
An employee of Stoltenberg`s office, 51-year-old Anne
Lise Holter, was confirmed yesterday as one of the eight dead
in the bomb blast.
Norwegian media, meanwhile, suggested that police knew
Breivik`s identity even before they reached Utoya, tracing him
through a rental car company from which he rented the panel
van used for the bomb.
PTI
