Day of terror

IT WAS very ironic. Two instances of horrific violence occurred in one of the most peaceful and peace-loving countries in the world last Saturday. An apparently mad, paranoid individual set off a bomb that killed seven people in downtown Oslo and later massacred 93 people, most of them children, in the island youth camp of Utoya.

It was the worst case of carnage in Norway since World War II and the deadliest day of terror in Western Europe since the Madrid bombings in 2004. Norway is a pacifist, peaceful country that hosts the annual Nobel Peace Prize awards. (The irony in the Nobel Peace Prize itself is that it was funded by Alfred Nobel, the man who invented the detonator or blasting cap for detonating nitroglycerin and igniting explosives.)

Norway is involved in peace processes in many parts of the world, including the Middle East, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Norway knows what war and violence means; about a thousand years ago the Vikings plundered and occupied large parts of Europe. Norway proclaimed its neutrality in World War II, but nonetheless was occupied for five years by Nazi Germany.

In recent years Norway has taken a greater role in international politics, and particularly in peace keeping and peace promotion. It has mediated between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization and from 2000 to 2009 was the chief mediator in the conflict between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil separatists. Norway may be thousands of kilometers away from the Philippines, but it is close to the hearts of Filipinos because of its mediation between the Philippine government and the National Democratic Front since 1996.

The man who single-handedly massacred close to a hundred people at first appeared to be a crazed, paranoid person who holds anti-Muslim views and has been ranting against the European elite, “multiculturalists’’ and “enablers of Islamization.’’ But to quote Shakespeare, there seems to have been a method to his madness. The suspect, Anders Behring Breivik, 32, has been identified by Norwegian police as a right-wing fundamentalist Christian. His one-man attacks in Norway focus new attention on right-wing extremists in Norway and across Europe where opposition to Muslim immigrants, globalization, the power of the European Union and the drive toward multiculturalism has spurred violence in some instances.

What are some lessons to be gained from these terrible attacks by Breivik?

First, every nation, including the Philippines (or probably, especially the Philippines), should be always on its guard against sudden bursts of murderous violence. The security forces and law enforcement agencies have to continue surveilling and making studies on individuals who could suddenly explode and engage in an unprovoked and unpremeditated flash of violence.

Second, groups such a children and women who are particularly vulnerable in a sudden attack should be provided with security cover. In this increasingly violent world, one never knows when a group of people, which provides an inviting target, would be subjected to bombing or withering gunfire.

Third, security and intelligence groups should continue making studies and surveillance on organizations and individuals who could inflict maximum harm on people and groups.

Fourth, it’s high time Congress passed a stricter gun control law, something along the lines proposed by Nandy Pacheco of Gunless Society which would ensure that only authorized and uniformed military and police men can carry arms outside their homes, and only when they are on duty.

Fifth, facilities and equipment used by security forces have to be upgraded. The Norwegian police took 90 minutes from the first shot to reach the island that was the site of the massacre. They were delayed because they did not have quick access to a helicopter and struggled to find a boat once they reached the lake. Had they had faster means of transport, who knows how many of the children would have been saved?

Our government and our people condole with the Norwegians on their terrible loss. We hope that it will be the last, and that total peace and non-violence would reign once more in the peaceful, pacifist country of Norway.