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Saturday, 20 August 2011

Norway attacks: Breivik bereaved visit Utoeya island

Psychologist Atle Dyregrov: ''For the families to go is important for many reasons''
Family members and friends of Norwegians killed by a gunman last month have been visiting Utoeya island, the scene of the massacre.

The visit came as police were granted a request to keep the man who admitted to the killings, Anders Behring Breivik, in solitary confinement, as they continue their investigation.
Sunday will mark the end of a month of mourning for the 77 people who died.
A national memorial service will be held at an Oslo arena.
Some 1,500 survivors, relatives and close friends of the victims were expected to visit Utoeya island, where 69 people were gunned down, on Friday and Saturday.
Some 500 arrived in a light rain on the island on Friday.
They were to hear from investigators exactly where their loved ones died, and psychologists and clergymen would be on hand to offer support, officials said.
"Going to the island helps them make sense of what happened, it helps to make it real, because up until then it can feel very unreal," psychologist Atle Dyregrov, who has organised much of the professional help for victims and relatives, told Reuters news agency.
"Seeing the facts is often less scary than the fantasies they have. The fantasy can eat you inside - it helps to see what it looks like."
 
''Phone transcripts''
Meanwhile, a Norwegian court has granted a police investigator's request to extend Mr Breivik's confinement in isolation, as a four-week limit loomed on Monday.
It means the 32-year-old right-wing extremist has no access to television, newspapers or the internet.
Judge Hugo Abelseth acknowledged that Mr Breivik had described his isolation as "boring and monotonous, and as a sadistic torture method", but said he must nonetheless spend at least four more weeks there, reported AP news agency.
The judge said the next hearing would be on 19 September.
Police also released phone transcripts of two calls made by Mr Breivik as he carried out the Utoeya shootings - the first made 26 minutes before he was arrested, with an apparent view to handing himself in.
In this call, made at 18:01 on 22 July, Mr Breivik says: "I am on Utoeya. I want to hand myself in."
Local police chief Sissel Hammer said the police had tried to call back, but that no-one had answered.
At that time, two armed officers were already across the shore from Utoeya, but were unable to find a boat to take them across. Police elsewhere were scrambling to cope with the Oslo bombing.
Mr Breivik called again one minute before being captured, and asked to be transferred to the commander of the anti-terror police unit.
"I am a commander in the Norwegian resistance movement," the transcript records him as saying. "I have fulfilled my operation, so I want to... surrender."
Mr Breivik's lawyer has previously stated that his client attempted to contact police several times during his killing spree, but that only two calls were answered - and that with no satisfactory response from the police, he continued shooting.
The police say they can neither confirm nor deny this.
The final funeral for a victim - for 16-year-old Elisabeth Troennes Lie - was held on Thursday after a delay so her 17-year-old sister, who was seriously wounded in the shooting, could take part, AFP news agency reported.
As well as the 69 victims on Utoeya, Mr Breivik is also charged with the deaths of eight in a bombing in central Oslo.
He admits to the killings but denies criminal responsibility, saying he believes the massacre was "necessary" to save Norway and Europe from Muslims and multiculturalism.
Along with those killed in the attacks, 151 people were injured, 62 of them on Utoeya and 89 in Oslo, according to Norwegian public radio.

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