Yesterday, Norway suffered twin acts of violence, apparently by a lone right-wing extremist. Government buildings in the capitol, Oslo, were damaged in a bomb explosion leaving 7 dead and two seriously injured.
A few hours later, the individual showed up at a youth camp being run on an island, and there shot over 80 individuals dead in a systematic rampage through the facilities. Many of those lost (presumably most are teenage victims) at the camp had taken to the waters, trying to swim away from the carnage, yet were picked off by the gunman.
Norwegian police have arrested and charged a 32 year old Norwegian citizen who, from reports, has right-wing Nazi sympathies, Anders Behring Breivik. A farmer from Eastern Norway, he also worked as an agricultural material supplier and had purchased at least six tons of fertilizer several weeks prior to the twin attacks, the Associated Press reported.
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Utoya island was not just another camp. It was an important place for people from all over Norway to gather to discuss the future of their own nation as well as the problems plaguing other parts of the world. This was a place to get away from the daily grind, the day-to-day debates in parliament, and think big. It was a place of fraternity, of peace. On this day when the peace was shattered, over 600 youth had gathered.
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There is little more to be said as the story is still unfolding. It emphasizes again, the fragility of life, the work that goes into making a peaceful society, and the forces against such an atmosphere.
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