Labor Party established dedicated mourning room at party headquarters after 7/22 attacks
Speaking to 300 representatives from police and rescue services at a preparedness and training conference arranged by the Directorate for Societal Security and Preparedness (Direktoratet for samfunnssikkerhet og beredskap), Party Secretary, Raymond Johansen, said that a dedicated crying room had to be established at the Labor Party headquarters in the days following the 7/22 attack, writes Verdens Gang (VG). “We established a crying room in the party office. People broke down [in tears] all the time,” Johansen said.
The Labor Party headquarters are located a couple of hundred yards away from the building housing the Prime Minister’s office and the Justice Department where Anders Behring Breivik detonated a 2000 pound bomb. The front of the Labor Party headquarters building faces the governmental offices, and the destruction caused by the explosion can be seen from many of the Labor Party offices. Several windows in the Labor Party headquarters building were blown out by the strong pressure wave, and the office building was evacuated for four days after the attacks.
“This was not a coincidental attack, but a political assasination. Wounds will heal, it will take time, but the scars will be there forever,” Johansen said, according to VG.
VG writes that Johansen, himself, heard the bomb over the phone. Two hours later he travelled to Sundvollen Hotel and assisted injured survivors from Utøya. Since then, he has travelled around the country and spoken about what happened. According to VG, he says it will take a long time before the after effects of the terror passes, and that for the Labor party the attacks will never be forgotten.
“It is still very demanding for me to talk about this. It is like the crust of a scar that you tear off every so often. But I will not distance myself when I, as the highest leader in the party, am invited to talk about this,” Johansen said according to VG.
Google translation:
Labor office had to have crying room
16/02/12
“People broke down all the time,” says Party Secretary
In the days after 22 July, it established a separate crying room at the office of the Labor Party at Youngstorget.
In front of 300 representatives from the various emergency services in the community told party secretary Thursday about the experiences he and the Labour Party did to keep the party on track in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on Utøya and in the government quarter 22 July.
“This was not a random attack, but a political assassination. Wounds will heal, it will take time, but the scars will be there forever,” said Raymond Johansen….
Original article: Ap-kontoret måtte ha gråterom
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Related article: Labor established its own crying room after the terror (Ap etablerte eget gråterom etter terroren)
