Friday gatherings in Stockholm

In Sweden, solidarity activities with Bosnia and Hreuegvoian were organized on different levels. Trade unionists, for example, were very active in Tuzla through the network “International Workers Aid” and launched the initiative “Ship to Bosnia”, Bibi Andersson and other theater and film actors organized support for Sarajevo’s cultural resistance,  and the political party “Sarajevo Listan” tried to influence the Swedish elections to the European Parliament in 1995. Other active groups were for example “Sarajevo Now”, “Students for Sarajevo”, “Kvinna till Kvinna” (“Woman to Woman”) and “Låt Bosnien leva” (“Let Bosnia live”, which had been created on the model of an initiative with the same name in Norway.)

A central rallying moment for these different groups became the weekly demonstrations in support of Bosnia and Herzegovina which were organized every Friday at 12h,  from December 1992 until December 1995, on one of Stockholm’s main squares, Norrmalmstorg. Several speeches were held each time, by Swedish parliamentarians, cultural actors, members of Swedish solidarity groups and members of the Bosnian Embassy and diaspora in Sweden.  The gatherings were organized by the Christian Democrat Member of Parliament Margareta Viklund, who was very outspoken in her support of BiH’s right to self-defense and the lifting of the UN-arms embargo against Bosnia and Herzegovina. “I could never understand why the fate of Bosnia did not arouse greater anger and outrage”, stated Viklund who was made citizens of honor of BiH in December 1995 because of her commitment. The regular Friday gatherings were a way to remind politicians and public opinion in Sweden of the ongoing violence in and against BiH. Furthermore, they have been “an important moral support for those of us who work for Bosnia, a place where you can feel that you are not alone in your anger and commitment”, as explained Ulf Andersson from “Arbetarkonvojen”, the Swedish section of “International Workers Aid”.