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It was an assumed bombing, that killed a man earlier today in Copenhagen.
The bomb exploded in the office of the organization Internationale Socialister (IS).
The police doesn't rule out a terrorist attack.
The organization Internationale Socialister is certain, that the bomb was a political attack.
The police don't have any certain leads.
Here, in Søllerødgade 33, the life of the 29-years old Henrik Christensen ended yesterday.
Internationale Socialisters office was hit by a letterbomb on monday the 16th of march 1992.
The antiracist and socialist Henrik Christensen was killed immidieatly.
The terrorist attack is the only political *** since World War II.
The perpetrators has never been found.
Even though it's 20 years ago, it's a day I cannot forget, because a very tough experience.
Both for me personally and the political movement I am a part of.
It was a tough experience for the general leftwing and the antiracist movement.
The political issues we focused on was the fight against racism and the nazis.
We didn't believe in either the Moscow or the Washington models.
We didn't believe in the easteuropean regimes, it didn't have anything to do with socialism -
as well as we didn't believe in the so-called democratic free world with marketcapitalism.
We were not a big organization. We participated in meetings in the local groups.
We had groups in Copenhagen and in Aarhus.
Antiracism was important to us in the early 90'es for several reasons.
One of the reasons was the growth of Den Danske Forening, who at that time was very active.
They held meetings all over the country, trying to spread their racism and recruit new members.
We participated in blockades against their meetings. They shouldn't be given any platform in society.
We were also fighting the small nazigroups and the general racism against immigrants.
We played a role in the antiracist movement in that time and had some public attention because of that.
A few days before the bomb, a newspaper published a big article about our involvement in antiracism.
I would like to talk a little bit about the work we did in our organization Demos against the rightwing groups.
We published the Demos newsletter with analysis and information about the racist groups.
On one hand, we were doing documentation, but we also took part in kickstarting the antiracist movement.
During the late 80'es and early 90'es, the far right in Europe was blooming and becoming more militant.
Neonazi groups attacks leftwing-activists and immigrants.
They are behind threats, arson attack and murders.
The idea of racewar is important in their rhetoric, and the goal is to eradicate the enemy:
the leftwing, immigrants and fugitives.
At this time, there was a number of attacks in Sweden, including bombings and killings.
Because of this we payed a lot of attention to the nazi movement in Denmark.
In Denmark the far-right was also on the rise.
Den Danske Forening was created in 1987.
They tried to justify racism, and to influence the public debate.
Among their memebers where actual nazis, who served as security guards at their meetings.
At this time there were several active nazi groups in Denmark.
Most notable were the Party of the Nationals and DNSB.
Racist motivated crime appeared more frequently.
Left-wing politicians and activist often recieved threatening letters.
Our politicians belong in a kz-camp.
And if the government will not break this movement, WE will have to take action.
Otherwise we cannot work politically.
We must destroy the BZ-movement (houseoccupiers)!
I do not want any of YOU killed!
Henrik was exceptionally curious.
In a non-political summer camp he would read theoretical material, like Gramsci, and teach himself.
He had a profound interest in politics. Sometimes I thought he was a little confused politically.
He would read extensively, and had an open minded approach to litterature.
His enthusiasm was outstanding.
As the BZ-movement (houseoccupants) began to focus on anti-racism, we often collaborated with IS.
We knew Henrik Christensen from meetings in Ungdomshuset where we coordinated the antiracist work.
He was a kind and open person, yet we had frequent discussions.
We (BZ) had a more militant approach and advocated for direct action. We wanted to block and sabotage rightwing meetings.
After 1987, Den Danske Forening began arranging meetings throughout the country.
Our focus turned towards systematic anti-racist activism.
Still, Anti-rascism was only part of our political activities, we also focused on for example the fight against apartheid.
Other left-wing groups would arrange demonstrations and we would participate.
Anti-racist activism was organised by Fællesinitiativet mod Racisme (The joint initiative against racism).
They would set up blockades against Den Danske Forening meetings.
This became a popular tactic when confronting racist gatherings.
When I became active, Henrik Christensen and IS were working with Fællesinitiativet mod Racisme.
Particularly, they arranged information meetings.
I had an errand in the neigbourhood around 11 am, so I came through Søllerødgade.
The door was locked, so I decided to leave again.
Henrik came this way on his bicycle and invited me to come with him inside.
I decided to go to the nearby House of Solidarity and make coffee.
When I arrived the time was exactly 11.35.
On March 16th 1992, I was at work when I recieved a phone call.
A friend told me that there had been an explosion in Søllerødgade in Nørrebro.
He said the media had reported a possible casualty, and that i should go there to find out.
Upon arrival I learned that Henrik had been killed by a bomb in our office.
When I arrived to the scene I immediately saw the extensive damages on the building.
A Police officer asked me if I knew who had been inside, which I confirmed.
I asked him what had happend to Henrik, and the officer told me that he had been killed.
My immediate thoughts were the words: "those ***!"
Because of our political activities, I instinctively knew that it was no accident
It had to be a bomb placed by somone from the right-wing.
It was chaotic. We were aware of the threat, and had recieved letters with bullets inside.
Still, the situation was unreal.
We felt paralysed by fear and did not know what to expect from the future.
That night we gathered to discuss what had happend.
How should we handle the incident, and how did we feel about it.
We dicussed how we should react as an organisation.
We had meetings in the office every monday, and the day of the bombing was indeed a monday.
If the bomb had exploded later, the consequences would have been even more serious.
Many more could have been killed, which was a grim recognition.
The bomb was not targeted at Henrik specifically, but at the entire organisation.
The same night a number of people from the left wing gathered outside the building.
The wrecked site was terrifying, and the reality hit us. The fact that Henrik that suddenly was very concrete.
The funeral was a big event. A lot of people attended, including many unionists.
It was hard, but it was also a great display of solidarity.
It was very touching.
I was giving a speech. That wasn't easy.
There was a lot of humour and stories about Henrik.
How he always was noisy with his lunchbox, his great appetite.
He was also a family dad. His boy Alexander was very young at that time.
The next saturday, we arranged a memorial demonstration.
The solidarity materialized, when so many people turned up to show their opposition to the political violence.
People were hanging out the windows, the entire Nørrebro participated.
It was IS, who was hit by the bomb, but it could have been anyone of us.
There was a lot of other attacks at that time, not as violent, but for example arson attacks against socialist parties.
We decided to help the police in their investigation. We didn't want to give them the possibility of saying
that the *** couldn't be solved because of us.
This is an attack against all political activities.
We deny the accusations in media that we build the bomb ourselves. That is not our politics.
I was not impressed by the police investigation.
It was a farce. The focus was on us. That we did it ourselves to play some kind of martyre role.
They asked if it was jealousy, if any of us had an affair with his wife. It was ridiculous.
They must have seen affected we were. It was really provoking. I wasn't impressed by them.
They did a housesearch at Henriks appartment where they didn't find anything.
They tried to make us the suspects.
When we heard about the bomb, it seemed grotesque that it was Henrik who died.
Both the fact that it was IS that was targetted, when they weren't militants, and especially Henrik
who absolutely was not militant. It seemed unfair.
When we heard that the police accused IS and Henrik of making the bomb itself, we considered it as very grotesque.
The intelligence service should know, that it was unrealistic.
We were worried that they would close they case right away, saying that there was no perpetrator.
We feared that they would call it an accident or just an internal conflict on the leftwing.
We saw the attack as a part of escalation of the rightwing violence.
Today, it's easy to see, that the bomb was just one in many attacks from the rightwing towards antiracists and immigrants.
The day after the bomb, the police received a letter of confession.
Many leftwing-activists feel, that the police doesn't take the letter serious.
The letter is the so-called "Free Denmark - K12" letter.
We placed the bomb in Søllerødgade. We see these leftwing elements as traitors to the danish people.
Therefore this attack, more will come. Free Denmark K12
K12 is assumed to be a reference to the swedish king Karl the 12th. The swedish neonazis sees him as a hero.
Even though it's revealed, that other threatening letters has been signed with the Free Denmark K12-signature, the police dismisses the letter as "unrealistic evidence".
The sender of the was never found.
After a while, the investigation is put on hold, and the *** is still unsolved.
The police still needs to investigate what actually took place.
They would probably say, that they still have the case open, but the fact is, that they haven't been doing enough.
One thing that justifies that, is that the case has been closed by the official Denmark.
It's never mentioned when people talk about political assasinations. Its the only one in Denmark since World War II.
It's incredible, that nothing more has been done to get the assailants.
The leader of investigation, Bent Hansen, didn't want to participate in the movie.
Neither did the former chief of the intelligence service, Hanne Bech Hansen.
Also, the homicide squad of the Copenhagen Police refused to be interviewed.
The current chief of the intelligence service didn't respond to our contact.
We feared that the political effect would be that people would be afraid to protest against racism.
We wanted to do the opposite: to show that they couldn't make us shut up.
We had been attacked before, so we took measures like a safe backdoor and discussed if should we close our mailbox.
It played a role. But we took the relevant security measures.
Of course, there was also people who got afraid and pulled a bit away from our political work.
The fact that we actively and openly respondede to the bomb strengthened the antiracist work.
More people got engaged to show their solidarity.
The antiracist got a boost. It was very unpopular to be a rightwinger.
We studyed fascism. And therefore we knew, that they should never be allowed to be active out in
the public space, those ***. They should be kept away from the streets, that was very important to us.
The bomb changed the entire antifascist work, also in the BZ-movement.
Antifascist Action (AFA) was founded, and many from the BZ-movement joined the antifascist work.
In the summer of 1992, Antiracist Network (ARN) was founded. ARN replaced the former network called Fællesinitiativet mod Racisme.
FIR started out as a network, but ended up being a organization of its own.
FIR was one of many groups in Antiracist Network when it was founded. So was Students against Racism and many unions.
Today, we want the police to reopen the case. We can see how the german police in the NSU-case
wasn't doing their job.
Today, it's still important to be antifascist.
The extreme rightwing is growing throughout Europe and getting parlimentary seats.
The stuff, that was unaccepted few years ago, is now accepted, so it's very important to speak against racism.
I'm not happy about the experience, but it is an experience that I cannot leave behind.
It is a part of my life. Fear never strikes me.
That doesn't mean im stupid or frivolous, but I don't fear anything.
It's a big problem, that there is so much fear in this world, and so little courage. That's what the world need: courage.
Nationalist movements isn't something from the past. Today, it is still as important as before to fight fascism.
If they get the power they want, socialists, leftwingers and unions will lose their freedom of speech and
their right to organize. They want to destroy every possibility to organize democratic political activities.
Therefore it's just as important to fight them today as it was in the early 90'es.