Holding roses above their heads the huge crowd swayed in the rain, weeping and singing for the dead, singing “Children of the Rainbow.” Norway takes pride in its tolerant and multicultural society and the protest with roses showed Norway does not believe in Breivik’s intolerant attitude but combats fascism with love.
Peter Solsberg, a office worker who was among the protesters told Reuters, “I care about the people who died and whose family members died. This march is about them and about our Norway, not his Norway,” alluding to the mass-murderer Breivik.
In the rain, people marched several blocks to the district courthouse where Breivik was on trial, close to the site where he planted bomb killing close to eighty people on July 22.
While the sound of singing rolled across the streets, survivors of the mindless massacre took the witness box. Harald Foesker said, “I was spitting teeth … I felt at once that this was a terror attack on the government building … I called for help but nobody answered.” Standing there with 80 percent of his vision lost, Harald told the court he was proud to live in a country that treated criminal defendants with dignity.
Breivik has called his victims as traitors who deserved death for accepting left-wing values and opening Europe to a Muslim invasion.
Inside the courtroom, 24-year old Anne Helene Lund said she was working at the government building’s reception desk when Breivik parked the white van with a bomb outside. In addition to head and brain injuries, Anne’s legs and thighs were crushed. She still had glass shards in her body. Audience members wept and the crowd outside sang together to reach out to the survivors, the prosecutor’s eyes reddened with tears kept back. Thirteen feet away, Breivik sat, grinning and smiling.