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By Maddy Savage Stockholm
12 November 2019
When three explosions took place in one night across different parts of
Stockholm last month, it came as a shock to residents. There had been blasts in
other city suburbs, but never on their doorstep.
Swedish police are dealing with unprecedented levels of attacks, targeting city
centre locations too. The bomb squad was called to deal with 97 explosions in
the first nine months of this year.
"I grew up here and you feel like that environment gets violated," says Joel,
22.
The front door of his apartment block in the central Stockholm neighbourhood of
Sodermalm was blown out and windows were shattered along the street.
Who is to blame?
This category of crime was not even logged prior to 2017. Then, in 2018, there
were 162 explosions and in the past two months alone the bomb squad have been
called to almost 30.
"Bangers, improvised explosives and hand grenades" are behind most of the
blasts, says Linda H Straaf, head of intelligence at Sweden's National
Operations Department.
The attacks are usually carried out by criminal gangs to scare rival groups or
their close friends or family, she says.
"This is a serious situation, but most people shouldn't be worried, because
they are not going to be affected."
Teams have been sent to work with gang crime specialists in the US, Germany and
the Netherlands, and they are liaising with Swedish military experts who dealt
with explosives in Africa and Afghanistan.
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"It's very new in Sweden, and we are looking for knowledge around the world,"
says Mats Lovning, head of the National Operations Department.
For criminologist Amir Rostami the only relevant comparison is Mexico, plagued
by gang violence.
"This is unique in countries that pretty much don't have a war or don't have a
long history of terrorism," he says.
Where are the explosions?
Most attacks have taken place in low-income, vulnerable suburbs in the biggest
cities: Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo.
Malmo had three blasts in just over 24 hours at the start of this month.
But more affluent places are now being targeted too. An explosion in the
residential northern Stockholm suburb of Bromma last month destroyed the
entrance to a block of flats, blew out windows and damaged cars.
A 20-year-old passerby was treated in hospital when a bomb targeted a grocery
shop in the historic university city of Lund. And 25 people were hurt when a
block of flats was targeted in the central town of Linkoping.
Sodermalm is a former working-class area that has become increasingly
gentrified. Vintage boutiques and vegan delicatessens break up grids of
mustard- and terracotta-painted apartment blocks. The building targeted is
opposite a park and close to a school.
"Immediately afterwards, when police closed off the streets and I walked with
my two kids to preschool, I got really scared," says Malin Bradshaw, who lives
a few doors down.
No arrests have been made and police will not comment on potential motives.
"If it was targeted then to be honest it makes us feel safer, because then the
attack was not aimed to harm the public," says Ms Bradshaw, hoping it was not a
random attack.
Who are Sweden's criminal gangs?
Police say the criminals involved are part of the same gangs behind an increase
in gun crime, often connected to the drugs trade. Sweden saw 45 deadly
shootings in 2018, compared with 17 in 2011.
But why they have added explosives to their arsenal is unclear.
Swedish police do not record or release the ethnicity of suspects or convicted
criminals, but intelligence chief Linda H Straaf says many do share a similar
profile.
"They have grown up in Sweden and they are from socio-economically weak groups,
socio-economically weak areas, and many are perhaps second- or third-generation
immigrants," she says.
Ideological debates about immigration have intensified since Sweden took in the
highest number of asylum seekers per capita in the EU during the migrant crisis
of 2015. But Ms Straaf says it is "not correct" to suggest new arrivals are
typically involved in gang networks.
For many on the political right the explosions add fuel to their argument that
Sweden has struggled to integrate migrants over the past two decades.
"In the future the situation might grow even bigger and even more problematic,"
says Mira Aksoy, who describes herself as a national conservative writer.
"Since they are in the same area, they are in the same mindset. It's easy for
them to connect to each other. They don't feel like they should become a part
of Sweden and they stay in their segregated communities and start doing
crimes."
This kind of sentiment has grown in recent years, and the nationalist Sweden
Democrats attracted 18% of the vote in 2018.
But Malin Bradshaw believes crime levels are more to do with income and social
status.
Amir Rostami says ethnicity rarely plays a big role in gang membership in
Sweden. "When I interview gang members... the gang is their new country. The
gang is their new identity."
Did Swedish media hush it up?
Another important layer of this story is how it has been covered by Swedish
media.
After last month's trio of attacks in Stockholm, public broadcaster SVT was
accused of a leftist cover-up for leaving the story out of a main evening news
programme.
"I think that they have not done a great job... I feel like they're trying to
shrink the news," argues writer Mira Aksoy.
Christian Christensen, a journalism professor at Stockholm University, was
himself surprised that some programmes paid little attention to the explosions,
but feels there was extensive coverage in the big newspapers and on local news
programmes.
"The problem is that Sweden is used symbolically as proof of problems with
immigration, proof of problems with leftist policies - unfairly in many cases,"
he argues.
A recent study by polling company Kantar Sifo found that law and order was the
most covered news topic on Swedish TV and radio and on social media.
What are authorities doing?
Police say they are trying to track down the perpetrators, but only one in 10
of such crimes in 2018 has led to a conviction.
The head of the National Operations Department has promised greater
co-ordination with security police.
The home affairs minister has announced increased powers to search suspects'
homes and greater efforts to break the culture of silence around gang crime.
But in Sodermalm, resident Anders Herdenstam says there has to be a greater
focus on integration.
"I am not afraid for where I live. I am more concerned when it comes to
developments in Sweden nationally."
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50339977
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43667367