斯德哥爾摩騷亂蔓延 挑戰(zhàn)幸福之國形象
Violence spread from the North to the South of the city on Wednesday as groups of youth pushed through Stockholm's suburbs casting stones, breaking windows and setting cars alight. Police in the southern Swedish city of Malmo said two cars had been set ablaze.
Local media said a police station office was set on fire in the southern suburb of Rågsved, where several people were also detained. No one was hurt and the fire was quickly put out.
The attackers have awaited nightfall before setting out, defying a call for calm from the country's prime minister and damaging stores, schools, a police station and an arts and crafts centre in the four days of violence.
"I think there is a feeling that we need to be in more places tonight," said Towe Hagg, spokeswoman forStockholm police. One police officer was injured in the latest attacks and five were arrested for attempted arson.
Selcuk Ceken, who works at a local youth activity centre in Hagsatra, said between 40 and 50 youths threw stones at police and smashed windows, then ran off in different directions. He noted the people were in their 20s and seemed well organized.
"It's difficult to say why they're doing this," he said. "Maybe it's anger at the law and order forces, maybe it's anger at their own personal situation, such as unemployment or having nowhere to live."
The riots appear to have been sparked by the police killing of a 69-year-old man wielding a machete in the suburb of Husby this month, which prompted accusations of police brutality. The riots then spread from Husby to other poor Stockholm suburbs.
"We see a society that is becoming increasingly divided and where the gaps, both socially and economically, are becoming larger," said Rami Al-khamisi, co-founder of Megafonen, a group that works for social change in the suburbs.
"And the people out here are being hit the hardest ... We have institutional racism."
The riots were less severe than those of the past two summers in Britain and France but provided a reminder that even in places less ravaged by the financial crisis than Greece or Spain, state belt-tightening is toughest on the poor, especially immigrants.
"The reason is very simple. Unemployment, the housing situation, disrespect from police," said Rouzbeh Djalaie, editor of the local Norra Sidan newspaper, which covers Husby. "It just takes something to start a riot, and that was the shooting."
IDENTITY CHECKS
Djalaie said youths were often stopped by police in the streets for unnecessary identity checks. During the riots, he said some police called local youths "apes."
The television pictures of blazing cars come as a jolt to a country proud of its reputation for social justice as well as its hospitality towards refugees from war and repression.
"I understand why many people who live in these suburbs and in Husby are worried, upset, angry and concerned," said Justice Minister Beatrice Ask. "Social exclusion is a very serious cause of many problems, we understand that."
After decades of practicing the "Swedish model" of generous welfare benefits, Stockholm has been reducing the role of the state since the 1990s, spurring the fastest growth in inequality of any advanced OECD economy.
While average living standards are still among the highest in Europe, successive governments have failed to substantially reduce long-term youth unemployment and poverty, which have affected immigrant communities worst.
Some 15 percent of the population are foreign-born, and unemployment among these stands at 16 percent, compared with 6 percent for native Swedes, according to OECD data.
Youth unemployment in Husby, at 6 percent, is twice the overall average across the capital.
The left-leaning tabloid Aftonbladet said the riots represented a "gigantic failure" of government policies, which had underpinned the rise of ghettos in the suburbs.
As unemployment has grown, the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats party has risen to third in polls ahead of a general election due next year, reflecting many voters' worries that immigrants may be partly to blame.
ASYLUM NUMBERS RISING
While many of the immigrant population are from Nordic neighbors closely tied to Sweden by language or culture, the debate has tended to focus on poor asylum seekers from distant war zones.
Out of a total 103,000 immigrants last year, 43,900 were asylum seekers, almost 50 percent up from 2011. Nearly half of these were refugees from fighting in Syria, Afghanistan or Somalia, and will get at least temporary residency.
Among 44 industrialized countries, Sweden ranks fourth in the absolute number of asylum seekers, and second relative to its population, according to U.N. figures.
Policing in Stockholm has already been the focus of controversy this year, with allegations that police were picking out darker-skinned immigrants for identity checks in subway trains.
據(jù)外國媒體5月23日?qǐng)?bào)道，瑞典首都斯德哥爾摩移民區(qū)連續(xù)四天晚上爆發(fā)騷亂，數(shù)以百計(jì)的年輕人焚燒汽車、襲擊警察。騷亂震驚了瑞典。
22日，暴力行動(dòng)由北向城市南部蔓延，成群年輕人穿越市郊，投擲石頭，打碎窗戶，點(diǎn)燃汽車。瑞典南部城市馬爾默的警察透露，有兩輛汽車被點(diǎn)燃。
當(dāng)?shù)孛襟w報(bào)道稱，斯德哥爾摩南郊拉格斯維德的警察局起火，有幾個(gè)人被拘留。不過，火勢(shì)很快被撲滅，也沒有人員傷亡。
攻擊者無視瑞典首相呼吁冷靜，在夜幕降臨后出動(dòng)。在四天的暴力行動(dòng)中，一些商店和學(xué)校遭到破壞、一個(gè)警察局和一所工藝美術(shù)中心也被殃及。
斯德哥爾摩警察局女發(fā)言人特維·黑格說，“我感覺，今天晚上我們需要在更多的地方。”在最近的襲擊中，一名警官受傷，5人涉嫌縱火未遂被捕。
在哈格塞特拉青年活動(dòng)中心工作的塞爾丘克·切肯說，四五十名青年向警察投擲石頭，砸碎窗戶，然后四散而逃。他注意到，那些人20多歲，似乎組織有序。他還說，“很難說他們?yōu)槭裁催@么做。也許是怨恨法治部門，也許因?yàn)椴粷M個(gè)人處境，例如失業(yè)或沒有住處。”
本月，警察殺死一名在赫斯比郊區(qū)手持砍刀的69歲男子，引發(fā)對(duì)警察暴行的職責(zé)。騷亂似乎源自此事，并從赫斯比蔓延到斯德哥爾摩其他貧窮郊區(qū)。
社會(huì)組織Megafonen創(chuàng)始人拉米·哈米斯說，“我們看到社會(huì)日益分化，社會(huì)和經(jīng)濟(jì)差距越來越大。這里的人正在受到最嚴(yán)重的打擊。我們存在制度上的種族歧視。”
此次騷亂雖然沒有過去兩年夏季英國和法國騷亂那么嚴(yán)重，但是提醒世人即使在遭受金融危機(jī)打擊比希臘或西班牙小的國家，對(duì)窮人，尤其是移民來說，緊縮政策也極其難熬。
“原因非常簡(jiǎn)單：失業(yè)、住房情況、警察無禮。”當(dāng)?shù)貓?bào)紙編輯魯茲貝赫說，“引發(fā)騷亂只需要干點(diǎn)事情，那就是開槍。”
身份檢查
魯茲貝赫說，警察經(jīng)常在街上攔住年輕人，進(jìn)行無必要的身份檢查。在騷亂期間，有些警察稱當(dāng)?shù)啬贻p人“大猩猩”。
汽車燃燒的電視畫面震驚了這個(gè)以社會(huì)公正、善待難民著稱的國家。司法大臣比阿特麗斯·阿斯克說，“我理解住在這些郊區(qū)和赫斯比的許多人擔(dān)憂、不安、憤怒和關(guān)切的原因。社會(huì)排斥引發(fā)許多問題，我們理解。”
實(shí)行以福利著稱的“瑞典模式”幾十年之后，自上世紀(jì)90年代以來，斯德哥爾摩一直在削減政府角色，不平等迅速增加，甚于何發(fā)達(dá)的經(jīng)合組織成員。
雖然平均生活標(biāo)準(zhǔn)依然在歐洲高居榜首，多屆政府未能有效減少青年長期失業(yè)和貧困問題，移民社區(qū)最受影響。
經(jīng)合組織的數(shù)據(jù)顯示，瑞典約15%的人口出生在國外，這些人的失業(yè)率高達(dá)16%，而瑞典本地人失業(yè)率為6%。
赫斯比青年失業(yè)率為6%，是斯德哥爾摩平均失業(yè)率的兩倍。
《瑞典晚報(bào)》(Aftonbladet)稱，騷亂體現(xiàn)了政府政策的“巨大失敗”。
隨著失業(yè)率的增長，反移民的瑞典民主黨在明年大選前的民調(diào)中已躍居第三位，反映了許多選民的擔(dān)心，而移民可能是部分原因。
難民增加
許多移民來自在語言或文化上都與瑞典關(guān)系密切的北歐鄰國，窮苦的戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)難民成為爭(zhēng)論焦點(diǎn)。
瑞典去年移民總數(shù)為10.3萬，其中4.39萬人是難民，比2011年幾乎增加了50%。這些人中將近一半是來自敘利亞、阿富汗或索馬里戰(zhàn)區(qū)的難民，至少將得到臨時(shí)居住權(quán)。
聯(lián)合國數(shù)據(jù)顯示，在44個(gè)工業(yè)化國家中，在入境難民的絕對(duì)數(shù)量上，瑞典排名第四。
今年，斯德哥爾摩警察行為已成爭(zhēng)議焦點(diǎn)，有人指控稱警方在地鐵上對(duì)膚色較黑的移民進(jìn)行身份檢查。
