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14
February 2016
Jan Simonsen:
Strong reactions
to statement from the Foreign Ministry concerning
Barnevernet
***
This article was originally published on 14 February 2016
in Norwegian as
"Sterke reaksjoner på uttalelse fra
UD" on
Frie Ytringer, Jan Simonsens
blogg.
It is published
here in English by the author's kind consent.
Translation: Marianne Haslev Skånland
***
Czech
member of the EU parliament Tomas Zdechovsky reacts
strongly to a statement coming from the communications
representative of the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, in an
article in the newspaper VG last week and
repeated by VG
today. In this statement, the
representative of the Foreign Ministry criticised the
foreign politicians and the supporters of a Romanian
family that has been robbed of their children, and
accused them of misrepresenting the facts deliberately.
"We
have tried to come out with factual information about how
the Norwegian child protection services function and about
the set of rules they work under. That is no easy task, as
long as the campaign is based on argumentation in which
facts are deliberately distorted", communications representative
Frode Andersen said to VG.
Tomas Zdechovsky will tomorrow contact the Norwegian
Embassy in Brussels and ask for an explanation of the
accusations that he and the other leaders of protests
against the Norwegian child protection
are deliberately lying. He will also address the
Norwegian Foreign Ministry's statement at a
cooperative meeting with Romanian and other
politicians tomorrow night, at which meeting the further
actions against the Norwegian CPS are to be
coordinated, he says to Frie Ytringer.
Zdechovsky's opinion is that both he and other critics of
the Norwegian child protection system (Barnevernet – the
CPS), the way it functions today, have obtained thorough
information both about Barnevernet in general and about the
cases they are particularly working on, a case concerning a
Czech mother deprived of her two children and a Romanian
family whose five children were taken in November of last
year.
These two cases in The Czech Republic and Romania have
started large protests against Barnevernet around the
world. The Czech Christian Democrat politician emphasises
that the protests are not directed at Norway as a nation,
but at Norwegian child protection.
This weekend too there have been demonstrations in several
cities around the world, e.g. in San Francisco. So far this
year, around 70,000 people have demonstrated against
Barnevernet in a lot of cities around the whole world,
Zdechovsky says.
Here from
a demonstration in San
Francisco.
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