Dear Swedish Government:
Hi there -- or as you all say, Hallå! You know, all of us here in the U.S. love your country. Your Volvos, your meatballs, your hard-to-put-together furniture -- we can't get enough!
There's just one thing that bothers me -- why has Amnesty International, in a special report (described in detail here by Naomi Wolf), declared that Sweden refuses to deal with the very real tragedy of rape? In fact, they say that all over Scandinavia, including in your country, rapists "enjoy impunity." And the United Nations, the EU and Swedish human rights groups have come to the same conclusion: Sweden just doesn't take sexual assault against women seriously. How else do you explain these statistics from Katrin Axelsson of Women Against Rape:
- Sweden has the HIGHEST per capita number of reported rapes in Europe.
- This number of rapes has quadrupled in the last 20 years.
- The conviction rates? They have steadily DECREASED.
Axelsson says: "On April 23rd of this year, Carina Hägg and Nalin Pekgul (respectively MP and chairwoman of Social Democratic Women in Sweden) wrote in the Göteborgs [newspaper] that 'up to 90% of all reported rapes [in Sweden] never get to court.'"
Let me say that again: nine out of ten times, when women report they have been raped, you never even bother to start legal proceedings. No wonder that, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention, it is now statistically more likely that someone in Sweden will be sexually assaulted than that they will be robbed.
Message to rapists? Sweden loves you!
So imagine our surprise when all of a sudden you decided to go after one Julian Assange on sexual assault charges. Well, sort of: first you charged him. Then after investigating it, you dropped the most serious charges and rescinded the arrest warrant.
Then a conservative MP put pressure on you and, lo and behold, you did a 180 and reopened the Assange investigation. Except you still didn't charge him with anything. You just wanted him for "questioning." So you -- you who have sat by and let thousands of Swedish women be raped while letting their rapists go scott-free -- you decided it was now time to crack down on one man -- the one man the American government wants arrested, jailed or (depending on which politician or pundit you listen to) executed. You just happened to go after him, on one possible "count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of rape (third degree)." And while thousands of Swedish rapists roam free, you instigated a huge international manhunt on Interpol for this Julian Assange!
What anti-rape crusaders you've become, Swedish government! Women in Sweden must suddenly feel safer?
Well, not really. Actually, many see right through you. They know what these "non-charge charges" are really about. And they know that you are cynically and disgustingly using the real and everyday threat that exists against women everywhere to help further the American government's interest in silencing the work of WikiLeaks.
I don't pretend to know what happened between Mr. Assange and the two women complainants (all I know is what I've heard in the media, so I'm as confused as the next person). And I'm sorry if I've jumped to any unnecessary or wrong-headed conclusions in my efforts to state a very core American value: All people are absolutely innocent until proven otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. I strongly believe every accusation of sexual assault must be investigated vigorously. There is nothing wrong with your police wanting to question Mr. Assange about these allegations, and while I understand why he seemed to go into hiding (people tend to do that when threatened with assassination), he nonetheless should answer the police's questions. He should also submit to the STD testing the alleged victims have requested. I believe Sweden and the UK have a treaty and a means for you to send your investigators to London so they can question Mr. Assange where he is under house arrest while out on bail.
But that really wouldn't be like you would it, to go all the way to another country to pursue a suspect for sexual assault when you can't even bring yourselves to make it down to the street to your own courthouse to go after the scores of reported rapists in your country. That you, Sweden, have chosen to rarely do that in the past, is why this whole thing stinks to the high heavens.
And let's not forget this one final point from Women Against Rape's Katrin Axelsson:
"There is a long tradition of the use of rape and sexual assault for political agendas that have nothing to do with women's safety. In the south of the US, the lynching of black men was often justified on grounds that they had raped or even looked at a white woman. Women don't take kindly to our demand for safety being misused, while rape continues to be neglected at best or protected at worst."
This tactic of using a rape charge to go after minorities or troublemakers, guilty or innocent -- while turning a blind eye to clear crimes of rape the rest of the time -- is what I fear is happening here. I want to make sure that good people not remain silent and that you, Sweden, will not succeed if in fact you are in cahoots with corrupt governments such as ours.
Last week Naomi Klein wrote: "Rape is being used in the Assange prosecution in the same way that 'women's freedom' was used to invade Afghanistan. Wake up!"
I agree.
Unless you have the evidence (and it seems if you did you would have issued an arrest warrant by now), drop the extradition attempt and get to work doing the job you've so far refused to do: Protecting the women of Sweden.
Yours,
Michael Moore
Follow Michael Moore on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MMFlint
while the Assange circus certainly deserves criticism, better research may increase your credibility somewhat.
One of the most important reasons for a rise in rape allegations in Sweden recently is that the concept of rape in Swedish law has recently been broadened to a level far beyond that of most other nations. This may or may not be a good thing, but that's beside the point.
Another important factor is an increasing aptitude to report incidents to the police; the primary reason for other countries to have low numbers may not be that women are not raped, but rather that they just don't tell.
Next problem is, noone, except for Assange and the women, knows what really happened. The way I see it, you're not likely to get to judge this case. Right now, I think that's a very good thing.
Next time, try to get your facts straight. I would very much like to regard you as credible, but right now, that's a bit difficult.
BR
/Christer
One of very few voices of reason and truth extant in American public life these days. Remind me to never go to Sweden although there are a lot of reasons why this country is attractive. Maybe some really intense publicity for the Swedes, enough that their tourist industry could be sabotaged, is what they need. We all know that they are not going to take action through any moral obligation, so perhaps hitting them in their wallets will help? Disgusting, reprehensible behavior. Leave Assange alone, he is a journalist although no one in high positions of political power want him around because he spills the truth about them.
1 A very high percentage of the rapes are comitted by the growing immigrant community, particulary muslim men are highly overrepresented in swedish rape cases.
2 A larger degree of openess and trust in the police in the scandinavian countries also shows on the statistics.
Im sorry Mr Moore, but as a scandinavian, I do feel your populistic agenda shines through your commentary. This is more about Michael Moore and his attempt to use the raw emotions and the strong feelings people around the world have about Assange, and use these emotions to his own domestic commercial benefit.To stay relevant and sell more movies he wants to be a "defender" the revolutionary hero Assange.
Quite frankly, Im so angry at this shameless try to monetize on a legal case, that a large part of me would have written the answer with a lot cuss words.
Sure, the legal system in scandinavia has it flaws. But so has the american justice system.
How many reports do the Amnesty International have about american human rights?
I could find Amnesty reports about USA, and paint a just a horrified picture of rapes and murders in America. If I were as cynical and populist as Mr Moore.
It is a failure of Sweden's immigration policies and of Swedish society to integrate immigrants. I admit that some muslims are tough cookies to crack, but notwithstanding their inherit reservations towards anything culturally alien, Sweden should have been in a position to better scrutinise immigration applicants. Let's face it when you allow rapists-to-be in your country then you have a serious problem.
"To stay relevant and sell more movies he wants to be a "defender" the revolutionÂary hero Assange."
Ah that argument would have been true, had Moore been inconsistent with his scepticism and criticisms towards the US government. For what it's worth I would be more surprised had he said something in support of the Swedish extradition request.
"Im so angry at this shameless try to monetize on a legal case"
But it is not a legal case. Even in the UK they see ulterior motives behind Sweden's extradition request! If this was purely a legal case, then in accordance with EU and bilateral treaties between the UK and Sweden Assange would have been on a plane bound for Stockholm in no time.
In conclusion Sweden is indeed a very good place to live (maybe the best place to live) but it's not perfect, so there will be criticisms some more malicious than others.
Ok, and this comes from an american(presumably) whos country has millions of illegal immigrants that they dont know who are.
"There is a long tradition of the use of rape and sexual assault for political agendas that have nothing to do with women's safety."
You are guilty of this yourself with this very post--your statistics are flawed. You sacrifice us, as so many others have, in the name of your own agenda. Do not use my plight and the plight of my sisters in your battle.
Im afraid if Michael Moore was president he would redirect his troops from Afghanistan and use them to invade Sweden. Just because he wants to improve women rights.
The passage you re-quote is from a woman, the head of Women Against Rape, and those are her statistics. If you disagree with Women Against Rape, by all means, you should join and speak loudly and often to your sisters.
What this situation comes down to is this:
(a) It is an absolute fact that these type of charges have in the past quite successfully been used to gag political dissidents, and it is an absolute fact that the mere accusation is enough to do so.
(b) It is an absolute fact that these sort of things happen to women and that is absolutely unacceptable.
So, if the allegations against Julian Assange are true, those of us who question them can only say that hundreds of years of false allegations which are just a bit too convenient for the leaders of empires are why. It's not because he is superman, it's not because even if he were our best friend we could say for sure that these allegations are not true, only three people know whether they are.
To me, when this came out, it was sort of like, you're watching a sporting event, your favorite team is winning, but the opposition is catching up, and with twelve seconds and a one-point lead, a referee makes a call which does not seem right, and changes the game irreversibly.
Of course you do.
Should a 400 lb man advise us on the evils of over-consumption?
Should the resident of a million-dollar apartment claim to be a poster boy of the working class?
Should a person who thought that Enron was a great investment, that Ralph Nader, Wesley Clark and John Kerry would win, and that North Korea's Kim Jong was changing for the better, advise us on ANYTHING?
In Sweden we have the toughest sexual offense laws in the world. All allegations are to be investigated. We don't know if Mr. Assange is guilty or not, that is up to the Swedish courts to decide. But we do know that no man is above the law.
That many of you can't differentiate between WikiLeaks the organization and Mr. Assange the person is sad. That Mr. Moore can't comprehend statistics and argue that because some women are not treated fairly neither should the women in this case is outrageous. Luckily there are those who took the time to actually ponder the full ramifications of his view and the vehement attacks on two possible victims by many others: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/17/wikileaks-man-idea-editorial-assange.