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On April 14, 2008, I received a PRESS RELEASE from:
Fredrik S. Heffermehl, Oslo
The International Vanunu Committee
ISRAELI WHISTLEBLOWER WELCOME TO NORWAY
After hectic political discussions within the three-party Norwegian coalition cabinet, the Minister of Immigration, Bjarne Hakon Hanssen, (Labor, Norway´s biggest Party) said last Friday that Mordechai Vanunu is welcome to Norway: " If he gets a job offer here, he will of course get a permit to stay and work in Norway". Vanunu is the nuclear whistleblower who has been Israel´s hostage since his kidnap by Mossad agents from London in 1986.
Confronted with the fact that Vanunu is banned from leaving Israel by government decree, a member of the cabinet, Aslaug Haga, Center Party leader and former deputy Foreign Minister, admitted that a major diplomatic effort towards Israel will be needed. Then, on Sunday night, a meeting of the National Committee of the third member party of the coalition cabinet, the Socialist Left Party, decided to invite Vanunu to come to Norway in May this year.
- This welcome to Norway does not solve Vanunu´s problem, but is a major step forward, says Fredrik S. Heffermehl, a Norwegian, for the International Vanunu Committee. Up to now our efforts to protect Vanunu´s elementary human rights have received only cold shoulders. After 21 1/2 years the brutalit inhumanity against Vanunu has to stop. Since a secret deterrent is ineffective, Vanunu did Israel a service by documenting the nuclear weapons program. Israel´s illtreatment of him is totally meaningless, unfair and unacceptable from a state laying claim to be a democracy under the rule of law, Heffermehl says.
Vanunu has been exposed to severe inhumanity and human rights violations for 21 1/2 years, first the kidnap, then a secret trial, then 11 1/2 years in strict isolation, and then - at the end of his full sentence - he was not free, but subjected to additional punishment, bans on travel and talk, a grave violation of his basic freedoms under international treaties. Vanunu has done more for a nuclear free world than most of us, and has suffered more for his principled action against an illegal weapon, our
The political breakthrough for Vanunu, with the three-party coalition government, followed a brilliant piece of investigative journalism, where Vidar Ystad, one of Norway´s finest political journalists uncovered that since 2005 The Norwegian Immigration Authority has held the view that Vanunu fulfilled all requirements for political asylum in Norway and, further, that the former conservative government of Kjell Magne Bondevik had broken the law when its Minister of Immigration, Erna Solberg, presentleader of the Conservative Party, interfered to stop the Immigration Authority from granting asylum to Vanunu.
A former leader of the Conservative party, Kare Willoch, has been adamant that Norway must grant asylum to Vanunu, and a former leader of Labor, now President of Parliament, Thorbjorn Jagland, stated in 2005 that Norway´s Mid-East diplomacy should not bar the country from speaking up for Vanunu.
Fredrik S. Heffermehl, the International Vanunu Committee
For further information: fredpax@online.no This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ,
phone: +47 2244 8003 (cell phone: +47 917 44 783).
http://www.vanunu.org, ("Updates") gives access to a legal briefs by US lawyers, my report on the decision against Vanunu in Israel´s Supreme Court etc.
Fredrik S. Heffermehl
* Fredrik S. HEFFERMEHL
* N. Juels g. 28 A, N-0272 Oslo, Norway
* Phone +47-2244 8003 (Cell: +47 9174 4783)
* E-mail: fredpax@online.no This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
* NFR: http://www.nowar.no or IPB: http://www.ipb.org
* Hon. President, Norwegian Peace Alliance
* Ex Vice President, International Peace Bureau
* Vice Pres, Intntl. Assn. Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms
* International Free Vanunu Committee
"Never doubt that a few, thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead
