V a t t e n f a l l - Sweden´s other face

-
Furthermore, in the absence of a legally binding Brown Coal Plan for the Jänschwalde mine (the first two Plans were declared to be unconstitutional and thus null and void by the Brandenburg Constitutional Court, and a third Plan has not yet been approved by the Government), which takes account of constitutional provisions concerning Sorb settlements and regulates resettlement, there is no legal basis for the resettlement of Horno.
-
"Of course this [resettlement] represents an encroachment on the lives of the villagers, but society has guaranteed that they will receive reasonable compensation. The relocation programme is characterised by consideration and an assumption of responsibility."
-
There is no compensation whatsoever for the reduced life expectancy of the thirty-eight people in Horno over seventy years of age, who are facing compulsory resettlement. You must know better than I do, that the trauma involved in the relocation of old people is of great concern to social workers in Sweden, who have seen its effect in cases – especially in northern Sweden – where old people's homes are being closed down and their residents have to be transferred to other homes. In the case of the old people of Horno, Mr. Josefsson, we are talking about old people who are being compulsory moved from their own homes, and are expected to build new houses and start life anew!
-
LAUBAG's prime consideration, regarding its "relocation programme", is for its own commercial interests. The immediate effects of threatened destruction of a village and relocation of its inhabitants are fear, social erosion, municipal decay, financial anxieties etc.; all of which are experienced years before relocation is due to take place. LAUBAG's foremost intention is to break the resistance of the village in question to relocation, and in the choice of methods, including the use of psychological blackmail, it is quite unscrupulous, as experiences in Horno have shown.
-
"There are times when the individual must bow to the public interest. This is the basis for expropriation procedures in both Sweden and Germany irrespective of whether these procedures relate to roads, railways, energy supply plants or other forms of infrastructure."
-
The fact of the matter is, Mr. Josefsson, that LAUBAG has been threatening the people of Horno with expropriation proceedings for the past couple of years, but only to intimidate them into submitting to resettlement, and without any intention of actually commencing such proceedings. One householder in Horno, who under no circumstances will agree to resettlement and will fight to the bitter end for his rights, has been demanding for months that LAUBAG commence expropriation proceedings against him. But LAUBAG refuses! And the reason is obvious. LAUBAG knows that it has little chance of winning such cases at court in court. This is because the Federal Constitutional allows the expropriation of private property only where it is necessary for overwhelming reasons of public interest. And there is no overwhelming public interest in the destruction of private property in Horno.
-
Yours sincerely
-
Michael Gromm
-
Spokesman, Horno Alliance
-
< 1 2 3