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

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The Swedish State, in the guise of the state-owned Vattenfall concern, plans to destroy the listed Wend village of Horno (Wend: Rogow) in the Lausitz region of eastern Germany and to compulsorily resettle its inhabitants, for the strip-mining of brown coal.
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In the period 1945-89, 73 Wend villages were sacrificed to brown coal mining, and around 20.000 people resettled, mostly in the high-rise tenements of cities such as Cottbus and Hoyerswerda, where they inevitably succumbed to assimilation. Now, the first Wend village to be sacrificed after German reunification, the beautiful listed village of Horno, whose legendary fight for survival has aroused worldwide interest and support, is to be destroyed by the Swedish state.
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For decades, Sweden has rightly enjoyed an enviable reputation for environmental protection and the furtherance of human and minority rights. This reputation is now endangered by the avaricious demands of the state-owned Vattenfall concern.
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The president of Vattenfall AB can no longer maintain, as he did at a press conference in Berlin in June 2001, that Horno is "a German problem, far away from us up in the north"; in the meantime, Horno is indisputably a significant Swedish problem. The argument that is now being raised, by both Vattenfall and the Swedish Government, namely that Vattenfall must obey German laws, is baseless. There is no German law that requires that Horno be destroyed. Vattenfall is free to take the strategic decision not to destroy Horno, Vattenfall president Lars G. Josefsson has the power, as chairman of LAUBAG's supervisory board, to implement the decision, and there is no political or legal authority in Germany, which would have substantial grounds for criticising the decision.
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If the Swedish Government, as custodian of the national interest, feels unable to bring pressure to bear on a Swedish state-owned concern, whose global activities, in violation of its own ethical principles, are injurious to Swedish interests, then the Swedish people should, as a first step, themselves intervene with their representatives in the Swedish Riksdag, to ensure that the cross-party motion, introduced into Parliament [LINK] by five of the seven political parties, is passed by Parliament as soon as possible.
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With VattenfallWatch, the Horno Alliance will intensify its international campaign to put pressure on the Swedish Government to fulfil its obligations. In the spirit of Brent Spar, VattenfallWatch will campaign against Vattenfall in every country where it does business. Environmental activists and human rights campaigners throughout the world will be called upon to use every opportunity to demand from the Swedish Government and its representatives, that Horno be saved.
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Wherever minorities suffer at the hands of weak, incompetent or corrupt government, or are threatened by unscrupulous commercial interests, often masquerading under the guise of the common good, Horno has for many years been a beacon of hope. Horno is a symbol for shortsighted, ineffective policies governed by vested interests, for constitutional safeguards negated by corrupt governance and an irresponsible judiciary. Horno is also a symbol for the necessity for sustainable, intergenerational environment and energy policies, for human and minority rights policies that are more than mere lip service. Above all, Horno is a symbol for immaterial values common to all peoples, priceless values that, once lost, can neither be replaced nor compensated. Horno must not be destroyed!
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