Norway’s Utoya youth camp to reopen, four years after mass shooting

The murderous rampage of the self-styled "militant nationalist" Anders Behring Breivik, who randomly shot students as he walked through the island, shocked Norway, a nation of 5 million people in the far north of Europe. About 1 in 4 people in the country were affected by the massacre, through family, friendships or work connections.

It left lasting traces on Utoya, including the dark green cafeteria, which bears bullet marks from the murder of 13 people. It has not been renovated and will open as a center for learning after another building has been built around it.

Survivor Ragnhild Kaski, secretary-general of the youth organization, remembered with glee and excitement how she gave her first political speech in that fateful cafeteria — tinged with deep sorrow and emptiness over the loss of her friends.

"For me, that building will always be the building where I was giving a speech for the very first time, when I was 17 ... At the same time, that's the place where people lost their lives and I was saving mine," she said. "So it kind of shows it's part of the island. You have both the good and the bad memories."

In 2012, Breivik was convicted of mass murder and terrorism and was given a 21-year prison sentence that can be extended for as long as he is deemed dangerous to society — which legal experts say likely means he will be locked up for life.

But his attack on the government quarter in the capital and the students of a left-wing movement in Norway that prides itself on equality and democracy has left a scar on its reputation as a country that doesn't need armed police and where political leaders can walk freely.

During the fourth anniversary commemoration ceremony in Oslo, Prime Minister Erna Solberg said that July 22, 2011, will remain a dark day in the country's history for "scenes of evil and heinous acts" and that the victims are "remembered with love" and will never be forgotten. She later inaugurated a July 22 Center, which shows how the assailant carried out the cold-blooded attacks — an initiative some opposed on the grounds that it was too poignant.

Since the shooting, 16 regional support groups and a national organization were set up to help families of the victims.

On Utoya, the victims' names, engraved in longhand on the suspended memorial, glittered in the cloudy sky. The youngest was that of a 14-year-old boy; the oldest, that of Breivik's first target on the island, a 45-year-old security guard.

But not all 69 names are there. Eight spaces have been left for those names parents do not want displayed.

"It's still too early for some now, and that's a natural thing, I think," said Lisbeth Roynehold, whose 18-year-old daughter, Synne, was killed. "Because we grieve in different ways and some parents need more time."

Roynehold, who is the leader of a July 22 support group, welcomes the reopening of the camp.

"By going back to the island, I think the youngsters will fight for what my daughter fought for," she said quietly, her folded hands twitching. "They are fighting for democracy."

The Associated Press