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DEMOCRACY

Swedish tour operators end Egypt season

Swedish tour operators Apollo, Ving and Fritidsresor have cancelled all trips to Egypt for the rest of the winter season, as they continue to repatriate Swedish tourists who remain in the country.

For those travelers who have booked a trip to Egypt, the travel firms are working lay on additional flights and new hotel rooms, primarily in the Canary Islands.

“All passengers will of course be offered open re-routing,” Fritidsresor said in a statement.

While unrest continues in Egypt, Swedish tour operators are are working to complete the repatriation of the Swedes currently on holiday in the country. The foreign ministry however expects several thousand will remain in Egypt at the end of the week.

The evacuation of Swedish tourists from Egypt is reported to progressing smoothly, the major tour operators stated on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, 800 Ving tourists were flown back to Sweden and during the week several extra flights will be laid on to bring home Swedes from resorts in Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh.

Apollo on Tuesday flew home all of its passengers who had been in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and on Thursday around 1200 people who had been in Hurghada will be flown home.

Both Ving and Apollo announced that they expect to fly home their remaining passengers on Saturday.

The foreign ministry estimates that, despite the efforts, 2000-3000 Swedes will remain in Egypt at the end of the week. This is due to the fact that in addition to charter travellers there are number of people travelling independently in the country.

The ministry is follow developments, but there are currently no plans to lay on extra services aside from charter tour firm.

“We have made no amendments to our travel advice,” said Camilla Åkesson Lindblom at the foreign ministry’s press service.

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PROTESTS

Calls for special police tactics to be available across Sweden

The chairwoman of the Police Association West Region has said that police special tactics, known as Särskild polistaktik or SPT, should be available across Sweden, to use in demonstrations similar to those during the Easter weekend.

Calls for special police tactics to be available across Sweden

SPT, (Särskild polistaktik), is a tactic where the police work with communication rather than physical measures to reduce the risk of conflicts during events like demonstrations.

Tactics include knowledge about how social movements function and how crowds act, as well as understanding how individuals and groups act in a given situation. Police may attempt to engage in collaboration and trust building, which they are specially trained to do.

Katharina von Sydow, chairwoman of the Police Association West Region, told Swedish Radio P4 West that the concept should exist throughout the country.

“We have nothing to defend ourselves within 10 to 15 metres. We need tools to stop this type of violent riot without doing too much damage,” she said.

SPT is used in the West region, the South region and in Stockholm, which doesn’t cover all the places where the Easter weekend riots took place.

In the wake of the riots, police unions and the police’s chief safety representative had a meeting with the National Police Chief, Anders Tornberg, and demanded an evaluation of the police’s work. Katharina von Sydow now hopes that the tactics will be introduced everywhere.

“This concept must exist throughout the country”, she said.

During the Easter weekend around 200 people were involved in riots after a planned demonstration by anti-Muslim Danish politician Rasmus Paludan and his party Stram Kurs (Hard Line), that included the burning of the Muslim holy book, the Koran.

Police revealed on Friday that at least 104 officers were injured in counter-demonstrations that they say were hijacked by criminal gangs intent on targeting the police. 

Forty people were arrested and police are continuing to investigate the violent riots for which they admitted they were unprepared. 

Paludan’s application for another demonstration this weekend was rejected by police.

In Norway on Saturday, police used tear gas against several people during a Koran-burning demonstration after hundreds of counter-demonstrators clashed with police in the town of Sandefjord.

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