Sweden honours slain Anna Lindh

Swedes warmed to Anna Lindh's smile and open manner

The people of Sweden are honouring the memory of Anna Lindh, the charismatic foreign minister who died a year ago after being stabbed in Stockholm.

Hundreds saw the unveiling of a glass monument to Lindh in the capital on Thursday - on the spot where she made her last public speech.

Lindh, 46, was stabbed in a department store by Mijailo Mijailovic, 25, a man with a history of psychiatric problems.

He was jailed for life, but later declared unfit for prison on appeal.

Anniversary events

The monument to Lindh - a three-metre (10-foot) high rectangular pillar consisting of eight transparent sheets of green glass - was unveiled by Lindh's widower Bo Holmberg and the mayor of Stockholm, Annika Billstroem.

The glass monument is designed to cascade a rainbow of colours

Once tipped as a future prime minister, Lindh died after campaigning for the pro-EU camp in a referendum on the single European currency.

An inscription on the glass reads: "Foreign Minister ANNA LINDH held her last speech on the steps of Medborgarhuset on September 9, 2003."

Various events are planned for Saturday, the anniversary of her death, the AFP news agency reports.

Former Irish President and ex-UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson, as well as Sweden's EU Commissioner Margot Wallstroem - a close friend of Lindh's - are expected to attend a conflict prevention seminar in Stockholm, held in Lindh's honour.

An anti-violence demonstration will also be held in the southern Swedish city of Malmoe on Saturday, while Swedish public television will broadcast an "evening of culture" with the historic date of 11 September as a theme.

It will include a play entitled One Year Later, an Evening for Anna Lindh, as well as a speech by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.

The brutal killing shocked a society that prides itself on peace and stability - and reminded many of the murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986.

Sweden's loss

The Swedish media on Friday carried tributes and thoughts a year after the killing.

With her deep commitment and her efforts for democracy and human rights she was greatly respected far beyond the country's borders. Prime Minister Goeran Persson

Writing in Stockholm's Aftonbladet, Prime Minister Goeran Persson says the memory of Lindh "feels close and alive" and that her death has left "a vacuum which is difficult to fill" in Sweden's Social Democratic Party.

She was one of the first people to speak warmly about a unified Europe in which former communist dictatorships would join the European Union, but did not live to see it realised earlier this year, he writes.

"Anna Lindh was Sweden's voice in the world. I usually say that just like Olof Palme she made our country a bit bigger than it actually is.

"She made a difference."

A commentator in another Stockholm daily, Expressen, says she misses "the passion, involvement and personal congeniality of Anna Lindh", adding that Swedish foreign policy has lost its profile since her death.

"Our voice was heard in the world... Yes, I miss her," the commentator concludes.

Little comfort

Svenska Dagbladet describes the day Lindh was attacked in a Stockholm department store as "the day we will never forget".

Her killer "took our last hope of a safe and danger-free society" with him as he fled the scene, the paper says.

"It was as if the world stood still" as the news of her death was announced by the prime minister on Swedish radio and "Sweden and the world were joined in collective sorrow".

No motive for her killing has ever been established, although "explanations don't bring anyone back to life or heal wounds and provide little comfort," the paper says.

Lindh's killer - a Swede of Serbian origin - eventually confessed, saying voices in his head had urged him to stab Lindh. But he insisted he had not meant to kill her.

He was jailed for life in March, but an appeals court later changed his sentence to psychiatric care.