Vol. 71/No. 18      May 7, 2007

The March 8 show reported that a Swedish force, reinforced by some troops of other nationalities, launched an attack against a village called Boka in the northern part of the country. According to Lt. Patrik Berge, who took part in the operation, the troops were given photos of Nematullah.

The battle lasted two hours. Afterward Nematullah was found dead. According to a document shown on TV, “Colonel Bengt Sandström, who commanded the operation, reported back to the base: ‘no casualties, main target down.’”

The Swedish Armed Forces was pursuing Nematullah for allegedly organizing a bomb attack last November that killed two Swedish soldiers. A few days after they got confirmation that the Afghan justice system was not going to act against Nematullah, the assault on the village took place.

The increasingly aggressive role of Swedish forces abroad has caused discomfort among some bourgeois politicians here.

Maj-Britt Theorin, a former Social Democratic minister of disarmament, said such “preemptive attacks” are “against international law.”

But many are pressing ahead to make the Swedish military a more effective tool to participate in wars abroad.

Minister of Defense Mikael Odenberg questioned the accuracy of the TV program. “Swedish troops had to defend themselves,” he said. “It is probably not the last time Swedish troops will be involved in combat in Afghanistan.”

There are currently 330 Swedish troops in Afghanistan, but the government is backing a proposal to raise the upper limit of the force that can be deployed there from 375 to 600. Over the next two years, the military is also pressing to add an air component, the fighter attack plane JAS 39 Gripen, to Sweden’s force in Afghanistan.

Recruiting 2,000 soldiers to be part of the Nordic battle group—which includes Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Estonian troops—is right now the central effort of the Swedish military. The 2,400-strong force will be one of two rapid deployment forces that the European Union (EU) will be able to deploy within 10 days anywhere in the world.

Responsibility for coordinating this force will rotate among the EU member states . The Swedish Armed Forces will be mainly responsible for one of these EU forces in service the first half of 2008. So within a few months, the number of Swedish soldiers deployed abroad—currently 1,000—will be tripled.

In January, a discussion started in the press among leading military figures and experts. They argued that the military forces available in Sweden have been weakened by the emphasis on international missions, and need to be reinforced. Many pointed to the threat of a strengthened Russian military.

“We can see a changed strategic situation developing in northern Europe,” Maj. Gen. Michael Moore, head of the Swedish military research institute, wrote in the Swedish paper Dagens Nyheter.

Col. Stefan Gustavsson, head of strategic analysis for the Swedish Armed Forces, highlighted the building of a gas pipeline along Sweden’s coast and the efforts by Russia to rebuild its military. This calls for a “regional dimension,” he said, to be added to “the present priority of the international operations.”
 
 
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