News April 2002

I travelled down to Milan on the 23rd of March as chairman of our association to participate in the opening of ”Parco- per non dimenticarie ” on the 24th of March. The park is a memorial for all of the 118 victims. It is part of a larger park called Parco Forlanini and it is situated close to the Linate airport. The memorial consists of 118 beeches in a big circle that encloses a park, and there is also a monument. In the future we are hoping to have one sculpture from every affected country in this park.

I got a kind reception by Paolo Pettinaroli who is the chairman of the Italian “Never forget 8th of October” committee. He was very eager to make sure that the press and media knew that the Scandinavian association was represented there by me, which I think is beneficial for both them and us. It shows that we are in this together and that we have a strong and functioning collaboration.

The ceremony started with a mass and several speeches of thanks to everybody that helped arrange the park. Mr Pettinaroli gave a speech that has been translated to you (see separate page). Then I held a short speech where I thanked the 8th of October committee for arranging the park. At lunch, after the opening ceremony, the Scandinavian association and I was presented to their board.

On the 8th of April, the 8th of October committee arranged a torchlight procession from Tribunale di giustizia of Milan through Milan center to a church called San Carlo, where they lit candles and said a prayer. Also on the 8th of April, a beautiful bunch of flowers was left by the monument in the memorial park with the message “From the Scandinavian families”.

On Saturday the 25th of May the Italian association organized a concert with about 100 children who sang gospels. The concert was arranged in honour of the children up to 15-years-old that were victims of the accident. The money collected will be sent to a hospital in Uganda to buy life-saving medical equipment. This equipment will be tagged with the names of the children that were lost in the accident.

The Italian association will give us 10 000 Euro so that we can quickly start up our association. Afterwards, I felt that it had been a good and constructive trip giving me contacts that will be beneficial for us in Scandinavia. We will also get a contribution from SAS that will amount to 25 000 SEK.

With these words I end this letter. Our loved ones will always be with us.

Yours sincerely,
Anette Forsman