Ministermordet - RIB Bibliotek

Crisis work at municipal management
level was hallmarked by the same
double dimension as at central level
(government and departmental).
Whilst leading local politicians and
civil servants play a central role in
arranging condolence rooms, etc, for
the public, they stand in need of their
own internal crisis management work.
Amongst the staff at Örebro town hall
there were many who worked close to
Anna Lindh at departmental level and
in youth associations, and who were
personally touched by what took place.
Concluding summary
No crisis is the same as any other. This
is often the conclusion when assessing
serious types of social disruption and
general lessons can be learnt. And yet
there are many similarities between
many such events as regards for forms
of crisis management and communication.
In these respects the murder of
Anna Lindh in 2003 has many similarities
with earlier crisis events.
The murder of the country's Foreign
Minister is still a unique crisis event
in one way especially. It affected top
government directly, the same top
government which was to be responsible
for central crisis management and communication.
This naturally involved
certain other circumstances in crisis
work than earlier events such as the
9/11 outrage in America.
External communication with the
media and the public was nevertheless
carried out effectively, based on good
routine for crisis management by the
central players in this drama. Communication
with other institutions involved
also went smoothly. Certain co-ordination
problems arose however in the
relationship between the top government
at Rosenbad and Karolinska sjukhuset
[the Royal Caroline Hospital], which
caused confusion in the responsibility
for disseminating information to the
media and some delay in the announcement
of the Foreign Minister's death.
The information from the hospital
also created problems from journalists'
point of view. The information was
found to be meagre in the extreme and
the medical language during the night
of the operation was not understood
by the reporters. This contributed to
the public being given details and an
impression of the minister's improved
condition extending far into the morning
when she was in fact already dead.
For the police, the murder involved
intensive contacts with the media and
continual press conferences. A certain
lack of familiarity with handling such
comprehensive press contacts could be
noted. Co-operation with the media may
however be considered as satisfactory but
it was co-operation which included
media help in acquiring tips and particularly
intensive surveillance of possible
suspects.
That the crisis was sited at the heart
of crisis-working in the department
concerned involved considerable internal
crisis management vis-à-vis staff, especially
within the Ministry for Foreign
Affairs. Anna Lindh was felt to be very
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