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幸福之國的不幸
Hundreds of youth have torched cars and attacked police in four nights of riots in immigrant suburbs of Sweden's capital, shocking a country that dodged the worst of the financial crisis but failed to solve youth unemployment and resentment among asylum seekers.
Violence spread from the North to the South of the city on Wednesday as groups of youth pushed throughStockholm's suburbs casting stones, breaking windows and setting cars alight. Police in the southern Swedish city of Malmo said two cars had been set ablaze.
Local media said a police station office was set on fire in the southern suburb of R?gsved, where several people were also detained. No one was hurt and the fire was quickly put out.
The attackers have awaited nightfall before setting out, defying a call for calm from the country's prime minister and damaging stores, schools, a police station and an arts and crafts centre in the four days of violence.
"I think there is a feeling that we need to be in more places tonight," said Towe Hagg, spokeswoman forStockholm police. One police officer was injured in the latest attacks and five were arrested for attempted arson.
Selcuk Ceken, who works at a local youth activity centre in Hagsatra, said between 40 and 50 youths threw stones at police and smashed windows, then ran off in different directions. He noted the people were in their 20s and seemed well organized.
"It's difficult to say why they're doing this," he said. "Maybe it's anger at the law and order forces, maybe it's anger at their own personal situation, such as unemployment or having nowhere to live."
The riots appear to have been sparked by the police killing of a 69-year-old man wielding a machete in the suburb of Husby this month, which prompted accusations of police brutality. The riots then spread from Husby to other poor Stockholm suburbs.
"We see a society that is becoming increasingly divided and where the gaps, both socially and economically, are becoming larger," said Rami Al-khamisi, co-founder of Megafonen, a group that works for social change in the suburbs.
"And the people out here are being hit the hardest ... We have institutional racism."
The riots were less severe than those of the past two summers in Britain and France but provided a reminder that even in places less ravaged by the financial crisis than Greece or Spain, state belt-tightening is toughest on the poor, especially immigrants.
"The reason is very simple. Unemployment, the housing situation, disrespect from police," said Rouzbeh Djalaie, editor of the local Norra Sidan newspaper, which covers Husby. "It just takes something to start a riot, and that was the shooting."
IDENTITY CHECKS
Djalaie said youths were often stopped by police in the streets for unnecessary identity checks. During the riots, he said some police called local youths "apes."
The television pictures of blazing cars come as a jolt to a country proud of its reputation for social justice as well as its hospitality towards refugees from war and repression.
"I understand why many people who live in these suburbs and in Husby are worried, upset, angry and concerned," said Justice Minister Beatrice Ask. "Social exclusion is a very serious cause of many problems, we understand that."
After decades of practicing the "Swedish model" of generous welfare benefits, Stockholm has been reducing the role of the state since the 1990s, spurring the fastest growth in inequality of any advanced OECD economy.
While average living standards are still among the highest in Europe, successive governments have failed to substantially reduce long-term youth unemployment and poverty, which have affected immigrant communities worst.
Some 15 percent of the population are foreign-born, and unemployment among these stands at 16 percent, compared with 6 percent for native Swedes, according to OECD data.
Youth unemployment in Husby, at 6 percent, is twice the overall average across the capital.
The left-leaning tabloid Aftonbladet said the riots represented a "gigantic failure" of government policies, which had underpinned the rise of ghettos in the suburbs.
As unemployment has grown, the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats party has risen to third in polls ahead of a general election due next year, reflecting many voters' worries that immigrants may be partly to blame.
ASYLUM NUMBERS RISING
While many of the immigrant Nordic neighbors closely tied to Sweden by language or culture, the debate has tended to focus on poor asylum seekers from distant war zones.
Out of a total 103,000 immigrants last year, 43,900 were asylum seekers, almost 50 percent up from 2011. Nearly half of these were refugees from fighting in Syria, Afghanistan or Somalia, and will get at least temporary residency.
Among 44 industrialized countries, Sweden ranks fourth in the absolute number of asylum seekers, and second relative to its population, according to U.N. figures.
Policing in Stockholm has already been the focus of controversy this year, with allegations that police were picking out darker-skinned immigrants for identity checks in subway trains.
據外國媒體5月23日報道，瑞典首都斯德哥爾摩移民區連續四天晚上爆了發騷亂，數以百計的年輕人焚燒汽車、襲擊警察。騷亂震驚了瑞典。
22日，暴力行動由北向城市南部蔓延，成群年輕人穿越市郊，投擲石頭，打碎窗戶，點燃汽車。瑞典南部城市馬爾默的警察透露，有兩輛汽車被點燃。
當地媒體報道稱，斯德哥爾摩南郊拉格斯維德的警察局起火，有幾個人被拘留。不過，火勢很快被撲滅，也沒有人員傷亡。
攻擊者無視瑞典首相呼籲冷靜，在夜幕降臨後出動。在四天的暴力行動中，一些商店和學校遭到破壞、一個警察局和一所工藝美術中心也被殃及。
斯德哥爾摩警察局女發言人特維·黑格說，“我感覺，今天晚上我們需要在更多的地方。”在最近的襲擊中，一名警官受傷，5人涉嫌縱火未遂被捕。
在哈格塞特拉青年活動中心工作的塞爾丘克·切肯說，四五十名青年向警察投擲石頭，砸碎窗戶，然後四散而逃。他注意到，那些人20多歲，似乎組織有序。他還說，“很難說他們為什麼這麼做。也許是怨恨法治部門，也許因為不滿個人處境，例如失業或沒有住處。”
本月，警察殺死一名在赫斯比郊區手持砍刀的69歲男子，引發對警察暴行的職責。騷亂似乎源自此事，並從赫斯比蔓延到斯德哥爾摩其他貧窮郊區。
社會組織Megafonen創始人拉米·哈米斯說，“我們看到社會日益分化，社會和經濟差距越來越大。這裡的人正在受到最嚴重的打擊。我們存在制度上的種族歧視。”
此次騷亂雖然沒有過去兩年夏季英國和法國騷亂那麼嚴重，但是提醒世人即使在遭受金融危機打擊比希臘或西班牙小的國家，對窮人，尤其是移民來說，緊縮政策也極其難熬。
“原因非常簡單：失業、住房情況、警察無禮。”當地報紙編輯魯茲貝赫說，“引發騷亂只需要乾點事情，那就是開槍。”
身份檢查
魯茲貝赫說，警察經常在街上攔住年輕人，進行無必要的身份檢查。在騷亂期間，有些警察稱當地年輕人“大猩猩”。
汽車燃燒的電視畫面震驚了這個以社會公正、善待難民著稱的國家。司法大臣比阿特麗斯·阿斯克說，“我理解住在這些郊區和赫斯比的許多人擔憂、不安、憤怒和關切的'原因。社會排斥引發許多問題，我們理解。”
實行以福利著稱的“瑞典模式”幾十年之後，自上世紀90年代以來，斯德哥爾摩一直在削減政府角色，不平等迅速增加，甚於何發達的經合組織成員。
雖然平均生活標準依然在歐洲高居榜首，多屆政府未能有效減少青年長期失業和貧困問題，移民社群最受影響。
經合組織的資料顯示，瑞典約15%的人口出生在國外，這些人的失業率高達16%，而瑞典本地人失業率為6%。
赫斯比青年失業率為6%，是斯德哥爾摩平均失業率的兩倍。
《瑞典晚報》(Aftonbladet)稱，騷亂體現了政府政策的“巨大失敗”。
隨著失業率的增長，反移民的瑞典民主黨在明年大選前的民調中已躍居第三位，反映了許多選民的擔心，而移民可能是部分原因。
難民增加
許多移民來自在語言典關係密切的北歐鄰國，窮苦的戰爭難民成為爭論焦點。
瑞典去年移民總數為10.3萬，其中4.39萬人是難民，比2011年幾乎增加了50%。這些人中將近一半是來自敘利亞、阿富汗或索馬利亞戰區的難民，至少將得到臨時居住權。
聯合國資料顯示，在44個工業化國家中，在入境難民的絕對數量上，瑞典排名第四。
今年，斯德哥爾摩警察，有人指控稱警方在地鐵上對膚色較黑的移民進行身份檢查。
