OSLO, April 20 (AFP) Anders Behring Breivik gave a chilling account Friday of his shooting massacre on the Norwegian island of Utoeya last year, explaining in detail how he calmly executed terrified teens.
"I lifted my weapon and I shot him in the head," Breivik told the court of his first victim on July 22 on Utoeya, where he shot 69 people dead after first killing eight people in a bombing of government buildings in Oslo.
Before launching into the part of his testimony most dreaded by the many survivors and victims' relatives watching his trial, the 33-year-old right-wing extremist warned people who did not want to hear the "gruesome" details to leave.
None did.
He went on to explain that when he arrived on the island, where the ruling Labour Party's youth wing was hosting a summer camp, he had been reluctant to go through with his plan, saying that the minute he spent trying to decide whether or not to shoot "seemed like a year.""My whole body tried to fight against ... there were a hundred voices in my head saying 'Don't do it! Don't do it!'," Breivik, who was dressed as a police officer at the time, told the court.
But after he lifted his gun and shot down his first victims, an off-duty police officer and the camp administrator, there was no more hesitation.
He said he calmly walked up towards a cafe building, which was full of people and where he killed 11.
 |
| Right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik is pictured during his trial at the central court in Oslo on April 20 (AFP) |
"I thought: 'Now I am going into that building and will execute as many people as possible in that building,'" he told the court coldly as survivors, families of his victims and even a few journalists cried quietly.
One court-appointed psychiatric expert following the case sat with his head buried in his hands, and some people left the room.
Breivik, who on Friday wore a black suit and shirt with a silver tie, said he did not remember everything from the shooting spree.
Yet at times he provided devastatingly detailed descriptions, saying in one room he first shot a group of four or five people, all in the head. "I think many are screaming and begging for their lives," he said, seeming to sneer slightly as he recalled how some of the people in the room were "paralysed" and did not run away even when he had to stop to reload his gun, and how one person tried to dodge his bullets by running in zigzags.
He then turned to another group on the other side of the room. "I don't know why there were still people in the room at this time," he said, before adding "I shot them all."Many of the victims received several bullets to the head and back.
He explained without emotion how he consistently used "follow-up shots," shooting most people several times to make sure they were dead, noting that "some of them were playing dead. That's why I fired so many times."Breivik went on to describe how he walked around the island, shooting everyone he came across, remembering how a boy had shouted to a girl to run.
"He yelled at her: Run! Run! ... I remember lifting the weapon towards him and shooting him in the head," Breivik recalled, adding that he shot both of them several times.
With his voice steady, Breivik recounted how he shot at people trying to hide by the coast and at those who tried to escape by throwing themselves into the icy water, reiterating that his aim was to kill all the nearly 600 people on the island that day.
At one point, he said, he tricked a group into thinking he was a police officer there to help evacuate them, and when they came closer, "I shot at everybody and I aimed at the head."In the middle of his horrific tale, Breivik insisted he was not without a conscience, pointing out that he did not shoot a young girl and a young boy on two separate occasions since he estimated they were younger than 16.
His youngest victim that day had just celebrated his 14th birthday.
He also explained that he ruled out "executing" the captain and crew of the ferry that transported him to the island, since he did not know if they were linked to his target, the ruling Labour Party, which he blames for introducing generous immigration laws and thereby allowing a "Muslim invasion" of Norway.
And he insisted he never smiled or laughed during the massacre, as some of the survivors have claimed, and noted that he had ruled out fighting the police. "I thought 'I won't shoot at police. They are not the enemy'."Breivik told the court he had tried to call police twice to surrender, but when they failed to call him back he concluded they would not allow him to do so and he decided to "continue until I am killed."He also said he had considered suicide.
"I thought: do I really want to survive this? ... I will be the most hated person in Norway ... For the rest of my life every day will be a nightmare," he said.
In the end, however, he said he decided he could better spread his nationalistic, Islamophobic ideas if he lived to tell his story in court. |
E-mail
