During the week, the Rally World Cup is organized in the forests outside Umeå and there has been a tough debate for the competition on which distances are suitable to use given that Rans Sami village has its reindeer on winter grazing on the coast.
Last week, the Sami village appealed the permits for three of the routes, but the Swedish Transport Agency has announced that it is unlikely to handle the case before the rally starts.
On Sunday morning, three dead reindeer were found on a road outside Umeå where the Sami village makes the connection to the debate about the rally and the Sami village’s appeal.
Pictures and other material collected have been sent on analysis by the police, but before the result of this has arrived, the police do not want to comment on the cause of death, but it is investigated if there is a hate crime motif.
“Scary development”
On the part of the Sami Parliament, you condemn what has happened.
– This is a frightening development, of course you are both surprised and upset that you give up on animals. This is really bad, says Chairman of the Board Håkan Jonsson.
The Sami Parliament works at the political level mainly against the government with, among other things, equality and hate crimes, but the work is not about individual events.
– We very rarely go into individual cases, but we discuss overall.
Jonsson believes that more meeting points are needed for people to meet and create an understanding for each other.
– There must be something that means that this will not happen in the future, says Håkan Jonsson.
SSR: “strongly worried”
The Swedish Sami National Association also comments on the event from the past weekend.
– We are strongly concerned about today’s situation but also about the future. As we experience an increasingly increased polarization at the same time as no clear efforts or position is made from the public, such as municipalities and authorities, our members will rightly feel that they are lawless. It is not only unworthy in a legal society, but also puts the democratic and legal principles out of play, says Jenny Wik Karlsson in a press release.