Turkey quake tests Erdogan's all-powerful rule

Yahoo – AFP, Fulya Ozerkan with Burcin Gercek in Ankara, February 16, 2023 

When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan assumed sweeping powers in 2018, he swore the state would deliver more under a centralised system that his critics compare to one-man rule. 

Five years on, an agonisingly slow response to a catastrophic quake has undermined that idea, boosting the opposition's case in  polls planned for May, experts say. 

Erdogan has acknowledged "shortcomings" in the government's handling of Turkey's deadliest disaster of its post-Ottoman history. 

More than 36,000 people have died in Turkey and nearly 3,700 in neighbouring Syria. The toll is expected to keep climbing for days to come. 

Under pressure like at few points in his two-decade rule, Erdogan blamed obstacles such as freezing temperatures and quake-damaged airports and roads. 

No government in the world could have done better, Erdogan said. 

The opposition counters that the February 6 quake underlines why Turkey must switch back to a parliamentary system under which agencies have more freedom to act on their own. 

"You have centralisation in all Turkish institutions, which is reflected in institutions that specifically should not have it," such as the disaster agency, said Hetav Rojan, a disaster management expert who follows Turkey closely. 

'Critical hours' 

Rojan argued that the system, which Erdogan secured through a constitutional referendum in 2017, had hamstrung disaster response agencies that need to make snap decisions on their own. 

Help took days to arrive in many areas, with distressed residents forced to use their bare hands to try and pull relatives from the rubble. 

Others were left without water, food or shelter in freezing temperatures. 

Many volunteers who rushed to the region shared on social media how they were forced to wait for authorisations or how equipment was slow to arrive. 

The government has since dispatched tens of thousands of soldiers to the scene, reinforcing support for millions of people left homeless by a 7.8-magnitude quake. 

But many are still fuming at the initial delay. 

The main opposition leader, who is running neck-and-neck with Erdogan in opinion polls, has spearheaded the criticism. 

"There wasn't any coordination. They were late in the critical hours," Kemal Kilicdaroglu thundered this week. 

"Their incompetence cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of our citizens." 

Unseemly arguments 

For example, it was impossible for crane operators -- who offered critical assistance to rescuers -- to be deployed without the disaster agency's approval. 

This cost crucial time, Erdogan's critics say.

Others point to unseemly arguments between state agencies and independent rescue and relief workers on the ground. 

AFP journalists witnessed disputes between volunteers and AFAD state disaster responders in Elbistan, near the epicentre of a huge aftershock in Turkey's southeast. 

"We started working on this rubble even though the disaster agency discouraged us from it," a volunteer, who did not wish to be named for fear of retribution, told AFP. 

"When we finally heard the voice of a survivor, AFAD teams pulled us away and took over our work," he added. 

Murat, 48, waiting for news of his loved ones under the rubble in Kahramanmaras, witnessed similar scenes. 

"When miners discovered a person alive under the rubble, they were pushed away and people who wanted to appear on camera took their place," he said, also fearing to disclose his last name. 

Controlling the narrative 

Even a non-profit group run by rock star Haluk Levent, as well as opposition-run municipalities that sent in their own rescue teams, have provoked the government's ire. 

"The necessary actions will be taken against anyone that tries to rival the state," threatened Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu. 

"The (ruling party) government and its institutions are really trying to control the narrative of the current rescue management," Rojan said. 

An advertising campaign, called "disaster of the century", had been prepared by an agency close to the government, Turkish media reported. 

The aim, critics say, was to convince Turks that any shortcoming is because of the gigantic size of the disaster -- that no one could handle such a catastrophe. 

In the face of a public outcry, the campaign was withdrawn. 

For Rojan, it's still "too soon" to see if the government's narrative will work. 

"It is definitely a political test for Erdogan with upcoming elections," he said.

Pink Floyd release first new song since 1994 for Ukraine

Yahoo – AFP, April 7, 2022 

David Gilmour: 'We, like so many, have been feeling the fury and the frustration of this vile
act of an independent, peaceful democratic country being invaded and having its people
murdered by one of the world's major powers' (AFP/JOHN D MCHUGH) (JOHN D MCHUGH)

Pink Floyd have written their first new song in almost 30 years to support Ukrainians, the band announced on Thursday. 

"Hey, Hey, Rise-Up!" will be released on Friday, and be used to raise funds for humanitarian causes linked to the war. 

It samples Andriy Khlyvnyuk, from one of Ukraine's biggest bands BoomBox, singing in Sofiyskaya Square in Kyiv in a clip that went viral. 

Khlyvnyukh abandoned a world tour to return to Ukraine and help defend his country. 

"We, like so many, have been feeling the fury and the frustration of this vile act of an independent, peaceful democratic country being invaded and having its people murdered by one of the world's major powers," Pink Floyd said on their official Twitter feed. 

In a press release, band leader David Gilmour said he had been moved by Khlyvnyuk's video: "It was a powerful moment that made me want to put it to music." 

He was able to speak with Khlyvnyuk from his hospital bed in Kyiv, where the singer was recovering after being hit by shrapnel in a mortar attack, the record company said. 

"I played him a little bit of the song down the phone line and he gave me his blessing. We both hope to do something together in person in the future," Gilmour said. 

The image accompanying the song is of a sunflower, and was inspired by a viral video showing a Ukrainian woman insulting two armed Russian soldiers. 

In it, she tells the soldiers: "Take these seeds and put them in your pockets. That way sunflowers will grow when you all rest here." 

It is the first original music from Pink Floyd since 1994's "The Division Bell". 

Gilmour tweeted his opposition to the war soon after Russia's invasion, saying: "Putin must go". 

The band has also pulled their music from Russian and Belarusian streaming sites in protest at the invasion.

Top UN court tells Moscow to halt Ukraine invasion

France24 – AFP, 16 March 2022 

Kyiv dragged Moscow to the UN's top court days after Russia's attack
on February 24 Phil nijhuis ANP/AFP

The Hague (AFP) – The UN's top court on Wednesday ordered Russia to suspend its invasion of Ukraine, saying it was "profoundly concerned" by Moscow's use of force. 

"The Russian Federation shall immediately suspend military operations that it commenced on 24 February on the territory of Ukraine," pending the final decision in the case, presiding judge Joan Donoghue told the International Court of Justice. 

"The court is profoundly concerned about the use of force by the Russian Federation which raises very serious issues in international law," Donoghue told a hearing in The Hague. 

Kyiv dragged Moscow to the UN's top court days after Russia's attack on February 24. 

Ukraine accuses Russia of illegally trying to justify its war by falsely alleging genocide in Ukraine's Donetsk and Lugansk regions. 

Kyiv then asked the court to take provisional measures ordering Russia to "immediately suspend the military operations." 

"Russia must be stopped, and the court has a role to play in stopping that," Ukraine's representative Anton Korynevych told the ICJ last week. 

The hearing on Wednesday comes as the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine topped three million and Russian forces step up strikes on residential buildings in Kyiv.

 At the same time, Kyiv said it wanted its security to be guaranteed by international forces, as it rejected proposals pushed by Russia for it to adopt a neutral status comparable to Austria or Sweden. 

'No genocide evidence'

Russia snubbed hearings on March 7 and 8, arguing in a written filing that the ICJ "did not have jurisdiction" because Kyiv's request fell outside of the scope of the 1948 Genocide Convention on which it based its case. 

Moscow also justified its use of force in Ukraine, saying "it was acting in self-defence." 

The ICJ was set up after World War II to rule on disputes between UN member states, based mainly on treaties and conventions. 

Although its rulings are binding, it has no real means to enforce them. 

A full hearing into the content of the case could still take years, they added. 

Judges on Wednesday also ordered Moscow to ensure that military or irregular armed units "take no further steps" in furthering its offensive. 

But "whether Russia will oblige is an entirely different question", said Marieke De Hoon, assistant international criminal and public law professor at the University of Amsterdam. 

The case is also separate from a Ukraine war crimes investigation launched by the International Criminal Court (ICC), a separate tribunal also based in The Hague.

Russia says quitting Council of Europe

France24 – AFP, 15 March 2022 

The body's parliamentary assembly was Tueaday also expected to pass a resolution
urging the committee of ministers -- the COE's main decision making body -- to start
a procedure to expel Russia. FREDERICK FLORIN AFP

Strasbourg (France) (AFP) – Russia said Tuesday it would pull out of the Council of Europe after pressure mounted for Moscow to be expelled from the pan-European rights body over its invasion of Ukraine. 

Essentially jumping before it was pushed from the Strasbourg-based body, the Russian foreign ministry said it had given notification of its departure to the Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric. 

The decision draws the curtain on Russia's quarter century membership of the Council of Europe (COE) and also opens the way for Moscow to reimpose the death penalty if the authorities decide. 

The so-called "Ruxit" from the Council of Europe means that Russia will no longer be a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights and its citizens will no longer be able to file applications to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). 

It is only the second time in the history of the Council of Europe that a member state has announced it has quit the body after Greece walked out temporarily in the late 1960s. 

Russia was suspended from all its rights of representation a day after tens of thousands of troops entered Ukraine on February 24. 

The body's parliamentary assembly was Tuesday also expected to pass a resolution urging the committee of ministers -- the COE's main decision making body -- to start a procedure to expel Russia. 

Buric "received formal notification from the Russian Federation of its withdrawal from the Council of Europe", the body's spokesman Daniel Holtgen confirmed. 

Ukraine's Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal had on Monday demanded that Russia be immediately expelled, saying it had no right to remain a member after sending troops to the pro-Western country. 

Eyes on death penalty

The Russian foreign ministry posted a statement on "launching the procedure to exit the Council of Europe" on its Telegram account, adding it had "no regret" about leaving. 

Russia joined the Council of Europe in 1996. 

The ministry said its exit would "not affect the rights and freedoms of Russian citizens" and that "the implementation of already adopted resolutions of the European Court of Human Rights will continue, if they do not contradict Russia's Constitution". 

It claimed that EU and NATO member states within the Council of Europe had turned the organisation into an "instrument for anti-Russian policies". 

Russia's exit will mark a major change for the ECHR which acts as a court of final instance when all domestic avenues are exhausted. 

Cases brought by Russian citizens have piled up at the ECHR accounting for 24 percent of the current cases, such as those concerning dissident prisoner Alexei Navalny. 

No member state has ever been expelled from the Council of Europe, which was created in 1949 and has 47 member states including Russia. 

Moscow's move has one precedent -- when it was under military rule Greece walked out of the body in 1969 to avoid being expelled. Athens then rejoined in 1974 after the fall of the junta. 

Not using the death penalty is a precondition of COE membership, and former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy national security council chief, had evoked bringing back capital punishment if Russia left the body. 

Medvedev had described Russia's suspension as "a good opportunity to restore a number of important measures to prevent especially serious crimes -- such as the death penalty... which is actively used in the US and China". 

Russia has observed a moratorium on the death penalty since 1996 though it has never formally abolished the practice. 

Belarus, the only European country to still use the death penalty and Moscow's ally, is not a member of the organisation. 

A Russian exit will also deprive the COE of nearly seven percent of its annual budget, around 500 million euros ($545 million). 

But Buric told AFP this month she had received "reassuring" signals from several member states, including France and Germany, ready to guarantee the financial sustainability of the organisation.

Danish PM says sorry to Inuits forcibly moved to Denmark

Yahoo – AFP, March 9, 2022 

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said sorry to the Inuits at an
emotional ceremony in Copenhagen (AFP/Liselotte Sabroe) (Liselotte Sabroe)

Denmark's prime minister apologised in person Wednesday to six Greenlandic Inuits removed from their families and taken to Copenhagen more than 70 years ago as part of an experiment to create a Danish-speaking elite. 

"What you were subjected to was terrible. It was inhumane. It was unfair. And it was heartless", Mette Frederiksen told the six at an emotional ceremony in the capital. 

"We can take responsibility and do the only thing that is fair, in my eyes: to say sorry to you for what happened," she said. 

In the summer of 1951, 22 Inuit children between the ages of five and eight were sent to Denmark, which was Greenland's colonial power at the time but has since gained autonomy. 

The parents had been promised their children would have a better life, learn Danish and return to Greenland one day as the future elite, in a deal between authorities in Copenhagen and Nuuk, the Greenland capital. 

In Denmark, the children were not allowed to have any contact with their own families. After two years, 16 of the group were sent home to Greenland, but placed in an orphanage. 

The others were adopted by Danish families. Several of the children never saw their real families again. 

An inquiry into their fate concluded more than half were very negatively affected by the experiment. 

Only six of the 22 are alive today. 

"It was a big surprise for me when I realised that there were only six of them left, because they were not that old," their lawyer Mads Pramming told AFP. 

"They told me that the others had died of sorrow," he added. 

The PM's apology is "a big success for them", he said, two weeks after they each received financial compensation of 250,000 kroner (33,600 euros, $37,200). 

"First they got an apology in writing, and then the compensation for the violation of their human rights, and now they will have a face-to-face," with the prime minister, Pramming said. 

"Nothing had happened until now and it's you, Mette, who took the initiative to set up a commission two years ago", one of the six, Eva Illum, said. 

In December 2020, the prime minister offered the six an official apology.

9,000 died in Irish homes for 'illegitimate' infants: report

Yahoo – AFP, Joe STENSON, January 12, 2021 

A shrine inTuam commemorates up to 800 children who were allegedly
buried at the site of a former home for unmarried mothers run by nuns

Some 9,000 children died in Ireland's "mother and baby homes", where unmarried mothers were routinely separated from their infant offspring, according to an official report published Tuesday. 

Ireland's Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes (CIMBH) found "disquieting" levels of infant mortality at the institutions, which operated in the historically Catholic nation as recently as 1998. 

Studying such homes over a 76-year period through 1998, the CIMBH determined that 9,000 children died in them, or 15 percent of those who passed through. 

The homes -- run by religious orders and the Irish state -- housed unmarried women who became pregnant, were unsupported by partners and family and faced severe social stigma. 

Children born in the institutions would often be separated from their mothers and put up for adoption, severing all family ties. 

Prime minister Micheal Martin said the CIMBH report "opens a window onto a deeply misogynistic culture in Ireland over several decades". 

"We had a completely warped attitude to sexuality and intimacy, and young mothers and their sons and daughters were forced to pay a terrible price for that dysfunction," he added. 

Martin -- who will make an official state apology on the matter in Irish parliament on Wednesday -- said the high infant mortality was "one of the most deeply distressing findings" of the report. 

"One harsh truth in all of this is that all of society was complicit in it," Martin said. 

"We are going to need to confront and come to terms with this as a people." 

'Forced adoption' 

The CIMBH was established in 2015, after an amateur historian uncovered evidence of a potential mass grave of infants at one such home in the west Ireland town of Tuam. 

Irish premier Micheal Martin will make an official state apology over
 "mother and baby" homes

But survivors' group Irish First Mothers said the report "fails to find that mothers were coerced into giving up their children", which it said was the "most grievous injury" inflicted by homes. 

The group said the report "absolved both the Church and state of any systemic responsibility for what it admits is the effective incarceration of pregnant mothers". 

The CIMBH report says 56,000 unmarried mothers and 57,000 children passed through the homes examined. 

"By the 1960s most women placed their child for adoption and left a mother and baby home within a few months of giving birth," it said. 

It said "some of this cohort of women are of the opinion that their consent was not full, free and informed." However, it added, "with the exception of a small number of legal cases, there is no evidence that this was their view at the time of the adoption." 

Many of the women received little or no ante-natal care. 

The report gave no single explanation for the deaths, but said "the major identifiable causes... were respiratory infections and gastroenteritis." 

It also highlighted a total of seven unethical vaccine trials on children in the institutions between 1934 and 1973. 

Meanwhile women of the period who gave birth outside marriage were "subject to particularly harsh treatment" at the hands of families and partners, backed by both Church and state. 

Women entered the homes mostly because they had "no alternative" and many suffered "emotional abuse", it said. 

"The atmosphere appears to have been cold and seemingly uncaring," the study said.

'Alarm' at Poland's plan to leave treaty protecting women

Yahoo – AFP, July 26, 2020

Around two thousand people marched in Warsaw on Friday to protest the
government's withdrawal plan (AFP Photo/Wojtek RADWANSKI)

Strasbourg (France) (AFP) - The EU and the Council of Europe on Sunday voiced regret and alarm over the Polish right-wing government's move to withdraw from a landmark international treaty combating violence against women.

The Council of Europe said it was "alarmed" that Poland's right-wing government was moving to withdraw from a landmark international treaty combating violence against women.

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said over the weekend that on Monday he would begin preparing the formal process to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention.

The treaty is the world's first binding instrument to prevent and combat violence against women, from marital rape to female genital mutilation.

Ziobro has in the past dismissed it as "an invention, a feminist creation aimed at justifying gay ideology".

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, told AFP in Brussels that it "regrets that such an important matter has been distorted by misleading arguments in some member states".

The Commission added that it would "continue its efforts to finalise the EU's accession" of the convention, which was signed in 2017 but has not yet been ratified.

'Highly regrettable'

A previous centrist Polish government signed the treaty in 2012 and it was ratified in 2015.

The treaty was spearheaded by the Council of Europe, the continent's oldest human rights organisation, and its Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric condemned the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government's plan to withdraw.

"Leaving the Istanbul Convention would be highly regrettable and a major step backwards in the protection of women against violence in Europe," she said in a statement on Sunday.

"If there are any misconceptions or misunderstandings about the convention, we are ready to clarify them in a constructive dialogue."

There is growing anger among women in Turkey at the growing number of 

murders of women there (AFP Photo/Yasin AKGUL)

Around two thousand people marched in the Polish capital Warsaw on Friday to protest the government's withdrawal plan, some shouting "stop violence against women".

There was also outrage from several members of the European Parliament, with Iratxe Garcia Perez, the Spanish leader of the Socialist group, calling the decision "disgraceful".

"I stand with Polish citizens taking (to) the streets to demand respect for women's rights," he tweeted.

The leader of the EU parliament's Renew Europe group, Romania's former prime minister Dacian Ciolos, tweeted: "Using the fight against the Istanbul Convention as an instrument to display its conservatism is a new pitiful and pathetic move by some within the PiS government".

Other countries rejecting treaty

Irish centre-right MEP Frances Fitzgerald said it was now essential for the whole of the EU to ratify the convention "so that no woman is left unprotected and vulnerable to violence".

The Council of Europe stressed that the Istanbul Convention's "sole objective" was to combat violence against women and domestic violence.

Although the treaty does not explicitly mention gay marriage, that has not stopped the backlash to it in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.

In Slovakia, the parliament rejected the treaty insisting -- without proof -- that it was at odds with the country's constitutional definition of marriage as a heterosexual union.

The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, which is separate from the European Union, has no binding powers but brings together 47 member states to make recommendations on rights and democracy.

Warsaw has already clashed with the EU Commission over reforms to its judicial system, championed by recently re-elected President Andrzej Duda.

Turkey is also mulling a possible withdrawal from the treaty, and on Sunday, women marched in several cities there to express support for the treaty.

The demonstrations also reflect rising anger in Turkey at the growing number of women killed, including the murder of university student Pinar Gultekin this month.

Commonwealth should 'acknowledge' past wrongs, says Prince Harry

Yahoo – AFP, July 6, 2020

Harry, Duke of Sussex, seen here in conversation with Formula 1 champion Lewis
 Hamilton, had already spoken out last week against institutional racism (AFP
 Photo/PETER NICHOLLS)

London (AFP) - Prince Harry has urged the Commonwealth, which his grandmother heads, to acknowledge its uncomfortable colonial past, in video extracts published on Monday.

The 35-year-old royal and his wife, Meghan, joined a video conference call with leaders organised by the Queen's Commonwealth Trust (QCT) from their base in the United States.

The sessions were set up in response to the growing Black Lives Matter movement, sparked by the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, during a US police arrest.

Harry last week outlined his personal commitment to tackling institutional racism, saying it had "no place" in society but was still too widespread.

On the July 1 call, posted on the QCT website, he said: "When you look across the Commonwealth, there is no way that we can move forward unless we acknowledge the past.

"So many people have done such an incredible job of acknowledging the past and trying to right those wrongs but I think we all acknowledge there is so much more still to do.

"It's not going to be easy and in some cases it's not going to be comfortable, but it needs to be done, because, guess what, everybody benefits."

Queen Elizabeth II is the head of the Commonwealth, a non-political organisation of 54 countries, most of which have links to the British Empire.

It comprises 2.4 billion people -- a quarter of the world's population -- of which 60 percent are aged under 30.

The QCT was set up to give younger people from member nations a platform to share ideas and insights.

The chief executive of the QCT, Nicola Brentnall, has said the body is studying how the Commonwealth's colonial past and its legacy should shape its future.

Harry and Meghan stepped down from frontline royal duties this year and have set up a non-profit organisation focusing on the promoting of mental health, education and well-being.

Meghan, a mixed-race US former actress, has previously talked about her own personal experience of racism and unconscious bias.

Former army officer Harry has also complained about the "racial undertones" of media coverage of his wife.

The couple are president and vice-president respectively of the QCT.

EU parliament declares 'Black Lives Matter'

Yahoo – AFP, June 20, 2020

Racial justice protests have spread from the United States to Europe, including this
mid-June 2020 demo in Strasbourg, eastern France (AFP Photo/PATRICK HERTZOG)

Brussels (AFP) - The European Parliament voted Friday to declare that "Black Lives Matter" and to denounce racism and white supremacism in all its forms.

The resolution has no legal consequences but sends a signal of support to anti-racism protesters, and it follows a UN call for a probe into police brutality and "systemic racism."

And, one day before President Donald Trump is to hold a rally in Tulsa, a city that saw one of the worst racist massacres in US history, the lawmakers condemned American police brutality.

Point number one of the text of the resolution takes up the slogan US campaigners painted on the street leading to the White House, when it "Affirms that Black Lives Matter."

The resolution, passed by 493 votes to 104, "strongly condemns the appalling death of George Floyd", an unarmed suspect killed by US police in May.

The EU parliament resolution also rebuked President Donald Trump for his "inflammatory 

rhetoric" and for threatening to deploy the army against protesters (AFP Photo/Angela Weiss)

It rebukes Trump for his "inflammatory rhetoric" and for threatening to deploy the army against protesters.

And EU member states themselves, many of which have seen protests in recent days about modern racism and previous colonial crimes, are not spared in the motion.

EU capitals are urged to denounce "the disproportionate use of force and racist tendencies in law enforcement."

The EU institutions and the member states should officially acknowledge past injustices and crimes against humanity committed against black people, people of colour and Roma.

And the resolution declares the slave trade a "crime against humanity."

Earlier Friday, the UN Human Rights Council demanded a report on "systemic racism", but left out any direct mention of the United States in the resolution.

Related Article:

"Barriers & Filters-1 Fear”, New York City, New York, June 6, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (>14:36 Min - Reference to the Global Protests regarding the death of African American George Floyd)

Sweden admits failure to protect elderly in care homes

Yahoo – AFP, Pia OHLIN, May 10, 2020

Sweden, whose softer virus approach has garnered international attention, admits it
has failed to adequately protect the elderly, with around half of COVID-19 deaths
occurring among nursing home residents (AFP Photo/Jonathan NACKSTRAND)

Stockholm (AFP) - Bjorn Branngard's mother died in a Stockholm nursing home where five of the eight people in her section and more than a third of residents have so far succumbed to the new coronavirus.

"They didn't have time to take care of my mother," he told AFP.

Her coronavirus test came back negative two days after her death, but Branngard, who claims she died of neglect, says the nursing home staff lacked protective gear and were spreading the virus around the home.

Sweden, whose softer approach to the coronavirus has garnered international attention, admits it has failed to adequately protect the elderly, with around half of COVID-19 deaths occurring among nursing home residents.

Reports have flooded Swedish media in recent weeks of care home staff continuing to work despite a lack of protective gear.

Others have refused to work and workers are encouraged to stay home even with mild symptoms, leaving homes short-staffed.

Other personnel have admitted going to work despite exhibiting symptoms of the virus, potentially infecting residents, while some elderly have reportedly been infected while admitted to hospital for other treatments and then sent back to care homes where they unwittingly spread the disease.

Sweden has reported 3,220 deaths from the virus as of Saturday.

The country said early on that shielding those 70 and older was its top priority.

Yet 90 percent of those who had died as of April 28 were over the age of 70. Half were nursing home residents, and another quarter were receiving care at home, statistics from the Swedish Board of Health and Welfare show.

"We failed to protect our elderly. That's really serious, and a failure for society as a whole. We have to learn from this, we're not done with this pandemic yet," Health and Social Affairs Minister Lena Hallengren told Swedish Television recently.

Reports have flooded Swedish media of care home staff continuing to work 

despite a lack of protective gear (AFP Photo/Jonathan NACKSTRAND)

'Staff spread the virus'

Unlike many European countries, Sweden has kept its primary schools open as well as bars and restaurants, while urging people to respect social distancing and hygiene recommendations.

It did, however, ban visits to care homes on March 31.

Sweden's Nordic neighbours also introduced bans around the same time, but have recorded far fewer care home deaths.

But unlike in those countries, Swedish nursing homes are often large complexes with hundreds of residents.

They are only available to those in very poor health and unable to care for themselves, and residents are therefore "a very vulnerable group", according to Henrik Lysell of the Board of Health and Welfare.

Bjorn Branngard told AFP the personnel at his mother's home did not have proper protective gear.

"There was no protection. The personnel were going between different sections and spreading the virus."

In greater Stockholm, the epicentre of Sweden's virus spread, 55 percent of nursing homes have so far confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to Region Stockholm health authorities.

In greater Stockholm, the epicentre of Sweden's virus spread, 55 percent of nursing 

homes, where unions say some 40 percent of staff are unskilled workers on short-term 

contracts, have confirmed COVID-19 cases, local authorities say (AFP Photo/Jonathan 

NACKSTRAND)

Poor working conditions

Kommunal, Sweden's largest union for municipal employees which includes many care workers, has meanwhile blamed precarious working conditions for the unfolding tragedy.

It said that in March, 40 percent of staff at Stockholm nursing homes were unskilled workers employed on short-term contracts, with hourly wages and no job security, while 23 percent were temps.

In other words: people who often can't afford not to go to work even if they're sick.

"There are a lot of different people who work at several nursing homes, and that also leads to a greater spread," the head of Kommunal's nursing home division, Ulf Bjerregaard, said.

At the end of April, Kommunal filed a complaint to the Swedish Work Environment Authority, claiming that 27 of the 96 residents at the home where Branngard's mother lived had so far died of the virus, and yet staff were not being provided protective gear or offered testing.

The authority is studying the complaint, and prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation.

Abdullah, a pseudonym for a 21-year-old refugee who didn't want to disclose his real name, has worked as an assistant in a care home outside Stockholm for two years.

He told AFP about a resident treated in hospital for a broken leg.

"She tested negative for the virus when she was with us. When she returned from the hospital three days later, she was positive," he said.

"We had protective aprons but no masks when we were working with her," he said, adding that he has since refused to go to work.

The Public Health Agency meanwhile said efforts to improve basic hygiene routines in the homes were paying off.

"Stockholm has actually had a clear decrease in cases (in nursing homes), that feels positive," state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told reporters on Thursday.