NZ speech used by killer in manifesto

The Norwegian man accused of killing at least 76 people based part of his 1500-page manifesto on a speech which was given in New Zealand to politicians and academics.

Anders Behring Breivik apparently quoted several statements from writer Keith Windschuttle from a paper delivered at the Summer Sounds Symposium in the Marlborough Sounds on February 2006, according to the Australian newspaper

Windschuttle, an Australian historian, stood by his comments but was at a "complete loss" to find any connection between them and the "disgusting and cowardly actions of Breivik".

The 2006 session was chaired by political commentator Matthew Hooton who did not recall details of the paper. But he noted that "the Summer Sounds symposiums became a bit too right wing for my taste".

The symposiums were founded in 1997 by author Agnes-Mary (Amy) Brooke, and gatherings of academics, journalists, MPs, and business leaders were held annually in the Marlborough Sounds for a decade. The most recent was held near Nelson in March last year.

Radio host Kerre Woodham participated in a debate at the symposium but could not remember Windschuttle's ideas. She said the speech was followed by "robust debate" involving a wide range of political views, with a number of Marxists and people "even to the right of Act".

"I don't remember someone telling people to pick up a gun and kill people."

Comedian Mike King chaired the debate and said 2006 was the last year he attended the symposium. "I do remember Keith as a typical ... academic with a superiority complex, who believed that all indigenous people's histories of oppression by colonisers were made up by white PC apologists."

Breivik is expected to face charges over the mass murder of mainly teenagers. He detonated a bomb in Oslo that killed eight people and gunned down at 68, mainly young people, at a holiday camp at the weekend.

He lifted extensive blocks of text from other writers to compile his "European Declaration of Independence", including quotes he attributed to Windschuttle such as:

"For the past three decades and more, many of the leading opinion makers in our universities, the media and the arts have regarded Western culture as, at best, something to be ashamed of, or at worst, something to be opposed.

"The scientific knowledge that the West has produced is simply one of many ways of knowing. Cultural relativism claims there are no absolute standards for assessing human culture. Hence all cultures should be regarded as equal, though different.

"The plea for acceptance and open-mindedness does not extend to Western culture itself, whose history is regarded as little more than a crime against the rest of humanity. The West cannot judge other cultures but must condemn its own."

Windschuttle told the Australian newspaper that this was a "truncated version" of his paper "but it is not inaccurate or misleading".

"I made every one of these statements and I still stand by them.

"Having read them several times again, I am still at a complete loss to find any connection between them and the disgusting and cowardly actions of Breivik," he said.

Windschuttle said it would be a "disturbing accusation" if people thought that he had ever used deliberately provocative language that might have caused Breivik to take up a rifle and shoot unarmed teenagers in cold blood.

- NZPA