Polish couple

On February 21st Nuri Kino and Juan Flores had their article about the
Polish couple Jacek and Bojena, who were used by UFF in Sweden,
published in the Swedish newspaper DN.


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Article from the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter - DN - on February
21st, 2001

Volunteers intend to report UFF //Humana People to People// to the police

By Juan Flores and Nuri Kino

Swedish UFF, the Tvind movement and the Teachers group are connected,
and they are controlled by the recently arrested Amdi Petersen. That is
confirmed by Jacek and Bojena, who up until last autumn worked as
volunteers at UFF in Gothenburg. The president of Swedish UFF denies the
fact that the organization is run by the Tvind movement.

Last autumn Jacek and Bojena sold all their belongings to be able to
afford the Tvind school fees. They had read an advertisement from an
organization looking for volunteer workers in Africa.

The money they got from selling their belongings would cover half of the
course fee. The rest of the fee they would have to work off at UFF in Gothenburg.

Jacek and Bojena are from Poland - the last few years it has been in
Eastern Europe and other poor parts of the world that the Tvind movement
has tried to recruit its members.

As DN reported when presenting the revelations about UFF at the turn of
the year, the organization rents an appartment in Rinkeby //a suburb of
Stockholm//, in which people from all parts of the world, working
without pay, are to stay. But Jacek and Bojena instead stayed at the UFF
flea market in Gothenburg.

- We believed we had a permit to work in Sweden. We earned 40 SEK a day,
which had to cover all our costs. It didn't. The only thing we could
afford was the bread from the Turkish baker's shop and the fare to the
workplace at the clothes sorting central, they tell us.

Jacek and Bojena were promised that after seven months in the Tvind
movement they would go to South Africa and there they would have a house
of their own, a staff and a car. This carrot and the fact that they had
already paid half of the fee made them struggle on.

- And when we complained we were told by the managers Kristina Johansson
and Trond Narvestad that this was the only way to learn how it is to be
poor in Africa.

Sixty kilometers outside Krakow, the second biggest city of Poland,
Jacek and Bojena are now hiding. They stay at Bojena's parents'. They
are in a state of total destitution, and they are mentally and
physically exhausted after their time with the Teachers group and its
organizations. When DN comes to visit them Jacek first shivers with
fear, worried that it might in fact be representatives of the Teachers
group that has come.

- Scandinavians must be the most dangerous people in the world, the most
manipulative and cynical, Jacek opens our talk, upset as he is, but he
constantly makes apologies for these views.

- Neither of us will ever be able to trust another person again. What a
terrible world it is. Is there anything people wouldn't do for money?
Bojena says and Jacek agrees.

The more they tell us about their time within the Teachers group sect,
the more sad and upset they are. The agreements they didn't understand
but were forced to sign. The dusty work environment, the heavy things
they had to lift - they had to sort and package at least a ton of
second-hand clothes and shoes each day. The thin mattresses they slept
on in the flat above the UFF flea market.

Bojena lost more than ten kilograms.

Jacek and Bojena have seen all the different branches of the Tvind
movement. They have been part of UFF in Sweden and the Tvind travelling
folk high-school.

In reply to DN's question whether there is any doubt that UFF should be
a part of the Tvind movement and be controlled by the Teachers group,
they look at each other in astonishment and then at us:

- We don't understand what you mean. Everything is connected. The
organizations may have different names, NetUp, UFF, DRH and all the
others, but they are one and the same, and they are all run by the
Teachers group with Amdi and his closest allies at the top.

When the police raided Tvind at Grinsted, the head quarters in Denmark,
among other premises, the Polish couple were present at one of the
schools, The travelling folk high school.

- Our headmaster Anne Lausen, a person with a prominent position within
the Teachers group, summoned us to a general meeting and we were asked -
or rather, we were instructed, not to speak to the police or any
journalists. After that meeting Anne Lausen went away for a few days and
when she came back she summoned us to yet another general meeting during
which she announced that she had met with Amdi Petersen and that he
repudiated all accusations made by the police.

Now Jacek and Bojena would like to try and gather more solidarity
workers in order to make a joint report of Swedish UFF to the police,
since they feel that they have been used.

- They have to be stopped. We must all do what we can to make sure they
won't succed in recruiting more people to this terrible sect.

In DN's earlier investigation of UFF a document was published proving
the connection between the Teachers group and UFF. All the persons who
control the financial operation of UFF were members of the Teachers
group, the project leaders of the small-scale aid projects in Africa
were members of the Teachers group, those who run the companies
connected to Tvind are members of the Teachers group.

Nevertheless the present president of UFF continues to deny that the
Teachers group runs UFF.

- It is a private matter if you are a member of the Teachers group. UFF
is a democratically elected association which is controlled by the
members at the annual meeting, Trond Narvestad says.

What he doesn't say is that the number of members adds up to a few
dozens at the most. And that it is only the board members who attend the
annual meetings.
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