Lars G Petersson is a 58 years old swedish-born Londoner and free-lance writer with special interest in peace, mental-health issues, social justice and human rights. Having lived and worked in a number of countries (apart from his native Sweden: Israel, Germany, Scotland and, for the longest period of time, Denmark), he has built up significant experience and personal knowledge in these areas.

Petersson is the author of Deserters, the true shocking story about the tens of thousands of deserters and war resisters who during World War II had the courage to refuse to fight for the Nazi Government’s conscripted armed forces. Published as the 2004 year-book by the Museum of Danish Resistance in Copenhagen, a part of the Danish National Museum, it was the first ever acknowledgement from a major renowned WWII museum that in Germany itself many young people resisted Hitler and refused to fight his and his cohorts’ war of aggression. The book has been published both in Danish and English and is on permanent sale from the museum.

www.frihedsmuseetsforlag.dk/aarsskrifter/faneflugt.html

A large number of Petersson’s short stories and articles have been published mainly in Danish newspapers and journals and some have had major impact on contemporary life in that country, leading to important public debate and major improvements for the people concerned. Trained first as a massage therapist, in which capacity he worked in Germany, and then as a nurse with speciality in mental health, social matters and addiction he has used his professional knowledge and insight to disclose matters otherwise hidden from public scrutiny – an activity that cannot be said to have helped a professional career…. One article about jailed refugees – most of them war-resisters and deserters from both sides of the Iran-Irak war – not only led to huge media interest but also to a major political upheaval and finally (after pressure from Amnesty International, London) political reforms and building of a new special institution for detained asylum seekers. The article’s disclosure of maltreatment of refugee prisoners also led to Denmark’s first ever inclusion in the Amnesty International Report (1991), the ‚black book’ denoucing countries accused of having abused human rights. Because of his inside knowledge in his field Petersson was for many years consulted by Danish journalists as an expert and advisor behind the scene.

Conscripted into the Swedish air forces, Lars G Petersson was trained as a lowest grade flight mechanic, experiences which laid the foundation for a number of articles defending the rights of vulnerable conscripts. The one with most impact was an insider’s (he was employed there) nursing-magazine story about a special Copenhagen psychiatric ward for conscripts with mental break-downs. The article was widely followed up both in the national TV (in the news as well as in a documentary) and in the printed press and led to important reforms of life in the barracks. Finally orders were issued from the chief of the general staff to stop outdated methods of ‘training’. Harrassment should no longer be allowed. 

Lars G Petersson was for many years co-ordinator for the danish section of Amnesty International’s work against the death penalty. Many of his articles in this regard were about and from the US. On different occassions Petersson was instrumental in bringing both a relatives/lawyers group as well as a repentant former prison governor and executioner to tour the Scandinavian countries. There they gave interviews to TV, radio and the written press and lobbied ministers and members of the different parliaments to support the anti death penalty movement in the US.

For his persistant work against human rights violations Petersson has been acknowledged with two awards – one from Danske Flygtingvenner, an organisation supporting refugees, and one from a Danish society of progressive lawyers chaired by a later member of the Supreme Court. 

For the last seven years Lars G Petersson has been working on a book, ABUSE UK, about horrific conditions for elderly and disabled residents in Scottish and English nursing homes which is now on sale both as e-book and in paperback through chipmunkapublishing, the mental health publisher.

http://chipmunkapublishing.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1582