Journalist Øjvind Kyrø, director of the documentary 'Seduced', discusses with Sai press officer Kirsten Pruzan Mikkelsen
The following excerpt is translated from a series of articles and counter-articles
in April 2002 between the Danish ex-journalist Kirsten Pruzan Mikkelsen (nominated
by Sathya Sai Org. regional leader Thorbjørn Meyer as his "press
secretary") and the international journalist and TV/film director, Øjvind
Kyrø, who made the film "Seduced by Sai Baba" of DR (i.e. "Dansk
Radio", the national TV and radio broadcaster in Denmark). The articles
appeared in the professional Danish press journal 'Journalisten'. The original
in Danish is at http://www.dci.dk/da/dnd/dnd88/Hobafvaas.html Kirsten Pruzan Mikkelsen is wife of the Sai devotee Professor Peter Pruzan (see photos, Danish TV clips etc. here)
From the first reply to KPM from Øjvind Kyrø
"I get concerned when Kirsten Pruzan Mikkelsen doesn't even manage to quote
essential facts in her articles. The more so when she regales us with undocumented
statements like: "From a medical source I have come to know of mentally-disturbed
projections in two of the three "witnesses" who assert that the 76-year
old Sai Baba has molested them sexually."
The only "documentation" that Sai Baba's press officer has shown
to DR is an account by a doctor who was dismissed from a Swedish treatment home
by the director, Conny Larsson. Conny Larsson stood forth in the tv-broadcast
as one of the Swedish leaders of the Sai Baba movement, to which both had become
opposed on account of sexual abuse. And the absurd thing is, as noted by Larsson
in the broadcast, that he and the other person who accused Sai Baba of sexual
abuse, were then declared by Baba's faithful disciple as pedophiles.
And Kirsten Pruzan Mikkelsen aimed to do exactly the same. It turned out that
the doctor - who lives in a pair relationship with a Sai Baba devotee - had
complained about his dismissal to the Council and County authorities. That complaint,
incidentally, contained no accusations of pedophilia, and both instances had
investigated the complaint and rejected it.
From the second reply to KPM from Øjvind Kyrø:
Before the broadcast, KPM was active in trying to blacken as a pedophile one
of the men who stood forth to tell about sexual abuse that Sai Baba had practiced
on him. Conny Larsson is his name, and he was for many years one of the top leaders
of the Sai Baba Organization in Sweden. KPM sent us a declaration by a doctor
who had been employed at Larsson's treatment home, but whom Larsson had dismissed.
After the dismissal, the doctor had lodged a complaint with Council and County
authorities. Not a single one of the many accusations the doctor put forth had
to do with pedophilia. But now, a couple of years later, the doctor makes these
accusations, thanks to an invitation from the leader for Sai Baba in Denmark,
Thorbjörn Meyer. And so it was that I received the declaration from his press
officer, KPM. Not uninterestingly, the doctor lives together with a believing
follower of Sai Baba. Unlike KPM, I have investigated the doctor's complaint case,
which was rejected by both the Council and County authorities. Øjvind Kyrø,
journalist
Danish text of the above translation:- Når Kirsten Pruzan Mikkelsen end ikke magter at citere det væsentlige
i sine egne artikler, bliver jeg bekymret. Og endnu mere når hun fører
sig frem med udokumenterede påstande som: "Fra lægehold har
jeg fået kendskab til sygelige projektioner hos to af de tre såkaldte
"vidner", som påstår, at den nu 76-årige Sai Baba
"
Den eneste "dokumentation", Sai Babas pressemedarbejder har fremvist
overfor DR, er en skrivelse fra en læge, der var blevet fyret på
et svensk behandlingshjem af forstanderen Conny Larson. Conny Larson fremstod
i tv-udsendelsen som en af de to svenske ledere af Sai Baba-bevægelsen,
der begge var blevet modstandere på grund af de seksuelle overgreb. Og
det absurde var, anførte Larson i udsendelsen, at han og de andre fyre,
som anklagede Sai Baba for sex-overgreb, nu selv blev stemplet af Babas tro
disciple som pædofile.
Og det var just det, der var Kirsten Pruzan Mikkelsens ærinde. Det viste
sig, at lægen, der bor i parforhold med en Sai Baba-tilhænger, havde
klaget over sin fyring til kommune og amt. Klagen indeholdt i øvrigt
ingen anklager om pædofili, og begge instanser havde undersøgt
klagen og tilbagevist den.
Øjvind Kyrø, journalist
KPM har også forud for udsendelsen været aktiv med at forsøge
at stemple en af de mænd, der står frem og fortæller om de
seksuelle overgreb, Sai Baba har udsat ham for, for selv at være pædofil.
Conny Larson hedder han og var gennem mange år en af de to øverste
ledere af Sai Baba-organisationen i Sverige. KPM fremsendte en erklæring
fra en læge, der havde været ansat på Larsons behandlingshjem,
men som Larson havde fyret. Efter afskedigelsen havde lægen klaget over
Larson til kommune og amt. Ikke et eneste af de mange klagepunkter, lægen
fremførte, handlede om anklager for pædofili. Men nu, et par år
senere, fremkommer lægen med disse påstande, takket være en
opfordring fra lederen af Sai Baba i Danmark, Thorbjörn Meyer. Og af Meyers
pressemedarbejder, KPM, fik jeg således erklæringen i hænde.
Lægen bor - ikke uinteressant - sammen med en tro tilhænger af Sai
Baba. I modsætning til KPM har jeg undersøgt lægens klagesag,
der blev afvist af såvel kommune som amt.