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.

Øjvind Kyrø, journalist. Copenhagen.

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