STOCKHOLM, Nov 27 (AFP) - Stockholm police have apologised to the city's Gambian community for publishing a 1998 report that claimed half of all Gambians in the capital were involved in the heroin trade, police said Monday. Stockholm police commissioner Gunno Gunnmo has sent a written apology to the Discrimination Ombudsman and withdrawn the report, police spokeswoman Stina Wessling told AFP. "Some of the phrasing in the report was unfortunate," she said. In December 1998, Stockholm police published a report stating that 400 of the 900 or so Gambians living in Stockholm were involved in the heroin trade. The city's Gambian Federation and several private individuals filed a complaint with the Discrimination Ombudsman. The police letter, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, noted that "the accuracy of parts of the report can be called into question." "The police authority strongly disclaims those parts of the report that can be interpreted as unfair or offensive to individuals or groups of Gambian origin," it said. "The police authority deeply regrets that so many felt offended by the contents of the report," it concluded. The chief lawyer for the Stockholm police authority, Leena Kangas, told the newspaper Metro that police decided to issue a public apology because many Gambians were upset by the report. "The report does not fulfill the legal requirements needed for it to not be considered ethnic discrimination. It crossed the line," Kangas said. Kangas said that even if the information was accurate and the result of meticulous investigation, the police wronged in making the information public. "One cannot pass on information like that to the public. Clumping people together is not recommended, and we don't know if the information holds true," she said. po/sa _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------