Harry Potter camp threatened

RIGA - The organizer of a summer camp for Harry Potter fans in northeasternLatvia has received about 15 anonymous threat messages to her cell phone.

Lolita Osipova, project manager of Miranda M company, who organized thesummer camp in the northeastern Latvian district of Gulbene, filed anapplication with the regional police on Friday fearing for the security ofchildren at the camp.

According to Osipova, the text messages with threats were sent to her fromvarious telephones. The senders of these messages urged her to scrap the camp,quoting the Bible and pointing at the summer camp's links with evil spirits,sorcery and magic, and warning of divine punishment.

"I am in charge of the children's security, so I turned to the police.I believe there is a reason for launching a criminal procedure," Osipovasaid.

Pastors of Gulbene's Lutheranand Roman Catholic congregations had made denouncing remarks about the plannedsummer camp for the fans of British author J. K. Rowling's children's booksabout boy wizard Harry Potter.

Vjaceslavs Bogdanovs, the priest of the Gulbene Roman Catholic congregation,confirmed that he had spoken in his sermons about the Harry Potter books'negative impact on the young generation. The priest, however, distanced himselffrom aggressive Christians, saying that everybody has the right to his or heropinion, but that it has to be expressed without insulting others and in apolite manner.

Osipova said she was surprised at the Christians' negative response to the HarryPotter camp, especially because children from pastors' families had beenattending the camp in the previous years, which means that not all Christiansare afraid of Harry Potter.

The organizer underlined that wizardry at the creative summer camp isperceived as artistic manifestations or tricks that have nothing to do withsorcery or magic.

"We teach children to waltz. This is magic!" Osipova said.

The Harry Potter The camp is a completely legal and professionally organizedevent for children.

The summer camp is due to open in a local palace in Gulbene district on June16, with a total of 560 children expected to attend it in groups in the courseof seven weeks.