Thank you for the update. Here is my immediate response to Manuela Schreibmiaer's post.

MS writes: -

Ich habe meine Exfreundin Kristin Norderval weder geschlagen noch angegriffen, sondern ihre Attacken abgewehrt und meinen eigenen Körper versucht zu schützen. Sie hat mich an meinem Arbeitsplatz in Oslo bedrängt und körperlich angegriffen als ich den Raum verlassen wollte, weil ich ihre verbalen Provokationen nicht mehr hören wollte und alleine sein wollte. Kristin Norderval hat mir den Weg versperrt und hat begonnen mich körperlich zu attackieren.
This is false. Manuela tried to physically throw me out of a workroom when I refused to obey her orders to leave. I never attacked her - it was a total surprise to me to be suddenly wrestled to the floor. When I tried to defend myself she beat me in a rage. You already have my description of this in previous emails. Read the copy below of the email that Mona Bentzen sent to Manuela after the attack. (Mona was leader of the animation project in Norway.) It confirms that I was beaten badly enough to have bruises all over my body. And I didnt show Mona everything.

Mona Bentzen's post to Manuela:

Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 14:30:23 +0200 (CEST)
From: Mona Bentzen <mona@anart.no>
To: Manuela Schreibmaier <manusch33@hotmail.com>
Subject: fight

I got information from people that were at Atelier Nord when the fight between you and Kristin was going on inside the editing room where we have equipment for 1/2 mill NOK. I did not know how serious this was. This is very bad for me and the project.

After you showed me the one bluemark on your leg, I asked Kristin about it and she showed me her body full with bluemarks. There were international partisipates from the Internett workshop here, one of them, I was told, stopped the fight. This is a very bad thing for Atelier Nord as an International partner!

I want a written explanation from you, as soon as possible.

Mona

I know from Mona Bentzen that she never got any written explanation from Manuela about what happened. I think you have a translation of my original written report to Mona in a previous email that I sent to Martina Cizek, and cc'ed to you. If not I'll send it again if you want to see it.

MS writes:

Dies war nicht der erste Übergriff an meinem Körper in unserer Beziehung. Ich habe Übergriffe an mir und meinem Körper in unserer Beziehung zugelassen, im ,,Namen der Liebe" und vor dem Hintergrund der persönlichen Geschichte von Kristin Norderval.
This is also false. In our time together the only bodily aggression that Manuela ever experienced from me was the following: once I slapped her face because of an affair she was having, and once I wrote a message on her leg with lipstick after she came back drunk from a night out with her affair and passed out in bed. You can decide for yourself if these translate into a pattern of abuse. I'm not proud of those two incidents, but I think it's a long way from a brutal beating.

I never heard anything from Manuela after her attack on me, even though I wrote a letter to her outlining what I had experienced, outlining the physical damage to my body, describing my shock, and informing her that I had filed charges with the police. If she feels that she was the one who was attacked, why didnt she confront me? Or make her report to Mona?

I want to add something else here. I wrote of this incident because you told me that there were women who were afraid of Manuela, and that there were some who had experienced things that they were too afraid to speak up about. You said that if I made this public it would encourage those women to speak up, and would be a warning for people to take seriously the threat of aggression and potential violence. My situation with Manuela is over and I dont have to work at Frauenraum, so I have nothing personal vested in how things develop at Frauenraum, or in who believes me or doesnt believe me. My only concern was that no-one else should get hurt, and that if anyone was afraid they should take it seriously. I hope that at least all of this will open up a dialogue about what is needed in order to make Frauenraum a safe and respectful place for everyone who visits or works there.

Kristin Norderval 1