Brigadier General Räty: Finland will not get cluster bombs that linger in terrain
Possible replacements for infantry land mines to have self-destruct mechanism
Arto Räty
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Finland's Defence Forces do not have cluster munitions that remain in the terrain for long periods of time, says Brigadier General Arto Räty, head of the Defence Policy unit of the Ministry of Defence on Thursday.
Räty was commenting reports from an international conference on cluster munitions being held in Oslo, according to which Finland plans to partially replace its infantry land mines with the infamous cluster bombs.
Finland is committed to phasing out the use of infantry land mines by 2016.
Laura Kansikas, head of the Foreign Ministry's Unit for Arms Control, said in an interview with the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) on Thursday that cluster munitions will continue to be part of Finland's defence system, and that Finland does not want to place a complete ban on the weapons.
Kansikas was in Oslo at the cluster munitions conference, which is considering a possible ban on certain types of cluster bombs.
Cluster munitions are small explosive devices placed on aerial bombs or the warheads of missiles. Israel spread cluster bombs in Lebanon last summer, and it has been estimated that as many as two million of them might not have exploded.
Arto Räty emphasises that Finland has sought to adhere to the requirements of a supplementary protocol of the treaty on limiting conventional weapons.
Räty emphasised that Finland has stringent requirements on the reliability of the weapons.
"We recently got heavy mortars from The Netherlands. A certain type of shell would have come with them. They did not have a self-destruct mechanism, so we did not take them", Räty pointed out.
Räty says that the Defence Forces have tested cluster munitions already before Finland committed itself to giving up infantry land mines.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 23.2.2007 - TODAY |
 Brigadier General Räty: Finland will not get cluster bombs that linger in terrain |
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