Defence Minister Häkämies lashes out at President over hiding NATO letter

Minister not informed about request for more forces in Afghanistan

Jyri Häkämies

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Minister of Defence Jyri Häkämies (Nat. Coalition Party) aimed some rather harsh criticism toward President Tarja Halonen on Thursday, accusing her of keeping him in the dark about a request from NATO for more Finnish crisis management forces to Afghanistan.
      The matter came out in Parliamentary debate on the crisis management operation in Afghanistan. The debate was to have focussed on poor dissemination of information among foreign policy decision-makers.
     
The main opposition party, the Social Democrats, was heavily on the offensive. Also lashing out at the government was MP Pentti Oinonen (True Finns), who accused Häkämies of keeping Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) in the dark about the request for more forces. This was too much for the Defence Minister.
      Häkämies said that he could not have hidden the information, because the NATO Secretary General had approached only the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the President. Häkämies said that he would have expected “the commander-in-chief” to inform the Minister of Defence about the letter.
      At the end of the debate, Häkämies said that communications between the government and President should go in both directions. He said that he heard about the NATO request from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The Foreign Ministry staff reported that the request, which came a while ago, was also passed on to the Prime Minister’s staff. However, Prime Minister Vanhanen first heard of it from journalists.
     
The statement by Häkämies prompted MP Eero Heinäluoma (SDP) to rush to speak with Jutta Urpilainen (SDP) and Kimmo Kiljunen (SDP). The three had previously attacked the government, and particularly ministers of the National Coalition Party, for the way in which they pass out information. Already during Question Time, which took place earlier in the day, the Social Democrats had sharply criticised the government and defended President Halonen on the issue of EU summits.
     
The comment by Häkämies came as a surprise in the midst of a debate that was supposed to focus on different matters. Prime Minister Vanhanen listened to the debate for 35 minutes, said a few words, and left.
      Heinäluoma spoke of an “historic blunder” when the Prime minister and President were not told of the repatriation schedule of Finnish forces sent to Afghanistan to help maintain security during the recent elections. On the most recent mixup, Urpilainen told Häkämies that the President is no messenger girl expected to pass on information about NATO requests.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Foreign Minister Stubb apologises to Finnish peacekeepers (26.10.2009)
  Government ponders Afghanistan confusion (28.10.2009)
  Defence Forces never considered extension of Afghanistan mandate (22.10.2009)

See also:
  Finland to NATO meeting without promise of greater Afghan force commitment (4.12.2009)

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