EDITORIAL: From infantry land mines to cluster weapons
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President Tarja Halonen courageously denied feeling embarrassment when she and the government decided that Finland would not be among the more than 100 countries that are signing the international treaty on a ban on cluster weapons in December.
As a result of the decision, Finland, which has long stayed out of the treaty banning infantry land mines, will again become the target of uncomfortable international attention, to say the least. Cluster weapons have been branded as especially deplorable, and have even been compared with chemical weapons.
However, it must be admitted that in the present situation, Finland had no other realistic option than to not sign the treaty.
According to the Chief of Defence, Admiral Juhani Kaskeala, joining the treaty would force Finland to destroy all of the modern field artillery shells that it has already acquired. Kaskeala estimates that by destroying the existing munitions, Finland would lose an estimated one third of its ability to repulse an attack.
The impact of the cluster weapons treaty on Finland’s ability to defend itself would, therefore, have been many times more serious than those of the land mine treaty, which Finland agreed to join only after lengthy hesitation and a period of transition.
Finland has therefore invested for a second time in weapons that have later been the target of a ban. Could it be seen to be a lack of advance planning, when the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs were not able to consider the possibility that the country was getting weaponry which might soon be banned?
The broad international consensus reached last summer on a ban on cluster weapons undoubtedly came as a big surprise even to some countries that signed the treaty, such as Germany, France, and Britain.
Finland will now have to justify its decision with scenarios that may attract more understanding after the war in Georgia.
More on this subject:
 Finland not to join cluster weapon ban
Helsingin Sanomat
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