Ex-President Koivisto urges publication of Security Police Stasi list

Ex SUPO chief Tiitinen agrees with Mauno Koivisto

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Former Finnish President Mauno Koivisto says that the list held by the Finnish Security Police (SUPO) on possible Finnish contact persons linked with the East Germany intelligence service Stasi should be made public now.
      "In the present situation, keeping it a secret would be less expedient than making it public", Koivisto says in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat.
      Koivisto's views carry a certain amount of weight, because as President, Koivisto himself decided, at the recommendation of SUPO Director Seppo Tiitinen, that the list of names submitted to SUPO would not give cause for any action.
      Tiitinen himself has also come out in favour of publishing the lists.
      After a discussion held with the President in 1990, Tiitinen placed the list in the SUPO safe, and the names on it have not been disclosed. Now Tiitinen feels that making the list public would cause less harm than keeping it a secret. However, he also notes that revealing the names would raise difficult privacy issues.
     
There have been long-standing calls for the publication of the list for several years now. Suspicions are constantly voiced on Internet discussions that Koivisto, Tiitinen, SUPO, and other decision-makers are trying to protect some politicians, or other important influential people.
      It has been suggested that keeping the Stasi material a secret is weakening the credibility of SUPO.
      "Back when I made this decision I had no idea that there would be calls to make it public", Koivisto says.
     
"It was my decision", the former President states categorically. Formally the decision was that of Tiitinen.
     
"There was never any talk of Stasi. Naturally we came from the starting point that as East Germany sought to be a sovereign state, it has all the bodies of a state, and that they collect intelligence. However, the name Stasi was never used. We did not have the impression that East Germany had something like that over here."
      "I served as Prime Minister twice - each time I was in the core of the government for several years, and only when I became President did I know that Viktor Vladimirov was the main representative of the Soviet intelligence service, the KGB, in Finland", Koivisto explains.
      "SUPO did not inform the government or the Prime Minister. The President also did not inform me, as Prime Minister, about these things."
     
In Koivisto's view, the SUPO leaders took a hostile view of the government and the Social Democrats all the way into the 1970s. The SDP felt that SUPO was spying on the party, and monitoring the activities of the government.
      The situation did not change until the late 1970s when Tiitinen took the SUPO leadership.
      The question of making the list public has been discussed in court at several levels. The Supreme Administrative Court ruled that the matter is up to the Security Police. SUPO has so far resisted making the names public.
      "In the present situation, not making the list public would cause greater damage than publishing it would", President Koivisto said.
      "I cannot say if it would cause some pain and suffering for some people, but in the present situation, considering public debate and other factors, it would be wiser to publish the list now."
      Koivisto supports opening the safe, even though he suspects that even that will not bring a stop to claims of attempts to protect the highly-placed people whose names are on it.
      "It is a completely vain attempt. One can say that if one makes major efforts to reject something, then one is already building another impression with equal vigour."
     
At 83 years of age, Koivisto does not plan to reveal any of the names himself. He notes that 17 years have passed since the events, and that he does not even have a clear recollection of the content of the list. "It would end up being guesswork."
      "It is likely that I have looked through the list, but I am sure that I have not studied it thoroughly."
      During the recent court case in which Ambassador Alpo Rusi is seeking damages from the state over unfounded suspicions that he had been an informer for Stasi, a list of 12 names was made public by Rusi's legal counsel. The people on the list were claimed to have maintained contact with representatives of East Germany. The list primarily contained the names of Social Democratic politicians, including former SDP leaders Kalevi Sorsa and Paavo Lipponen.
      Some got the impression that Tiitinen's list might have the same names.
      "If the list would have had only Social Democrats, or politicians in general, I would not have had any basis to say that we should put it in the safe", Koivisto notes.
     
The former head of state does not want to give any opinions on the Rusi lawsuit. "I agree with my successor", he says.
      Koivisto's successor as President, Martti Ahtisaari, noted outside the courtroom after testifying at the trial that there had been mistakes in the investigation of suspicions of wrongdoing on Rusi's part, and that it would be better for SUPO to admit them.
      Koivisto has no complaints about the activities of SUPO during his presidency (1982-1994), but he does see cause for criticism in previous times.
      Koivisto is especially angered that in the late 1960s and the 1970s, SUPO leaders did not inform the government, or even the Prime Minister about the operations of foreign intelligence bodies in Finland.
     
According to Seppo Tiitinen, Koivisto's arguments are relevant and worthy of consideration. "Without a factual basis, the discussion seems to be very wild", Tiitinen said to Helsingin Sanomat on Sunday.
      Tiitinen also emphasised that the legal rights of those whose names were on the list need to be taken into consideration.
     
SUPO originally got the list from the West German security service. The paper lists 18 people with whom the East German Stasi was believed to be maintaining contact in Helsinki.
     
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) said in a radio interview programme that the proposals by Koivisto and Tiitinen need to be taken seriously. He feels that the new leadership to be chosen for SUPO might examine the matter.
      He sees that as a way to establish some control over the debate that is taking place.
      Vanhanen commented that in addition to the rights of those on the list, it is important that cooperation between SUPO and the intelligence services of other countries is not jeopardised.
     
The current acting director of SUPO, Petri Knape, told the Finnish News Agency STT on Sunday that the Security Police will look into possibility of publishing the list already this week.
      Knape said that the matter should be reconsidered because important figures have come out in favour of such a move. However, he said that the legal basis has not changed since it was decided that the list should be kept a secret.
      Opposition True Finns' party leader Timo Soini proposed that the leaders of all political parties should take a stand on behalf of publishing the list.
      "This matter is not one between the government and opposition: the question is one of the common credibility of the Finnish political system", Soini said in his statement.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Former President Ahtisaari testifies in Alpo Rusi case (29.8.2007)
  COMMENTARY: Security Police stretch legal room to manoeuvre to extreme (28.8.2007)
  Supreme Police Command finds no fault with Security Police procedures in Stasi matter (27.8.2007)
  Debate over disclosure of Stasi material heats up as Security Police director resigns (30.7.2007)
  Court rejects Alpo Rusi call to publish Stasi lists (26.4.2007)

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