Finland to join land mine ban

True Finns only holdouts

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The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Finnish Parliament gave its approval on Tuesday to Finland joining the Ottawa Treaty banning infantry land mines. In the decision, Finland commits itself to destroying its infantry mines within four years.
      The True Finns parliamentary group submitted a dissenting view. The committee’s chairman, True Finns MP Timo Soini said that subscribing to the treaty is not sensible economically, or from the point of view of defence capability, nor is it necessary from the point of view of foreign policy. In Soini’s view the treaty weakens Finland’s defence capability, and is harmful for the country.
      The True Finns plan to vote against joining the treaty when the full Parliament votes on the measure next week. All other parties are in favour of the move.
     
Dissenting voices in the National Coalition Party have gone silent. National Coalition Party MP Pertti Salolainen, the deputy chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said that there were no objections when he presented the matter to his group.
      Salolainen also praised the Centre Party for supporting the measure, and for not using the mine ban as a way of attacking the government.
     
The committee stated that the firepower of the mines needs to be fully compensated with the help of other acquisitions. Two thirds of a funding package of EUR 300 million allocated for the replacement technology has already been used.
      Weaponry to be used for replacing the infantry mines includes more modern anti-tank mines and above-ground directional anti-personnel mines. In the future, the focus will be on upgrading reconnaissance, monitoring, and artillery command capability. Initial plans to replace infantry mines with cluster weapons have been abandoned.
      The Foreign Affairs Committee voiced concern that large countries, such as China, India, Russia the United States have not joined the treaty. Salolainen said that Finland should demand that Russia take part in the mine ban.
     
The Ottawa Treaty came into force in 1999, and 158 countries have signed it so far. Finland is the only EU country not to have signed it yet.
      Since the Ottawa Treaty came into effect, deaths caused by infantry land mines have fallen to a sixth of what they were in the 1990s.
      The committee notes that Finland’s mines have not caused any humanitarian problems. Finland has no areas with mines in the ground, no infantry land mines have been manufactured in Finland since 1981, and Finland has not exported any of the mines.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Government reached preliminary agreement on joining Ottawa Treaty in 2012 (8.9.2004)
  Tuomioja slams critics of land mine treaty (6.9.2011)
  Finland cancels plans to use cluster weapons to replace infantry land mines (12.8.2011)

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