Finnish field commander: Peacekeeping becoming too demanding for volunteers

print this

The use of volunteer troops in increasingly demanding crisis management operations may not be possible in the future, estimates Lt.Col. Pertti Pullinen, commander of the Finnish troops in the NATO-led ISAF operation in Afghanistan.
      Around a hundred Finnish soldiers are stationed in Afghanistan to safeguard the reconstruction of the country.
      The death of a Finnish military observer in Lebanon and the Finnish troops' involvement in exchange-of-fire incidents in Afghanistan have prompted discussion on the use of volunteers as peacekeepers.
      The Minister of Defence Seppo Kääriäinen (Centre) told Helsingin Sanomat on Sunday that the participation of reservists in such operations is categorically voluntary. "This is also the case with the permanent military personnel, and it should remain that way", Kääriäinen noted.
     
In connection with the new Act on Peacekeeping, Parliament decided that volunteer service contracts would be introduced in overseas operations.
      The same principle is making its way to the new legislation on the defence forces.
      Personnel director Pasi Lankinen from the Ministry of Defence estimates that the use of volunteers must be re-evaluated, if the operations in question become too demanding for most of the reservists, or if Finland suddenly dramatically increases its participation in international operations.
      According to an Officers' Union enquiry, exactly half of Finland's military and naval officers are interested in working abroad. A larger poll by the same union revealed that 86 per cent of the Finns feel that Finnish soldiers should not be ordered to military operations overseas.
     
In Afghanistan the danger elements include suicide bombers, the corrupt and pillaging local police, and the drug business, where shoot-outs between rival gangs are commonplace. According to international estimates, the fact that the United States is simultaneously conducting its war against the Taleban in the country obscures the line between war and peacekeeping in the area.
      "If this development continues we have to start re-thinking our recruitment methods at some point", Pullinen says. So far there have been enough volunteers, though not always with certain specialist backgrounds.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Peacekeeper wounded in Afghanistan may have been shot by other Finns (13.10.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat