Foreign Minister Stubb apologises to Finnish peacekeepers

“This is really embarrassing”

Alexander Stubb

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Finland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb (Nat. Coalition Party) has accepted partial responsibility for not sufficiently informing President Tarja Halonen about the schedule of the departure of the contingent of Finnish crisis management forces from Afghanistan. The group of more than 80 soldiers were sent there to help safeguard that country’s presidential elections.
      “This is really embarrassing”, the Foreign Minister said.
      Much of the blame for the confusion has been foisted on Minister of Defence Jyri Häkämies (Nat. Coalition Party).
      “Foreign policy is teamwork, and the Foreign Minister also carries responsibility for the fact that the President was not informed on time about the hidden problem”, Stubb says.
     
In this case, the “hidden problem” is that the President gave statements on Tuesday during a state visit to Egypt, in which she said that the additional Finnish peacekeepers that were sent to Afghanistan to help keep order during the August elections would stay until the November 7th runoff.
      Stubb, who travelled with Halonen at the time, knew then that the Finnish forces would leave the country before the second round, under terms of their service contract.
     
News that a second round would take place came out on October 16th. “We tried all the way to the last possible moment to find a way to keep the Finnish forces there for a second round”, Stubb says.
      One possible solution would have been for some of the soldiers to sign new contracts and stay in the country past the runoff vote. Another option would have been to send fresh reinforcements from Finland. However, there are not enough soldiers with peacekeeper training capable of being deployed at such short notice.
     
Häkämies said on Saturday that it was clear on Sunday October the 18th that the Finns would not be securing the second round. In spite of this, the President, who is Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces, did not know this until the 20th.
      Stubb and Häkämies were not able to say clearly how the President might have been left in the dark like this. Both apologised for the gap in information.
      Stubb said that the most unfortunate aspect of the whole affair was that the professional skill of Finnish soldiers has been called into question.
      “They have done brilliant work in difficult conditions, and I am proud of them. I apologise to the forces that they have had to live in uncertainty because of problems in the flow of information among the political leadership.”
     
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) promised on Saturday in an television interview on MTV3 that Parliament would be briefed on the information problems. He said that the confusion would be examined before that among foreign policy leaders.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Defence Forces never considered extension of Afghanistan mandate (22.10.2009)
  Prime Minister promises clarification of confusion over Afghanistan (23.10.2009)
  Additional Finnish forces to be withdrawn from Afghanistan before election runoff (21.10.2009)

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