The work of a Ministry of Defence working party on anti-personnel landmines has run into difficulties over when Finland might accede to the Ottawa Convention banning these weapons.
The Foreign Ministry would like to stick to its original target, under which Finland would join the list of countries who have signed the Convention by 2006. All landmines would then have to be destroyed by 2010 at the latest. The Defence Ministry, however, would prefer to see this deadline put back at least six more years.
The original timetable for the final report called for its release to Minister of Defence Seppo Kääriäinen (Centre Party) in mid-April. Now there is some doubt about when the report will be completed, and whether there will be unanimity among the working party members on its recommendations.
The working party is examining Finland’s ability to abandon the use of anti-personnel mines and to replace them with an assortment of sensors and smart weapons systems. The group contains representatives from the Defence Ministry itself, the Foreign Ministry, and the Finnish Defence Forces general staff.
In addition to the differing views on the schedule for the removal of the landmines, there is apparently no common ground between the Foreign Ministry and the defence branch on the order in which things should go; the Foreign Ministry believes Finland should sign up to Ottawa and that the Finnish Defence Forces should then acquire the necessary new weaponry, while the other side would like to see the money for new weapons systems on the table before any such decisions are made.
In an interim report published during the winter, the working group calculated that smart systems to replace landmines would cost anything between EUR 185 million and EUR 600 million.
