Prime Minister promises clarification of confusion over Afghanistan

SDP: President and Foreign Ministry overruled by military

print this

Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) said on Thursday that he would order an investigation into why some of the country’s leaders were in the dark about when Finnish soldiers in Afghanistan would be withdrawn.
      Uncertainty about when the 86 Finnish peacekeeping soldiers, who were sent to the country in the runup to the August elections in that country to augment the force of more than 100 who were already there, was debated during Parliamentary Question Time on Thursday.
      The government was asked to explain why the soldiers are coming home before the job is done - that is, before the second round of the Presidential elections on November 7th.
      President Tarja Halonen and Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb (Nat. Coalition Party) had been under the impression that the mandate of the extra forces would be extended beyond the runoff. It was later announced that they would be returning when their service contracts expire at the end of October.
     
Answering on his own behalf, as well as that of Minister of Defence Jyri Häkämies (Nat. Coalition Party), Prime Minister Vanhanen indicated that he was not pleased with the breaks in communication that led to the misunderstandings.
      He admitted that he learned of the date of the withdrawal from the news, and said that there had been an “extensive break in information”.
      “Information about the date to which the service contracts extend has not reached the ministerial or presidential level. I also did not know the date”, Vanhanen said to Helsingin Sanomat.
      Members of Parliament of the opposition Social Democratic Party lashed out at the government, accusing it of bypassing the constitutional decision-making process. Eero Heinäluoma (SDP) and Erkki Tuomioja (SDP) felt that the military had marched over the political leaders in the decisions to bring the soldiers back.
     
“These matters should be put forward by the Foreign Ministry. The President of the Republic is the ultimate decision-maker when forces are deployed or brought back. The Ministry of Defence has taken on the tasks of others in this, and not all of the members of the government have been informed”, Heinäluoma said.
      He noted that even Parliament was told last month that the forces were to be brought back in October or November, depending on when the second round of the Afghan election would take place.
      Foreign Minister Stubb told Helsingin Sanomat on Thursday that he had long known that the additional forces were scheduled to come back to Finland on October 28th. What was a surprise to him was that it was not possible to extend their deployment beyond that date.
     
Earlier on Thursday, Defence Minister Häkämies and Major General Arto Räty appeared before Parliament’s foreign affairs committee to explain the confusion.
      Häkämies told the committee that the labour contracts of volunteer soldiers cannot be unilaterally changed by their employers. General Räty emphasised the “unwillingness” of the forces to stay on in Afghanistan, where conditions have become very difficult for the soldiers.
     
Finland is apparently the only country that is pulling out forces sent there to secure the elections before the second round.
      The NATO-led ISAF forces comprise troops from 42 countries.
      “I am not aware that there would have been discussions with other countries on withdrawing the forces”, said NATO spokesman James Appathurai to Helsingin Sanomat in the Slovak capital Bratislava on Thursday at the beginning of a meeting of NATO defence ministers.
      Finnish Defence Minister Jyri Häkämies, who also travelled to Bratislava on Thursday, said that when the decision was made to send the additional Finnish forces to Afghanistan, there was a “strong impression” that the decision would include duty during a possible second round.
      However, the holding of the second round was delayed until November 7th, which is more than a week after the contracts of the additional Finnish soldiers expires.
     
President Halonen commented on the matter on Thursday during her visit to Syria. She said that bringing the soldiers back before the second round of elections was a “technical slipup”. She also said that she was surprised that the contracts were made for a shorter period than what had been discussed when the political decision was made.
      Foreign Minister Stubb also described the situation as a technical error.

More on this subject:
 Swedish newspaper writes of “tired” and “homesick” Finnish soldiers

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

See also:
  Häkämies: More Finnish soldiers and civilians to Afghanistan in 2011 (23.10.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat