Rocket-propelled grenade fired at Finnish forces in Afghanistan

Defence Minister proposes Pekka Haavisto for Afghanistan mediation

Tommi Härkönen

Pekka Haavisto

print this

Finnish peacekeeping forces in Afghanistan were attacked in the early hours of Monday. A rocket-propelled grenade fired at the forces missed its target.
      The attack took place in the west of Mazar-i-Sharif, where Finnish and Swedish crisis management forces are deployed, said the group’s new commander, Lieutenant General Tommi Härkönen by telephone from Afghanistan.
      The security situation in the area is weaker than in other parts of the area where Finns are stationed. “Now we got by with a scare. There certainly would have been losses if the attackers had hit the target.”
     
The incident began when two RPGs were fired at a Finnish vehicle at 10:50 PM local time. As the situation continued, about 20 Finnish peacekeepers fired warning shots in the direction of the attackers, Härkönen said.
      The incident ended when the attackers fled under cover of darkness. After the attack, the peacekeepers returned to the peacekeepers’ main camp 40 kilometres away, and an investigation into the attack began as soon as the sun came up.
      Violence has escalated considerably in different parts of Afghanistan this year, and particularly in advance of the Presidential elections held in August, and soon thereafter.
     
Minister of Defence Jyri Häkämies (Nat. Coalition Party) proposed on Monday that the EU should send its own peace mediator to Afghanistan. He felt that the appropriate person for the job would be Green League MP Pekka Haavisto.
      Häkämies says that the mediation job would be a way for the European Union to take a stronger role in Afghanistan.
      Haavisto himself said that it would be premature to sign up for such a job, as the proposal would have to get support from other EU defence ministers, and from the leadership of the NATO-led ISAF forces.
      Haavisto emphasised, however, that he would not refuse the post if it were offered.
      Haavisto says that he got to know Afghan decision-makers in 2002-2005 while he worked in a group of experts of the United Nations Enviornment Programme UNEP, assessing the environmental damage caused by the war in the areas of Kabul, Kandahar, and Jalalabad.
      Haavisto has peace mediation experience in Sudan, negotiating in Darfur with five large rebel groups as the EU’s special respresentative for Sudan.
      “In the rebel areas of Afghanistan, the sides are not as clear negotiating partners: the Taleban are not unified, and in addition, there are individual warlords opposed to the government”, Haavisto says.
      He feels, however, that the preconditions for negotiations are reasonably good.
      “I recently met Red Cross workers who said that rebel leaders are both willing and able to negotiate.”


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Stubb on Afghanistan: “We are all on the same football team” (9.9.2009)
  Finnish political leaders prepare for trouble in Afghanistan (31.8.2009)
  Finns under fire in north of Afghanistan (19.8.2009)
  Haavisto: Afghan and Darfur operations do not rule each other out (10.8.2007)

Links:
  Häkämies: USA not yet asking Finland for more forces in Afghanistan (16.9.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat