Vanguard of Finnish EUFOR peacekeepers heads for Chad

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An advance party of three Finnish peacekeepers took off for Chad via Sweden from Turku yesterday.
      “I leave with confidence, for we are well-trained and we have got the best possible equipment”, says Staff Sgt.Jarno Viitanen, 33.
      In civilian life, Viitanen works as a transportation foreman in a road transportation company. As a non-commissioned officer of transportation his duties with EUFOR in Chad will not be dissimilar to his normal work.
      Viitanen has a common-law wife and a four-year-old son. "Of course I will miss my son in particular."
     
Previously Viitanen has served over three years on peacekeeping missions in Kosovo and Bosnia. Africa presents its own challenges:
      In addition to his weapon and personal equipment rucksack, Viitanen has been issued with another 48-kilogram backpack containing a portable bed, protective vest, field cooker, mosquito net, medical equipment, four-litre water tank, and reserve food for two days.
      Under the desert outfit the men wear loose underclothes suitable for hot conditions.
      In his work Viitanen will use a notebook computer and a satellite phone. Some Finnish films and the memoirs of a Finn who served in the Foreign Legion will provide free time entertainment.
     
From Uppsala in Sweden the men will continue with their Swedish colleagues to the Chad capital N’Djamena to make preparations for the arrival of the main body and the equipment.
      The first 30-strong group of the main body will fly to Sweden on Sunday. The heavy vehicles will be transported by sea.
      According to the commander of the Finnish troops, Lieutenant Commander Timo Kirvesoja, all Finns and their equipment should be in place at their post in Abéché by the end of April. The objective is to protect the staff there.
      Later, the tasks will include protecting convoys on a 700-kilometre main service stretch from the capital plus various safeguarding duties of no more than two weeks in length in the entire operations area.
     
In Finland, the Pori Brigade is responsible for the training and establishment of the crisis management troops.
      Brigadier General Markku Nikkilä, commander of the Pori Brigade, emphasises that in Chad the Finnish troops’ mission is to help the United Nations in their aid operations and to protect the refugees, not to fight the rebels. But the risks nevertheless have to be accepted.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finnish rapid deployment forces could go to Chad under Swedish command (14.8.2007)

Links:
  EUFOR (Wikipedia)
  EUFOR Chad/CAR (Wikipedia)

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