Area of operation: first the Suez Canal area and the Sinai Peninsula, later Gaza and the Egyptian side of the Israeli-Egyptian border. Headquarters: Gaza Duration: November 1956 – June 1967 Number of Finns served: 437 Israel, with French and British support, invaded Egypt in the autumn of 1956 to block President Gamal Abdel Nasser’s project […]

SUEZ – 73 ”Language skills” could save a lot! Terho Ahonen/Rauhanturvaajien juhlalehti 2016 THE JOM KIPPUR WAR (October 1973) resulted in Egyptian and Israeli troops being nose to nose in the city of Suez, in some places within a few  metres from each other. The ceasefire violations of December ’73 and January ’74 were constant.

SUEZ UNEFI 1973-1974 Rainer Fabricius Rainer Fabricius, a 22-year-old ranger from the village of Hammaslahti in North Karelia, left for Suez as a peacekeeper in November 1973. He was stationed in the engineer platoon of a supply company. ”When the war started on Yom Kippur, the sixth of October, the turmoil between Egypt and Israel,

IN WAR AND PEACE A.E. Martola Commander of the UN Force in Cyprus ”13.5.1966 I begin again by copying my diary. In New York on the 38th floor of the UN Palace. A rather wonderful and why not to say, very pleasant thing has happened to me again. I am now sitting in the familiar

SKJA/ISAF/PRT MEY/MOT-L/L-6 Jaakko Estola While patrolling around Andkhoy in October 2006, we found a village, just an hour’s drive from the centre of Andkhoy, which had not been visited by foreigners since the Soviets left. We arrived with our team (MOT-L=Mobile Observation Team-Lima) at the village around noon. The temperature outside was a ”mild” 38

SINAI – UNEF II Area of operation: the Suez Canal area and later the Sinai Peninsula Headquarters: Ismailia Duration: October 1973 – July 1979  Finnish soldiers served: 4829 soldiers The so-called Yom Kippur War broke out between Israel and its neighbours Egypt and Syria in 1973. Egypt invaded the Suez Canal and at the same

Siilasvuo’s objection Finns were fired upon Cairo, 20. 12. (STT-Reuter) Lieutenant General Ensio Siilasvuo, commander of the UN peacekeeping force in the Middle East, on Thursday issued a strong protest to both Egypt and Israel over the fierce cross-fire between Finnish UN troops in the city of Suez on Wednesday night. According to a UN

Explosion near the base Pasi Lehtinen/lltalehti 1.6.2007 Two Finnish and four Norwegian peacekeepers left the Maimana base in Afghanistan on Wednesday last week. The group, which was on foot, was accompanied by Norwegian medical staff and one interpreter. The purpose of the group was to walk to a nearby clinic. They had been invited to

FOR PEACE  – 60 years of Finnish peacekeeping  Finland has been involved in international peacekeeping since December 1956, when the first Finnish peacekeepers left for the UNEF 1 mission in Suez. The objectives of this participation were to strengthen Finland’s international status and neutrality policy, as a recent member of the UN, and to support

THE DAYS GO BY IN THE SAME DUSTY RHYTHM Helsingin Sanomat 3.7 2007/Tanja Aitamurto  The sun has just risen and is shining gently on Camp Northern Lights, Ilkka Virkkunen’s home camp near the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. The Hindukush Mountains loom to the south. Virkkunen – a 29-year-old graphic designer – is about to embark on