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

When I was young it started Martti Tikka I was in my twenties when my first peacekeeping mission was to the island of Cyprus in the summer of 1972. Less than a year on the ”Paradise island” was also my first trip abroad. It was quite an experience for a young man. From the HF

THE NOBELS PEACE PRIZE 2008 The Nobel Peace Prize 2008 was awarded to Martti Ahtisaari for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts. The Norwegian Nobel Committee’s announcement on the Peace Prize award began as follows: ”The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace

NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 1988  The UN peacekeeping force was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1988. There are around half a million UN peacekeepers from 53 countries worldwide who are eligible for the prize. There are about 20,000 Finnish peacekeepers who served in the UN peacekeeping mission in 1988 or before.  The Nobel Committee argued