The central Finland daily Keskisuomalainen reported Sunday that more than half of the service crimes committed last year were related to alcohol consumption. It added that these misdemeanours had more than doubled last year.
In 2014 peacekeepers serving abroad were booked for some 71 offences, compared to 26 back in 2013. More than half of the infringements recorded last year related to regulations on the use of alcohol. For example some soldiers violated rules prohibiting the storage of alcohol in soldiers’ quarters.
Army operations chief Brigadier General Petri Hulkko told the paper that the increase in alcohol-related offences among crisis management troops was due to closer oversight of alcohol use.
"We have clear and precise directives regarding the consumption of alcohol during operations," Hulkko commented.
A total of nine penalties were imposed for infringements of regulations relating to firearms handling; a similar number was handed down for traffic violations.
The majority of all the sentences handed down in crisis management cases occurred in Lebanon, where a contingent of Finnish peacekeepers is participating in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).
Peacekeepers who run afoul of regulations are most often censured, however in some cases military authorities have also issued fines and formal reprimands. In more extreme cases, some peacekeepers have been demobilized.