War professor and Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) veteran Ilmari Käihkö's new book Sotilaan päiväkirja — kuinka rauhanturvaaminen muuttui kriisinhallinnaksi (roughly translated as "A Soldier's Diary — How peacekeeping became crisis management") documented his firsthand experiences while serving as a Finnish peacekeeper on a UN crisis management mission in Chad, portraying an unvarnished picture the public rarely sees of Finnish peacekeeping operations.
Serving as a jaeger in 2009, the then-26-year-old Käihkö was on the frontlines of the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT), guarding nearby villages and refugee camps in Goz Beïda.
Käihkö recorded his experiences and what he witnessed in a diary. Käihkö was older than most of his fellow peacekeepers, having already obtained a university degree, and he had previously worked in Africa before getting selected for the mission.
Most of his peers on the mission were around 20 years old, having just finished their conscript training in the Finnish Defence Forces. Many in the general public considered these peacekeepers to be too inexperienced and immature for the high-pressure environment of a crisis management operation, but they had passed the necessary entrance exam and had trained prior to going on the mission.
Käihkö described the hot-headed nature of some of his fellow peacekeepers. He shared the anecdote of one peacekeeper threatening to beat a local worker located on the Finnish base over the apparent stealing of water bottles.
Käihkö's book also detailed sexual abuse by Finnish peacekeepers such as soliciting sex from locals in exchange for money and masturbating in front of local women.
According to the UN's rules, those who work for the organisation are not supposed to engage in any kind of sexual abuse, and this includes using a position of power to solicit prostitution. In Chad, one of the poorest countries in the world, it is impossible to be sure that a sex worker is not a victim of human trafficking.
According to Human Rights Watch, UN peacekeeping forces have committed sexual abuses in at least Haiti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic and Somalia.
Rampant racism
In addition to the sexual abuse Käihkö witnessed, he noted that blatant racism towards the locals was a common occurrence.
Finnish peacekeepers in Chad engaged in open racism and used a litany of slurs to refer to the local population, calling them, among other things, "monkeys, leeches, beggars, and thieves".
While the Finnish commander had banned specific racial slurs, many peacekeepers circumvented this rule by using other, equally racist terms.
"The peer pressure was terribly high. Even though there was a minority of active racists, it was certainly reflected in the operation. And if you tried to intervene, their anger was directed at you," Käihkö told Yle about the group dynamics of the time.
Disconnect between command and troops
The book also highlighted what the Finns did well on the mission, but Käihkö revealed a side of peacekeeping, usually respected in Finland, that the Finnish public seldom sees.
Tuomas Rimpiläinen, an Yle journalist who served alongside Käihkö as a public information officer during the same time in Chad, wrote Yle's original Finnish-language article on Käihkö's book. Käihkö said that the officers in charge failed to stamp out this detrimental behaviour as most passively accepted the actions of a small minority.
Rimpiläinen admitted that part of the reason for peacekeeping operations having such glossy images was due to his work, which involved upholding the Chad operation's public image.
Efforts made by Rimpiläinen, the mission's commander and chaplain, fell on deaf ears amongst the jaegers, who viewed them as outsiders, according to Käihkö.
Rimpiläinen shared the story of an outburst by one Finnish peacekeeper who became enraged by a begging child, chasing and threatening him with a car's antenna. Though Rimpiläinen was an officer and tried to tell the peacekeeper why his actions hurt the mission, he had no direct authority over him and no punitive measures were taken against the peacekeeper.
Both Rimpiläinen and Käihkö said that the peacekeeping training emphasised combat experience over other skills needed in crisis management, such as interacting with locals and understanding the region's cultures.
In addition, the work of the peacekeepers on the operation in Chad was complicated due to long hours and difficult conditions, further increasing their stress.
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