­The 65th anniversary of the Paris Peace Treaty on February 10 shed light on a disturbing fact. Although the treaty allowed Finland to join the UN, the country is now flaunting a Security Council ban on supporting terror organizations like Al Qaeda.

The Security Council’s Al Qaeda and Taliban Sanctions Committee requires countries to block all resources going to Al Qaeda-linked terrorist Doku Umarov and Emarat Kavkaz (Caucasus Emirate), a terrorist organization.  

At the anniversary round table meeting, experts discussed this curious situation. A range of international instruments – such as UN counterterrorism sanctions – are applicable to terrorist offences. And yet unfortunately, Finland has not complied with the sanctions against Al-Qaeda.

The UN Sanctions Committee is perfectly clear in its message: “The Kavkazcenter  has been proclaimed the official information organ of the Emarat Kavkaz by Doku Umarov. Publications on the website are in Russian, English, Arabic, Turkish and Ukrainian…  The principal internet provider of the website is located in Stockholm, Sweden. In March 2008 it published “Concept of the Islamic State”. Since 2007 the website has regularly published videos in which Doku Umarov and the heads of the Emarat Kavkaz have taken personal responsibility for terrorist acts carried out on the territory of Russia including the one at the Domodedovo airport (Moscow) on 24 January 2011”.

Mikael Storsjö, a Finn from Helsinki, and other members of the administration of the above-mentioned web center in downtown Helsinki offer Internet services through a Sweden-based server and internet provider.  Storsjö’s primary aspiration, it seems, is to provide support for terrorist use of Internet resources. It is well known that the Internet has become a tactical instrument for terrorists and their aggressive fanatic cliques. The Internet allows for direct and almost protected communication among terror operatives and between terrorist cells, including for the preparation of attacks.

Speakers at the anniversary event stressed that Finland systematically violates the letter and spirit of the Paris Peace Treaty by participating in the Afghan war and particularly by refusing to comply with UN Security Council Al-Qaida Sanctions. Finland accepts not only Storsjö’s questionable affairs but also the open support of Ms. Heidi Hautala, the Minister for International Development, for the above-mentioned web center and its anti-Russian activities. 

Through the Paris treaty, Finland was accepted back into the international community, gaining “atonement for the sins” of pre-war fascist spirit. Through articles of the treaty, each government undertook procedures to prevent the resurgence of fascist and other organizations engaged in hostile propaganda against the Soviet Union or other UN member-states. It goes against the Paris Peace Treaty that Finland allows irredentist organizations such as ProKarelia, Aluepalautus (Territorial Restitution Association of Finland), SuurSuomi (Greater Finland Association) and Tartu Peace Association to work for the return to Finland of territories ceded to the USSR in wars last century. On 16 February 2006, in the Hanasaari Cultural Center, Ms. Anne Sipiläinen, then a Deputy Director General at the Political Department but now an Under-Secretary of State and a very close associate of Minister Hautala, said of the Paris Peace Treaty: “Let us forget old things”. Unfortunately, those words indicate a new orientation in the wider western world. Agreements are being entered into for war, not for peace!

Ten years ago, on the 55th Anniversary of the Paris Peace Treaty, Major General Vladimir Sviridov, Leningrad Region Air Force and Air Defense Army commander, said: "These agreements must be respected". He admitted that the military situation may be different, but the political decisions of the Paris treaties are binding: agreements must be observed. Now, ten years later, the participants of the round table said that this should hold true also with UN counterterror sanctions.

­The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.