The careful screening of civil society members allowed to attend the Helsinki+50 conference by the Finnish Foreign Ministry almost succeed in steering away conversation from topic the Finnish Chairpersonship wanted to avoid.
Fortunately Finnish Foreign Scholars were able to schedule a pre-event July 30th at Helsinki University Library where the undersigned was able to lay out how extensive military spending by OSCE countries was diverting the funds to address a looming global climate catastrophe on behalf Climate Reality Leaders Finland.
There seemed no room for agenda for organizations like ours nor for Bruce Knotts who represented the NGO Committee for Disarmament, Peace and Security at the UN. He was likely too outspoken in his condemnation of countries like Finland engaging in arms trade with Israel.
Heidi Meinzolt of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom managed to get in an intervention on the dangerous comeback of the nuclear arms race in a July 31st side event, obviously a topic the organizers were having trouble keeping the lid on. This echoed Kati Juva’s warning of how even a limited nuclear exchange could trigger a civilization-destroying nuclear winter when she spoke on behalf of Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War at the university.
The elephant in the room was of course the ever more dictatorial behaviour of the Trump administration. Perhaps journalist and BBC interviewer Stephen Sackur forgot his briefing notes when he brought up how Trump had cut the funds for Radio Free Europe when questioning its CEO, Steve Capers about the imperilled state of the free media in parts of Europe?
Then there was the matter of the closure of Finland’s eastern border. Nothing on that of course much to the chagrin of the young Romanian woman, I met at a break, working for the UNHCR in Belorus with imprisoned migrant workers keep in dangerous and unhealthy cells after being pushed back for seeking the freedoms promised in the Helsinki Final Act. I mention her now because she never got a hearing of her experiences that day although travelling hundreds of kilometers to attend.
by Ahti Tolvanen
During meetings July 31st to August 1st to observe the 50th Anniversary of the Helsinki Conference on Peace and Security I was glad to act as Finnish ngo host for Bruce Knotts, director of the NGO Committee of Disarmament, Peace and Security at the United Nations.
He had an outspoken message to the convenors, the Finnish government about its arms trade with Israel:
“Sending of money and weapons to Israel should be stopped. Germany has just done this, and Finland and the USA should do the same.”
Knotts went on to say:
” The current Israeli government does not want to end this war; they want to enhance it to take all of Gaza. They are also in the process using Israeli settlers removing and killing all Palestinians in the West Bank. The more radical members of the Israeli cabinet have been clear that they believe that God has given all this land to the Jews of Israel. Not only is Israel killing Palestinians, but they have also attacked without provocation Iran, Syria, Lebanon with threats to other neighbouring nations.
Remember, people thought that Hitler would be satisfied with Czechoslovakia, but he went on to take Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, France and more.”
Bruce Knotts went on the address the ngo gathering on the day of the anniversary of the Helsinki Conference, August 1st .