10,000 MEN STRONG. That’s the number of soldiers participating in the Wihuri2015 military exercise of the Finnish army, which is arranged in North Karelia, licking the border of Russia.
For almost two weeks, the navy, air forces and land forces—2,000 reservists and 2,000 army vehicles practice defense tactics in unison.
The terrain is moist, covered in swamps, so to keep the soldiers dry, the preparation for the exercise started already in 2013.
The key word for the military maneuvers is the modernization of the land forces.
In the modern way, infantries practice present-day leadership, movement, night tactics and use of weapons as a coherent whole with army units across the country.
The modern way is aimed at securely defending the whole of Finland and is being taught in military bases around all points of the compass.
But not everyone is happy about an exercise of this scale, which, after all, is the largest military training session conducted in Finland this year.
An organization of conscientious objectors has arranged a camp, which currently hosts somewhat 20 antimilitarists from around the country. The camp is located in an empty school in the village of Rumo, near the military headquarters.
They call their antimilitaristic counter camp Operation Headwind in response to the name of the military operation, Wihuri, which means the gust of wind.
The organizers of the antimilitarist action camp urge participants to, in addition to creating at least one coordinated action day, conduct smaller deeds around the military camp—day and night. Anything but violence is encouraged.
“With the actions we want to protest the conscription system and the unnecessary army war games that are designed to further the militarisation of Finnish society,” the organizers say on their web page.
When the army faces the demonstrators, it follows a protocol of first calling the military police and then the police.
This time, the antimilitarists are safe from being shot as the army is shooting blanks.
The protesters were asked in an interview, whether they would go and protest across the Russian border, where similar military exercises are common.
“We are Finnish and we see that the situation in Finland and in these military units where Finland practices cooperation is the matter closest to us. Russia is a very militaristic society and its actions in Ukraine are far from acceptable, “ said Kaj Raninen, the secretary of the organization.
“It’s good that the [Finnish] defense forces follow the principles of a democratic society and accept the freedom of an opinion,” Raninen said.
Source: The Finnish Defence Forces
