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New
information on East German espionage in Finland
- Finnish foreign policy leaders, the President and the Government,
have decided that the investigation of activities by Finnish citizens
on behalf of the East German espionage organisation Stasi can be
launched in Germany.
- The investigations will be based on Stasi material
in the United States, which Germany has asked to be given access to.
The CIA is in possession of an archive which reveals the identities of
Stasi spies and its collaborators.
- Under US law it must seek permission from any
third countries whose citizens are included in any information that is
handed over.
- The Finnish government made its decision in April.
A documentary programme on the subject in the MOT investigative
reporting series is to be shown on YLE TV this evening at 7:40 PM, and
will be repeated on Tuesday at 12:10.
- According to the programme, Finland has set two
conditions for the handover of the information: Finnish citizens with
information on them in the Stasi files are to be given access to the
documents pertaining to them. In addition, Finland said that Finnish
officials should also have access to the material. The latter
requirement allows for the prosecution of Finnish citizens who might
be suspected of espionage.
- On the basis of this information, a Danish EU
official was arrested in December, suspected of having worked for
Stasi.
- The producers of the programme were given about
1000 pages from the East German archives which concern Finland. These
include political surveillance covering the years 1969-1987 as well as
scientific and technological surveillance from 1981 and 1982.
- According to the material, Stasi was particularly
interested in Finland's relations with other Western countries. Stasi
also found material on Finland from non-Finnish sources, including a
NATO assessment on Finland's defence capability.
- Discussions between Finnish politicians and
diplomats and representatives of other Western countries often found
their way into the Stasi files. The main target of Stasi operations
was West Germany, which was also one source of information about
Finland. For instance, discussions that Finnish ambassadors Jaakko
Iloniemi and Keijo Korhonen, as well as Finnish Social
Democratic Party leader Kalevi Sorsa had in West Germany
somehow found their way into East Germany.
- In Finland, Stasi was interested in the internal
affairs of Finnish political parties. It collected information on all
Finnish parties from the Communists to the conservative National
Coalition Party. It was also interested in the trade union movement,
and even Finnish employers' organisations.
- Stasi had also gotten hold of material in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs that is still classified. Examples include
documents from the 1970s concerning Finnish relations with the
European Free Trade Association and the EEC. Stasi also reportedly had
a mole in the State Technological Research Centre (VTT), who passed on
the results of research into Finnish technology and inventions.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print
22.5.2000
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