Should the finns Have been tried for so called "War Cri

[MausPanzer]

Should the finns Have been tried for so called "War Crimes"

[Juha Tompuri]

All criminals shoud have been punished. Both Axis and Allied.
http://www.uta.fi/FAST/FIN/HIST/kh-ww2.html

Regards, Juha

[Kokampf]

Should the finns Have been tried for so called "War Crimes"

Certainly not! Their hands are considerably cleaner than those of Britain, for instance.

[Antti V]

I have heard that several Finnish soldier was sued for war crimes after war by Soviets in Finland, but no one was judged because Soviets were not able to carry any kind of proves about claimed war crimes to court. Just claim. That´s what I have heard, so I don´t have any knowledge about these trials, perhaps some other knows more?

[Juha Hujanen]

One case of alleged warcrime i do know.Finns captured island of Suursaari 27.3.42.Russians had 518 men on island of whom 390 did became KIA,30 POW and some 100 escaped.Finnish casualties were 172 of whom 61 were KIA.
After the war it was claimed that Russian POWs were shot during fighting.Communist infested Finnish state police questioned Lt.Col Sotisaari who did take part of fighting and police asked that he would testify that CO of invasion Generalmajor Pajari had issued an order that Russian POWs would been shot.Sotisaari refused because there was no such order.Evidently there were few isolated cases of shooting prisoners and shootings of Russians trying to surrender but nothing like mass executions.
In trial Pajari and Sotisaari were find inocent but Battalion CO Major V.K.Elovaara did take responciably of few shootings.Military high court did acquit him but supreme court did judged him to short prison sentence.Propably for political reasons.

that's only case i do know.

Cheers/Juha

[Korbius]

The finns were protecting their own country from agression, therefore it's hard to blame them for war crimes.

[witness]

What war crimes ?
Does anybody accuse Finns in committing War crimes during the winter war and WW 2 ?
I am not aware..

[Antti V]

After war Soviets did try that with little success.
I haven´t heard anything about such from this time, so I guess its just general poll.

Offtopic:
Finnish victims and their relatives did try to sue few years ago Russian partisans for their war crimes against Finnish civilians during war time. Our KRP (Crime investigation police for serious crimes) finished just investigations with this case few weeks ago, because Russians says those crimes are already aged in eyes of Russian law, so Russians are not helping Finns to investigate war crimes made by Russians. I will bet international law and moral will disagree with this.

[Tapani K.]

I have heard that several Finnish soldier was sued for war crimes after war by Soviets in Finland, but no one was judged because Soviets were not able to carry any kind of proves about claimed war crimes to court. Just claim. That´s what I have heard, so I don´t have any knowledge about these trials, perhaps some other knows more?

A book called Lista 1:n vangit by Lauri Hyvämäki is an account you should read. After the war the Finnish authorities received a list of named Finnish soldiers who, according to the Soviets, had committed war crimes. It is a long time since I read the book so I cannot remember the details, but I think none or very few of the men were actually tried because the Soviets provided (could not provide?) no details for the alleged crimes. IIRC some of the men were imprisoned in a special camp for more than two years.

Another matter is that there were some individual soldiers who were sentenced to prison for maltreatment of POWs. I think a few hundred in all.


regards,
Tapani K.

[Emerson Begolly]

What exactly did the Finns do that they should have been charged with War Crimes?

Em.

[Juha Tompuri]

February 1942 a Finnish long range ski patrol destroyed a Soviet supply depot at village Petrovskij Jam. Accidently a military hospital was one of the buildings that was destroyed. POW interrogation as part of the planning before the raid gave no info about the hospital nor there were red cross or similar signs at the building to indicate the role of it. The Finnish unit was later blamed for this war crime during their attack.

Regards, Juha