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On 17 May, the Loviisa District Court sentenced total objector Aleksi Riikonen to 197 days in prison, for refusing to perform substitute service. He had declared his refusal of substitute service in August 2003. Presently, substitute service for conscientious objectors lasts 395 days, more than twice the length of military service (180 days). Because of international pressure, the Finnish Ministry of Labour is presently preparing a new law on substitute service, which would shorten the service to 330 days, still much longer than the military service. In addition, according to the present legislation members of the religious community of Jehovah's Witnesses are exempted from military service, while pacifist COs have to perfrom substitute service. Aleksi Riikonen declared in his trial: "I am not a pacifist myself, but I think it is intolerable that the Finnish conscription system grants this kind of privilege because of membership in a certain religious group".
War Resisters' International calls for letters of protest to Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, or Finnish embassies abroad. A protest email can be sent at http://www.wri-irg.org/co/alerts/20050523b.html . A list of Finnish embassies can be found at http://formin.finland.fi/doc/eng/missions/embcount.html .
Andreas Speck
War Resisters' International