70th Anniversary of the End of the Winter War

President Tarja Halonen opened a Winter War seminar at Helsinki's old Diet of Estates with an address in which she told her audience that the Finns should not forget what massive suffering the war meant for the nation.

She noted that the shadow of the conflict also fell over many who did not take part in battle. She expressed a sense of satisfaction that those who were displaced as children during the war and war orphans have of late been able to more fully make their stories known.

"In one way or another, war affects the identities of even those who have not directly experienced it. The message has been passed from one generation to the next," she said.

The event in Helsinki was also addressed by Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen. Former President Mauno Koivisto was in attendance.

During the afternoon, President Halonen hosted a reception at the Presidential Palace, for Finnish war veterans, as well as Swedish and Estonian volunteers who fought on Finland's side in the 1939-1940 conflict.

The Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union began on the 30th of November 1939 and ended with the signing of a peace treaty on March 13th, 1940.

Reevaluation of WWII war responsibility trials?

Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen says that there is no need to rehabilitate the reputations of Finnish leaders convicted of war crimes following WWII, because in the eyes of the Finns, they never lost their honour.

Under the terms of the armistice that ended the conflict, Finland was obliged to arrest and pass judgement on those accused of war crimes. Following the passage of retroactive legislation, eight Finnish leaders, including wartime President Risto Ryti were tried by a Finnish court and convicted of responsibility for Finland's part in the war and received prison sentences ranging from 2 - 10 years.

The process and the decisions have long been considered by both experts and the general public as unjust and a violation of the nation's sovereignty.

A study filed Friday with the Justice Ministry on the trials noted that vacating the decisions handed down by the court in 1946 would be difficult because the trials did not follow Western judicial principles. The report suggested that an alternative to formally striking down the convictions would be a public statement by the President or Prime Minister recognising the injustice of the trials.

President Tarja Halonen has described the trials as a political decision of their time. She welcomed the study, but said she wants to examine it in depth before taking a more defined stance.