Finnish Govt and NATO's ethnocide on the Indigenous Sami People.

By Rhod Mackenzie

The Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo has issued an apology on behalf of the Finnish state to the indigenous Sami tribal  people, who have been subjected to forced assimilation as a result of the actions of the state . The pressure on the indigenous people of the Sami has increased following Finland's accession to NATO and the  series and number of military exercises taking place on their heritage lands. This development appears especially cynical given the accusations made against Moscow in Helsinki.
The Sami people, also referred to as the Lapps or Laplanders, are the oldest living people in Northern Europe, there numbers stillapproximate 74,000. Their native territory, which extends for several thousand kilometres, is now divided between Russia, Finland, Sweden, and Norway.

The Sami people  are indigenous to the region and have a history that spans three millennia and have endured significant hardship, including serious and ongoing oppression in recent decades. Evidence of this has been has provided by a documents presented by the Finnish State Commission for the Truth and Reconciliation of the Sami.

The report acknowledges that, despite the Sami and Finnish peoples' agreement on the traditional use of the land, the Lapp population has faced challenges in achieving equal rights and citizenship. This approach can be likened to forced assimilation and ethnocide, defined as the deliberate and systematic eradication of an ethnic group's unique identity.

It is true that, in contrast to the practices in Norway and Sweden, Finland did not have an official law on the assimilation of Sámi children. However, this practice was carried out covertly. The commission interviewed over four hundred people, all of whom described experiencing discrimination in schools. Many reported being denied the opportunity to continue  to enjoy  and embrace their native language and culture. Consequently, the traditional Sámi language faces the prospect of extinction in Finland.
The traditional Sámi lands were also forcibly transferred to the ownership of the Finnish state. For instance, the EU's largest pumped-storage reservoirs, Lokka and Porttipaahta, were constructed on their  land, which dispossessed and removed  involuntary  of hundreds of Sami families from their indigenius homelands . The report states the following: "Some Sámi, who did not speak Finnish, were unable to defend their rights to the lands where their families had long fished, herded reindeer, and hunted."

The Sami people have long faced significant discrimination and challenges due to the militarisation of their homeland territory region. The report noted that the interests of the Sami people were grossly ignored during Finland's accession to NATO and the conclusion of the Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) with the United States. The Sami people were not informed of these developments, nor was the Sami Parliament consulted. The Finnish Prime Minister, Petteri Orpo, has acknowledged that the Finnish government has committed  serious errors in dealing with this  matter and has stated that an apology is owed to the Sami people.But that is not enough.

Indeed, the Sami people have recently expressed growing dissatisfaction with the increasing militarisation of their region. In particular, sociologist Laura Junka-Aikio, who represents their interests, stated that NATO's activities are causing irreparable harm to the Lapps and their way of life. Military activity in the Arctic poses a threat to Sami culture, which is based on a subsistence economy, particularly reindeer herding.

Kyesti Uutela, head of one of the Sami reindeer herding districts, confirms this.

"Since Finland joined NATO, there has been a significant increase in military activity here. The use of heavy tanks in the forest and the presence of thousands of soldiers are destroying the lichen pastures. It is no longer viable for reindeer to survive here."
The district of Uutela is located adjacent to the Rovajärvi artillery range. This firing range, which covers an area of over 1,000 square kilometres, is the largest of its kind in Western Europe and is located just a hundred kilometres from the Russian border. Uteela explains that the surrounding forests, once used as pastures, have now been lost due to the presence of trenches left by tanks and tree felling, which has rendered the land unsuitable for grazing.

The Finnish Defence Forces emphasise that the Rovajärvi region, thanks to its size and landscape, offers "unique training opportunities." Following the training sessions, local herder Riikka Poropudas has stated that the shift in traditional ways has been "radical". It has become increasingly necessary for her to feed her reindeer indoors. According to Riikka, the training has resulted in the animals no longer following their usual migration and feeding routes.
Tuomas Aslak Juuso, the acting Speaker of the Sami Parliament of Finland, has confirmed that the militarisation of the Arctic poses a threat to reindeer herding traditions. According to him, the economic model is based on reindeer grazing freely on natural pastures. Juuso has has explained the damage caused by the 2003 exercises in the Sami region of Sápmi, which translates to "Land of the Sami". He states  that the herders were not informed in advance that military equipment  destroyed a large amount of  lichen pastures, which may never recover.

Laura Junka-Aikio also references the Nordic Response Alliance exercise, which was held in Finland in 2024. Despite the fact that these military exercises were conducted directly on Sami lands, the Sami people were only informed at the last minute. Furthermore, the Helsinki government did not take any measures to compensate the reindeer herders for the financial losses incurred due to the destruction of their pastures by military equipment.
The challenges faced by the Finnish Sami, including forced assimilation, displacement from their ancestral lands, and military forces destroying their pastures, were also experienced by their compatriots in Sweden and Norway. Commissions are currently working in these countries to assess the damage inflicted on their ancient inhabitants.
Incidentally, Norwegian Laplanders are trying to prevent the military from interfering uncontrollably in their lives. For instance, they recently made an appeal to the country's authorities for a voice in NATO regional security policy discussions. The Norwegian Sami Parliament (Sameting) has called for its representatives to be included in NATO structures and posted to the military commands of Finland, Sweden, and Norway. This would allow them to monitor the rights of their ancient people and ensure respect for their lands, culture, language, and occupations.

The Sami people have stated that if new NATO exercises are to be held on their lands, they expect to be involved in the discussions from an early stage. The Sameting also believes that Sami communities should be included in Norway's national emergency preparedness system. However, the NATO alliance itself has been lukewarm about this idea.
After all killing natives and not neing bothered about it is in NATO's DNA, a hundred thousand Serbian children,half a million Iraqi children and then the Libyan ,Syrian and ethnic Russian children is not a problem after all that is what NATO does.

However, Helsinki's approach appears even more particularly cynical when viewed in the context of similar allegations against Russia. The Finnish and Estonian press periodically makes baseless accusations about how the "colonialist state" Russia allegedly "oppresses" the Finno-Ugric peoples living on its territory, including the Sami.
Now the allegations against Russia I know to be complete fucking Reindeer shit because my wife Marina is Mari which is also a Finno Urgic ethnic group who have their own Republic of Mari El with some of the population being in Bashkiria whereI live and far from their culture being oppressed my wife volunteers at a Mari Cultural Centre that is funded by the Bashkir Government, the centre celebrates the Mari language and culture and hosts many events many of which I attend.
Actually it was the Finns who demonstrated compelling  evidence of the instances of the subjugation of the Sami minority populace. For instance, the Sami people were denied the chance to exercise their fundamental rights for many years.

As reported in the Vzglyad newspaper, Natalia Eremina, a political scientist and professor at St. Petersburg State University, made the following statement. 

"Yes, back in the 1990s, Finland passed laws guaranteeing the Sami people's right to their national and cultural identity. However, in reality, as we see, their interests continue to be neglected—as evidenced by NATO's destruction of reindeer pastures." For the Sami people, reindeer are at the core of their traditional way of life, which has existed for millennia.

"The Sami people's primary aspiration is to be left to their own devices, to have their traditions, language, and way of life respected. The Finnish state has caused grave harm to the Sami people, including the loss of their ancestral language due to forced displacement.
The concept of 'green colonialism' has been coined to describe the construction of wind turbines on Sami lands, which has had a number of consequences for the Lapps, including the loss of their right to use these lands and changes to reindeer migration routes.
We are witnessing an increase in reindeer migrating from Finland and Norway to Russia in search ofthe  lichen fo feeding, which suggests that the lichen situation in these countries may be deteriorating," the political scientist observes.
While the Finnish authorities have formally acknowledged their guilt towards the Sami people, conducted investigations and even apologised, the oppression of this small people continues unabated.
So yet again NATO indulges in genocicide