Finnish Security Police will not release Stasi list of Finns

Hannu Moilanen, deputy director of the Security Police of Finland (SUPO), announced last week that SUPO will not release the so-called “Tiitinen’s List”, comprising Finns believed to have had contacts with the East German espionage agency Stasi, daily Helsingin Sanomat reports. Moilanen told Helsingin Sanomat that the issue will not be discussed further, as the decision to keep the list confidential was made a long time ago.
AIA already reported that the list, named after former SUPO director Seppo Tiitinen, is believed to contain the names of 18 people in Finland who are thought to have awakened the interest of Stasi operatives. The names were supplied by the West German intelligence service in 1990.
There have been a number of calls to make the list public. Seppo Tiitinen himself, as well as former President Mauno Koivisto and the chairs of Finnish Parliamentary party groups, have added their voices to those urging the release of the information, according to the paper. Speculation and colourful conspiracies theories have been rife over the identities of those on the list, but it is not thought that it contains significant political figures. In any event, these are not people who appear in the so-called Rosenholz files, which list individuals whom Stasi had recruited or were grooming as sources. Hence the value of the Tiitinen list is questionable at best.
Moilanen says that no change has taken place in the original conditions that led to keeping the lists confidential. Protection of privacy and the conditions set by the international community continue to be the reasons for keeping the documents a secret. By the “conditions set by the international community”, Moilanen refers to the fact that international intelligence services exchange information on the condition that the information is not passed on.
Finnish President Tarja Halonen does not want to take a stand on the issue of releasing the Stasi list, as the Security Police is not the President’s police force”, and non-interference by the President is “a principle of the rule of law”, the paper writes.