The Finnish embassy in Kenya has stepped up security after recently receiving three threatening e-mail messages, officials said Wednesday. "We are investigating the situation," Erkki Vaatainen, head of security at the Finnish Foreign Ministry, told Deutsche Presse- Agentur dpa. Vaatainen declined to comment on the nature of the threats but said they were "general" and it was "better to be careful" so staff had been advised to be on the alert.
Earlier, Finnish Ambassador to Kenya, Heli Sirve, told Finnish media the messages were sent over the weekend and were being investigated by Kenyan police. The threats were apparently not related to the current unrest in Kenya but rather to Ethiopia, public broadcaster YLE reported. Sirve said according to Finnish news agency STT that the messages warned of an attack from Ethiopia and were signed by persons using Somali names. Finland had passed on information about the threat to other embassies, Vaatainen said.
Meanwhile, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, currently visiting India, told YLE that he was not aware that Helsinki was engaged in any controversial policy in the region.
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