Who is Martti Ahtisaari?
2008-10-10 11:49
Helsinki - Martti Ahtisaari, born June 23, 1937, was a primary school teacher who joined Finland's Foreign Ministry in 1965. He spent 20 years abroad, first as ambassador to Tanzania and then to the United Nations in New York.
He was UN undersecretary of state for administration and management from 1987-1991, heading the UN operation which brought independence to Namibia in 1990.
In 2007, Ahtisaari's office - Crisis Management Initiative - initiated secret meetings in Finland between Iraqi Sunni and Shi'ite groups to agree on a roadmap to peace.
The talks, based on peacemaking efforts in South Africa and Northern Ireland, included 16 delegates from the feuding groups. They "agreed to consult further" on a list of recommendations to begin reconciliation talks, including resolving political disputes through non-violence and democracy.
In August 2005, Ahtisaari helped end 30 years of fighting between Aceh rebels and the Indonesian government with peace talks in Finland, which he initiated and mediated with CMI. A peace agreement, signed in Helsinki, followed seven months of negotiations between the two parties which he initiated and mediated.
Ahtisaari was also chairperson of the Bosnia-Herzegovina working group in the international peace conference on former Yugoslavia from 1992-1993, and was special adviser to the UN secretary-general on former Yugoslavia in 1993.
Ahtisaari's negotiating ability and international judgment were demonstrated by his tenacious stand that he would not go to Belgrade unless Nato, the EU and Russia could agree on a Kosovo peace plan that also was palatable to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. After his meeting with Milosevic, Ahtisaari reported that the Yugoslav president had accepted the terms thus opening up a peace deal.
Ahtisaari worked as a secretary of state in the Finnish Foreign Ministry from 1991 to 1994 when he was elected president for a six-year term. Having lived abroad for so long, he came into the race as a political outsider and was seen to bring a breath of fresh air to Finnish politics. Ahtisaari is a keen supporter of the European Union which Finland joined in 1995.
Comfortable in international circles
When Finland held the six-month rotating EU presidency in 1999, he said one of its main tasks was to improve ties between the EU, Russia and the United States.
As president, Ahtisaari travelled abroad and in Finland more widely than any of his predecessors. In Finland, he often appeared impatient and vexed by media criticism and he is clearly much more comfortable in international circles.
He declined to run for a second term in the January 2000 presidential election saying he wanted to devote the time he would otherwise have used for campaigning to running the EU presidency.
After being president he was offered several international positions, including in the UNHCR, but decided instead to open his own office in Helsinki which has centred on international crises.
Earlier this month, he was awarded the Unesco Peace Prize for "his lifetime contribution to world peace". The president of the prize jury, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, said the achievements of CMI "were also highly noted in the declaration of the prize".
The $167 000 - known as the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize after the former Ivory Coast president, was established in 1989 by the UN agency. It is awarded to "honour living individuals and active public or private bodies or institutions that have made a significant contribution to promoting, seeking, safeguarding or maintaining peace in conformity with the charter of the United Nations and the Constitution of Unesco".
Previous recipients of the UN prize include former US President Jimmy Carter and former South African presidents Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk.
Ahtisaari is married, with one adult son.
- AP