Finland’s Martti Ahtisaari Wins Nobel Peace Prize 2008 (Photos)
Posted on October 10, 2008
Former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari awarded Nobel Peace Prize, who has been known for decades for his peace efforts and diplomacy from Asia to Africa and Europe. Read more below.
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Martti Ahtisaari was chosen out of 197 people nominated for the yearly Nobel Peace Prize. The committee said Ahtisaari had been chosen “for his important efforts in several continents and over three decades to resolve international conflicts.”
Martti Ahtisaari, 71, may seem to some as an aloof person. But people who worked with Ahtisaari praised his “charm and humor” in dealing with his partners.
He has played a major role in ending conflicts that took root in the late 20th century and threatened the early 21st century with conflagrations in many places, presenting mediators with tangles of ethnic, religious or racial passions.
The Nobel Peace Prize committee mentioned his work in South Africa in particular. He was instrumental in ending the South African domination of Namibia, the former South-West Africa, from the 1970s to the late 1990s , and peace efforts in the Indonesian province of Aceh, Kosovo, Northern Ireland, Central Asia, the Horn of Africa and, most recently, in Iraq.
Martti Ahtisaari has been considered for the Nobel Peace Prize for many years, whose recipients last year included former American Vice President Al Goreand the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a United Nations body.
In his television interview when it was announced he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Ahtisaari said that he might slow the pace of his travels, which, he said, had kept him away from Finland for 200 days a year. “I want to spend more time with my wife,” he said.
The committee’s citation said: “Throughout all his adult life, whether as a senior Finnish public servant and president or in an international capacity, often connected to the United Nations, Ahtisaari has worked for peace and reconciliation.”
“Although the parties themselves have the main responsibility for avoiding war and conflict, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has on several occasions awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to mediators in international politics,” the citation said.
“Today Ahtisaari is an outstanding international mediator. Through his untiring efforts and good results, he has shown what role mediation of various kinds can play in the resolution of international conflicts.”
In an initial response, Mr. Ahtisaari said he was “very pleased and grateful” at receiving the prize, which is worth $1.4 million. It will be awarded to him at a ceremony in Oslo on December 10.
In the speech, he ascribed his interest in peace to his own childhood experiences.
“The origins of my career as a peace mediator can be found from my childhood years. I was born in the city of Viipuri, then still part of Finland. We lost Viipuri when the Soviet Union attacked my country. Along with 400,000 fellow Karelians I became an eternally displaced person in the rest of Finland,” he said.
“With my mother I moved from one household to another before settling in the astern part of Finland, in the city of Kuopio. This experience, which millions of people around the world have gone through, provided me with sensitivity, which explains my desire to advance peace and thus help others who have gone through similar experiences as I did,” he said.
In August 2005, Mr. Ahtisaari mediated between Aceh rebels and the Indonesian government to help end three decades of conflict. The Nobel announcement sparked an enthusiastic response from some of his erstwhile negotiating partners.
“This is wonderful news. He succeeded in bringing an end to 30 years of violence and conflict here in Aceh,” said Muhammad Nazar, the acting governor of Aceh and a former rebel leader. “He successfully mediated a peace agreement. He has helped give new life and new hope to the people of Aceh.”
Finnish journalist Katri Merikallio, author of the recent book “Making Peace: Ahtisaari and Aceh,” attributed Mr. Ahtisaari’s success at the bargaining table to charm and bluster. “He is very gentle and warm-hearted,” she said in an interview, “but at the same time he can be quite harsh in a negotiating situation.”
“Aceh was his great triumph as a mediator but I think Namibia is closest to his heart,” said Ms. Merikallio. “He himself says that he is part African.”
Congrats to Martti Ahtisaar on winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Images: PR
Source: news
2 comments
WHAT ABOUT MY NEIGHBOURS?
I regret that Esperanto did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize, because it is a much neglected topic. At least nine British MP’s nominated the language, for the Prize.
Solid arguments for Esperanto can be seen on the Youtube video, by Professor Piron, a former translator at the United Nations.
If you have time please check http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LV9XU