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DEVELOPMENT: Overdue Award Goes to the Right Man

Milla Sundström

HELSINKI, Oct 10 2008 (IPS) - The Finns had almost waited for the Nobel Peace Prize for Martti Ahtisaari too long. It finally came as a happy surprise, amidst speculation it would go this year to Asia.

Ahtisaari, who was president of Finland 1994-2000 and has been a tireless campaigner for world peace, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo Friday “for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts.”

In his first comment on the prize to Norwegian Radio, Ahtisaari, who is a member of the board of trustees of IPS, said he is happy and grateful. Ahtisaari said he hopes the Peace Prize will help the work of the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), an organisation he founded eight years ago and still chairs through his long working days.

“I really hope that now that I have received the prize it will help the funding of the organisation that I chair,” he said. The funding, he said, is mostly needed for quick reactions in varying situations that emerge suddenly.

Few doubt that Ahtisaari has long deserved the award.

“Ahtisaari certainly is the right man for the prize,” Finnish journalist Katri Merikallio, author of the book ‘Making Peace – Ahtisaari and Aceh’, told IPS.

“His commitment to peace not only in Namibia, Indonesian Aceh and Kosovo but also in many other places is remarkable. He has been working for peace for decades, full time and relentlessly,” said Merikallio, an award-winning reporter for the weekly news magazine Suomen Kuvalehti.

In Aceh, she said, Ahtisaari was able to bring two sides who had fought a bitter war for 30 years round a table, to talk to each other face to face.

“No one else had been able to do that. And within eight months the two sides signed the peace agreement in Helsinki in August 2005. Hardly anyone believed that could have happened.”

Merikallio has visited Aceh since, and she says she has seen that peace prevails, reconstruction is taking place and elections are coming up.

“And Ahtisaari has committed himself to being the godfather of peace in Aceh. He visited Aceh again in May 2008 to make sure the agreement was being respected by both sides.”

Between November 2005 and late February 2008, Ahtisaari acted as special envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for process to determine the status of Kosovo.

In the case of Kosovo, Merikallio said, it was clear from the beginning that the two sides would not be able to find common ground. “Yet, Ahtisaari made a plan where the rights of the Serb minority is the cornerstone, and where Serbian religious, cultural, political and linguistic rights are highly protected.

“Ahtisaari’s plan is being implemented today, and the situation in Kosovo is quite calm,” said Merikallio, who has been following the events also in Kosovo.

Besides the work on Namibia, Aceh and Kosovo, Ahtisaari’s post-presidential campaigns have included inspection of the Irish Republican Army’s arms dumps along with South African trade union leader Cyril Ramaphosa (2000), a report on the human rights and political situation in Austria as a member of a group of ‘three wise men’ (along with former Spanish foreign minister Marcelino Oreja and leading German lawyer Jochen Frowein), chairing an independent panel on the security and safety of UN personnel in Iraq (2003), appointments as personal envoy for Central Asia of the Chairman in Office (CiO) of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE, a pan-European security organisation) (2003-2004), and UN special envoy for the Horn of Africa (2003-2005).

Ahtisaari is a member of the Independent Commission on Turkey that examines the challenges and opportunities presented by Turkey’s possible membership of the European Union. Last year he became a member of an independent Consultative Group on the Past seeking consensus in Northern Ireland. Ahtisaari also is active in numerous non-governmental and non-profit organisations.

Before joining the United Nations, Ahtisaari was Finnish ambassador to Tanzania (1973-1976), also accredited to Zambia, Somalia and Mozambique (1975-1976). He served as member of the Senate of the United Nations Institute for Namibia between 1975-1976 and then as United Nations Commissioner for Namibia between 1977-1981. He was appointed Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Namibia in July 1978, and led the UN operation (UNTAG) in Namibia (1989-1990).

Ahitsaari has served as Governor for Finland with the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, as well as with the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

The list of Ahitsaari’s appointments and achievements is a long and often distinguished one. It is a matter of little surprise that Finns have long thought this prize due.

Ahitsaari was born on 23 June 1937, is married and has a son.