Ahtisaari hailed as a relentless 'world champion' for peace

Finland's ex-president Martti Ahtisaari received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to build a lasting peace from Africa and Asia to Europe and the Middle East.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it honoured Ahtisaari, 71, for important efforts over more than three decades to resolve international conflicts.

"These efforts have contributed to a more peaceful world and to 'fraternity between nations' in Alfred Nobel's spirit," the committee said in announcing the prize.

"He is a world champion when it comes to peace and he never gives up," said Ole Danbolt Mjoes, the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel awards committee.

Ahtisaari told AP Television News that while winning the prize would help his future mediation work, he is looking to other challenges, too, particularly youth unemployment worldwide.

But he also conceded that the decades of work have taken a toll.

"I have to start realizing that I am 71" and maybe it's time to stop "traveling 200 days a year outside Finland."

Working to solve long-lasting conflicts

Ahtisaari had been listed as a possible Nobel Peace Prize candidate since 2005. In August that year he negotiated an end to a conflict in Indonesia that began more than 140 years ago, bringing together the Indonesian government and the leaders of the separatist guerrilla movement in Aceh. He initiated and mediated peace talks in Finland, and a peace agreement was signed in Helsinki.

"Through his untiring efforts and good results, he has shown what role mediation of various kinds can play in the resolution of international conflicts," the committee said in announcing the 10 million kronor (US$1.4 million) prize.

"For the past 20 years, he has figured prominently in endeavours to resolve several serious and long-lasting conflicts," the citation said, mentioning his work in conflicts from Namibia to Aceh, Indonesia, Kosovo and Iraq.

Speaking to NRK Norwegian TV, Ahtisaari said he "was very pleased and grateful" to receive the prize.

Asked what work he considered the most important, Ahtisaari, the first Finn to win the prize, said that "of course Namibia is absolutely the most important because it took such a long time."

Ahtisaari was a senior Finnish diplomat when in 1977 he was named the U.N. envoy for Namibia, where guerrillas were battling South African apartheid rule. He later rose to undersecretary-general, and in 1988 was dispatched to Namibia to lead 8,000 U.N. peacekeepers during its transition to independence.

Decades of diplomacy

Ahtisaari has had a broad career in politics and peacemaking. 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.

In 1994, Ahtisaari accepted the presidential candidacy of Finland's Social Democratic Party and won the election. He did not seek re-election in 2000 and has since worked on international peace efforts.

In 2007, Ahtisaari's office — Crisis Management Initiative — started secret meetings in Finland between Iraqi Sunni and Shiite groups to agree on a road map to peace. Those talks, based on the format of peacemaking efforts in South Africa and Northern Ireland, included 16 delegates from the feuding groups. They "agreed to consult further" and begin reconciliation talks.

Damien Kingsbury, an Australian academic who was part of the Acehnese delegation during the Indonesia peace talks said Ahtisaari started off "from a very naive position. He was, by definition, pro-Indonesia, supporting the integrity of the state and dismissing Aceh's insistence on independence."

The Acehnese vehemently criticized Ahtisaari's position. But Kingsbury, in a telephone interview from Australia, said he "helped broker an agreement between the two parties that has proven to be sustainable."

Ahtisaari was chairman of the Bosnia-Herzegovina working group in the international peace conference on former Yugoslavia from 1992 to 1993, and was special adviser to the U.N. secretary-general on former Yugoslavia in 1993.

'There are always many possibilities. I really hope now that I receive the prize that it makes it easier to finance the organizations that I chair.' —Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari

Serbia bitterly rejected his attempts to forge a compromise settlement on Kosovo, which declared independence in February, but his blueprint forms the essence of Kosovo's constitution.

Ahtisaari's plan also laid down the guidelines for the deployment of a European Union police force in Kosovo and other key aspects of the way today's Kosovo is run day to day.

Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci hailed the Nobel selection as "the right decision for the right man."

"We proclaimed independence of Kosovo in accordance with the document of President Ahtisaari and Kosovo appreciates very much" that he won, Thaci told the AP.

For his part, Ahtisaari said he hoped the prize would make it easier to attract financing for his future peace work.

"There are always many possibilities. I really hope now that I receive the prize that it makes it easier to finance the organizations that I chair," he said. "It's very important to be able to act properly, you need financing and you never have enough."