Martti Ahtisaari
Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari (
IPA: ) (born
June 23,
1937) is a former
President of Finland (
1994–
2000) and a
UN diplomat and mediator, noted for his international peace work.
Martti Ahtisaari was born in
Viipuri (now
Vyborg,
Russia) while his father, Oiva, was a non-commissioned officer in the service corps.
Oiva Ahtisaari, whose grandfather had emigrated to Finland from southern
Norway, took Finnish citizenship in
1929, changing his surname from Adolfsen in
1935. The
Continuation War took Martti's father to the front as a military mechanic, while his mother, Tyyne, moved to
Kuopio with her son to escape immediate danger from the war. Kuopio was where Ahtisaari spent most of his childhood and first attended school. In
1952, Oiva moved to
Oulu with his family for employment reasons. In Oulu, Martti joined the local
YMCA. After he had done his military service, he began to study through a distance-learning course at the teachers' college in Oulu. There he was able to live at home while attending the two-year course which enabled him to qualify as a primary-school teacher in
1959.
In
1960, he moved to
Karachi,
Pakistan, to lead the YMCA's physical education training establishment, where he was accustomed to a more international environment. As well as the managing of the students' home, the job involved training teachers, which in itself suited him well. He returned to Finland in
1963 and went to
Helsinki Polytechnic but also was active in the organizations responsible for aid to developing countries. In
1965, he joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of
Finland in its Bureau for International Development Aid, eventually becoming the assistant head of the department.
In
1973, President
Urho Kekkonen appointed Ahtisaari as Finnish ambassador to
Tanzania, also being accredited in
Zambia,
Somalia and
Mozambique. During his term (
1973-
1977) he formed contacts with
SWAPO in
Dar Es Salaam. He was appointed as
United Nations Commissioner for
Namibia, with African support, in 1977, and served until
1981. He was also appointed Special Representative of the Secretary General for Namibia in
1978 and he and his family moved to
New York.
Martti Ahtisaari was also Under Secretary-General of the United Nations for Administration and Management - first with
Kurt Waldheim and then with
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar - from
1987 to
1991. He remained the special representative of the secretary-general for Namibia, studied possibilities for the eventual independence of Namibia and maintained contact between the UN, SWAPO and the
OAU.
In March
1989, Ahtisaari was sent to
Namibia to lead 8,000 UN peacekeepers and civilian aides of UN's Transition Assistance Group. When SWAPO troops barged in, Ahtisaari had to deputize
South African troops to stabilize the situation in the name of UN. He still managed to direct the country towards its first free elections in November. He remains an honorary Namibian citizen.
Ahtisaari returned to the UN but in
1991 he was selected for the position of secretary of state in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. He also directed the UN approach to
Iraq in the aftermath of the
Persian Gulf War but his moderate stance is believed to have cost him
US support in the election for UN secretary-general.
Ahtisaari's presidential campaign began when he was still a member of the council dealing with
Bosnia.
Recession in Finland had caused established political figures to lose public support, and the presidential elections were now direct, instead of being conducted through an
electoral college. In
1993, Ahtisaari accepted the candidacy of the
Social Democratic Party. His politically untarnished image was a major factor in the election, as was his vision of Finland as an active participant in international affairs. Ahtisaari narrowly won over his opponent,
Elisabeth Rehn of the
Swedish People's Party.
Ahtisaari began his term with a schism with the
Centre Party-led government, because Prime Minister
Esko Aho did not approve of his wish to actively participate in foreign political affairs. There was also some controversy over Ahtisaari's speaking out on issues such as unemployment. President Ahtisaari also supported Finland's entry into the
European Union, and in a referendum in 1994, 56% of the Finnish voters were in favour of EU membership. During Ahtisaari's term as President,
Boris Yeltsin and
Bill Clinton met in
Helsinki. He traveled extensively over the country and abroad, and got the nickname "Matka-Mara" (
"Travel-Mara"). He also negotiated alongside
Viktor Chernomyrdin with
Slobodan Milošević to end the
fighting in the
Yugoslav province of
Kosovo in
1999.
Often encountering resistance from Parliament, which preferred a more cautious foreign policy, as well as from his party, Ahtisaari did not seek re-election in 2000 and was followed by
Tarja Halonen, the first female President of
Finland.
Since leaving office, Ahtisaari has accepted positions in various international organizations. In 2000, the
British government appointed him to the team overseeing the inspections of
IRA weapons decomissioning in
Northern Ireland. Ahtisaari has also founded
Crisis Management Initiative (CMI). Crisis Management Initiative is an independent, non-governmental organization with a goal in developing and sustaining peace in troubled areas.
On December 1, 2000, Ahtisaari was awarded the
J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding by the Fulbright Association in recognition of his work as peacemaker in some of the world's most troubled areas.
In 2005 Ahtisaari successfully lead peace negotiations between the
Free Aceh Movement or
GAM and the
Indonesian government through his non-governmental organization CMI. The negotiations ended on August 15th with a treaty on withdrawal of the armed Indonesian forces and dropped GAM demands for an independent
Aceh.
For the Aceh treaty and his earlier diplomatic work, most notably in Namibia and Kosovo, Ahtisaari was nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.
In November 2005, President Ahtisaari was appointed by the United Nations as the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General, to lead the talks for the determination of the final status of
Kosovo.
In the JFK-fashion, Ahtisaari's initials spell MOKA, which is a Finnish
slang word meaning "screw-up". This was jocularly used by people opposed to his election as president.
When a guest of honor at the Lord Mayors Dinner in
London the organizers felt compelled to circulate a memorandum fore-warning attendees that Martti Ahtisaari is obese, and limps, so that his entry to the hall would not cause titters of laughter.
Martti's son
Marko Ahtisaari is a noted musician and technology producer in Finland.
* Ahtisaari and CMI homepage at http://www.ahtisaari.fi
*
Martti Ahtisaari's Project Syndicate op/eds
