Martti Ahtisaari

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Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari (born June 23, 1937) is a former President of Finland (1994–2000) and UN-diplomat, noted for his international peace work.

1 Youth and early career
2 Diplomatic career
3 Presidency
4 After presidency
5 Trivia
6 External links

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Youth and early career

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 family roots lay in southern Norway, had taken 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, 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.

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Diplomatic career

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.

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Presidency

Ahtisaari's presidential campaign began when he was still in the council about the war in Bosnia. Recession in Finland had caused established political figures to lose public support and the presidential elections were now direct, instead of handled through the elector process. In 1993, Ahtisaari accepted the candidacy of the Social Democratic Party. His politically untarnished image was a major factor in the election. 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 attend to foreign political affairs. During his term Finland joined the European Union and 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.

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After presidency

Ahtisaari did not seek re-election in 2000 and was followed by Tarja Halonen, the first female president of Finland. He 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 a private bureau called Crisis Management Initiative (CMI). Crisis Management Initiative is an independent, non-governmental organisation with a goal in developing and sustaining peace in 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. Despite being favoured to win, he lost the price for the International Atomic Energy Agency and its head Mohamed ElBaradei.

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Trivia

In the JFK-fashion, Ahtisaari's initials spell MOKA, which is a Finnish slang word meaning "mistake". This was jocularly used by people opposed to his election as president.