Martti Ahtisaari 1937-2023 | Finnish envoy to Tanzania who rose to the Presidency  

Martti Ahtisaari 1937-2023

Martti Ahtisaari, the 10th President of Finland and recipient of the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize, died in Helsinki at the age of 86.

The former Ambassador of Finland to the United Republic of Tanzania, 1973-76, served as the Finnish head of state from 1994 to 2000.

He was renowned not only for his domestic leadership but also for his tireless commitment to global peace and diplomacy, according to the Helsinki Times.

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Who is Martti Ahtisaaari?

Mr. Ahtisaan was elected President of the Republic of Finland in February 1994 He held office from the 1st of March 1994 to the 29th of February 2000. Soon after leaving office. Mr. Antisaari founded the Crisis Management Initiative (CM) On 1 May 2021.

CMI transferred all its operations to the new legal structure CMI-Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation, which continues the work of CMI association.

In 2005, Ahtisaan and CMI facilitated the peace process between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Ach Movement Between 14 November 2005 and 29 February 2008.

Ahtisaar was Special Envoy to the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the future status process for Kosova, Martti Ahtisaari was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008

Martti Ahtisaan was for much of his career a civil servant in the Finnish Foreign Ministry and the United Nations various posts in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, 1965-1973

Ambassador of Finland to the United Republic of Tanzania, 1973-1976,

Accredited to Zambia, Somalia and Mozambique, 1975-1976 Member of the Senate of the UN Institute for Namibia, 1975-1976

-United Nations Commissioner for Namibia, 1977-1981

-Special Representative of the Secretary General for Namibia, 1978-1988

-Undersecretary of State in charge of International Development leading the UN operation (UNTAG) in Namibia, 1989-1990

-State Secretary in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, 1991-1993 Chairman of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Working Group of the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia, 1992-1993, and Special Adviser to the International Conference on the former Yugoslavia and to the Secretary General’s Special Representative for former Yugoslavia in 1993 President of the Republic of Finland, 1994-2000

Upon leaving office in 2000, Ahtisaari has served in a variety of key international roles, including facilitating the peace process between the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement, chairing an independent panel on the security and safety of UN personnel in Iraq, and appointments as UN Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa and as Personal Envoy of the OSCE CIO for Central Asia.

Between 2005 and 2008, Ahtisaari was Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the United Nations for the future status process.

President Ahtisaari has been active in numerous non-governmental capacities. He has Chaired or Co-Chaired International Crisis Group. East-West Institute. Inter-peace, European Council on Foreign Relations, Independent Commission on Turkey and CML.

Martti Ahtisaari is married to Eeva Ahtisaari. They have a son.

A biography of Martti Ahtisaari by Katri Merikallio and Tapani Ruokanen was published in Finnish in 2011 under the title Matkalla, and in English in 2015 as The Mediator by Hurst Publishers.

The 10th Finish President Ahtisaari received numerous awards and decorations:

  • Hononary Citizen of Namibia, 1992
  • Franklin D Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award, 2000 The Hessen Peace Prize, 2000
  • The J William Fulbright Award for International Understanding, 2000 Honorary Officer in the Order of Australia, 2002 er of the Companions of Oliver Tambo (Supreme Companion) of South Africa, 2004 Tribute of Appreciation by the Department of the State of the USA, 2005
  • The Gold Medal from the American-Scandinavian Foundation, 2006
  • Manfred Wömer Medal of the German Ministry of Defense, 2007
  • UNESCO Félix Houphouet-Boigny Peace Prize, 2008
  • Nobel Peace Prize, 2008

 

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