Martti Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland and global peace broker awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 for his work to resolve international conflicts, died Monday. He was 86. The foundation he created for preventing and resolving violent conflicts said he died on Monday.
Its statement said the foundation was “deeply saddened by the loss of its founder and chair of the board.” In 2021, it was announced that Ahtisaari had advanced Alzheimer’s disease.
"CMI's founder, President Martti Ahtisaari has died. He was 86 years old when he died. Ahtisaari will be missed by his wife Eeva and son Marko, his friends and colleagues around the world and all current and former employees of CMI," Martti Ahtisaari Peace Foundation said in a social media post.
Who was Martti Ahtisaari?
Among his most notable achievements, Ahtisaari helped reach peace accords related to Serbia’s withdrawal from Kosovo in the late 1990s, Namibia’s bid for independence in the 1980s, and autonomy for Aceh province in Indonesia in 2005. He was also involved with the Northern Ireland peace process in the late 1990s, being tasked with monitoring the terrorist group IRA’s disarmament process.
When the Norwegian Nobel Peace Committee picked Ahtisaari in October 2008, it cited him “for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts.”
Ahtisaari had warned Obama about Israel-Hamas conflict in 2008
Also, according to a 2008 article published by AP, Ahtisaari urged the then US President-elect Barack Obama to start his term by giving "high priority" to the Mideast conflict, calling it the world's most challenging peace-building project.
The Finnish diplomat and mediator also warned that the global financial crisis would strike hard at the developing world, and he called on governments to not cut back on foreign aid.
Ahtisaari who was the Nordic country’s president for one six-year term — 1994 until 2000 — later founded the Helsinki-based Crisis Management Initiative, aimed at preventing and resolving violent conflicts through informal dialogue and mediation.
(With inputs from agency)
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