Ex-Finnish president wins Nobel Peace Prize

A wide and varied career
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.

"He managed to get 36 senior Iraqis to Helsinki in April 2008, and is now working on a next meeting in Baghdad," Mjoes said of the efforts.

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."

Blueprint for Kosovo
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.

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.

Vojislav Kostunica — who led Serbia's government as prime minister during the Kosovo talks — saw the award as political and a sign of further pressure on Serbia to give up Kosovo.

"Serbia must fight for Kosovo even more firmly and strongly," he said.

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 said.

The peace prize is presented in Oslo. Nobel prizes for medicine, chemistry, physics and economics are handed out in Stockholm, Sweden. The ceremonies are always on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896.

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