Martti Ahtisaari receives UNESCO Peace Prize

Martti Ahtisaari, President of Finland from 1994 to 2000, has accepted the Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize established at the initiative of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The award ceremony was held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on Thursday, October 2nd.
      According to the prize jury, Ahtisaari was chosen to receive the prize ”for his lifetime contribution to world peace”.
     
”You are an exceptionally talented mediator - one of the great peacemakers”, said Koïchiro Matsuura, the Director General of UNESCO, at the ceremony.
      The event was attended by a number of prominent guests, including Yusuf Kalla, the Vice President of Indonesia.
      In 2005, a peace treaty was signed between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement after negotiations conducted with the mediation of the Crisis Management Initiative, headed by the former Finnish President.
      ”You have become part of Indonesia’s history. Thanks to your efforts, the life of millions of people has changed from life in fear to life with a smile”, said Kalla.
      In his own address, Ahtisaari pointed out that the most important thing in peace talks is the willingness of parties to reach a settlement. He also said that his interest in international peace dates back to his childhood in Karelia.
     
In 2000, Martti Ahtisaari set up the non-governmental organization Crisis Management Initiative, and in 2005 he was appointed to head the discussions on the final status of Kosovo, as a Special Envoy and mediator appointed to the task by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
      Before Ahtisaari became the President of Finland, he had made a significant career in the UN, including his mediation role in the Namibia independence process, among others.
      In the last year of his presidency he was also one of the troika of negotiators - alongside the former Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott - who persuaded Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic of the need to accept the terms of the international community and put an end to the fighting in Kosovo.
      Former Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize prize-winners have included such names as Nelson Mandela, Frederik W. De Klerk, Jitzhak Rabin, Shimon Péres, Jasser Arafat, and Jimmy Carter.
      Nelson Mandela and Frederik De Klerk of South Africa received the prize when it was granted for the first time in 1991. Two years later they were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Moreover, the 1993 prize-winners, Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Perez and Yasser Arafat, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize the following year.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Mediator Martti Ahtisaari´s efforts receive full support from West in Kosovo talks (22.9.2006)
  UN Security Council confirms Ahtisaari appointment to Kosovo post (11.11.2005)
  Ahtisaari calls Aceh treaty surprisingly successful on first anniversary (15.8.2006)
  Ahtisaari says chances for Nobel Prize "slightly better than last year" (10.10.2006)
  Ahtisaari hopes UN will make decision on Kosovo soon (18.4.2007)

See also:
  Ahtisaari and the fourth chair (3.10.2006)

Links:
  UNESCO press release: Martti Ahtisaari will receive Felix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize on 2 October (19.9.2008)
  Finnish Government press release (2.10.2008): Ahtisaari received the UNESCO Peace Prize
  Félix Houphouët-Boigny Peace Prize
  Martti Ahtisaari (Wikipedia)