MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Nobel Peace for “mediator” and sponsor of Kosovo

Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on Friday the award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2008 to former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts.

These efforts have contributed to a more peaceful world and to "fraternity between nations" in Alfred Nobel's spirit, said the official release. Throughout all his adult life, whether as a senior Finnish public servant and President or in an international capacity, often connected to the United Nations, Ahtisaari has worked for peace and reconciliation. For the past twenty years, he has figured prominently in endeavors to resolve several serious and long-lasting conflicts. In 1989-90 he played a significant part in the establishment of Namibia's independence; in 2005 he and his organization Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) were central to the solution of the complicated Aceh question in Indonesia. In 1999 and again in 2005-07, he sought under especially difficult circumstances to find a solution to the conflict in Kosovo. The Nobel Committee also underlines that in 2008, through the CMI and in cooperation with other institutions, Ahtisaari has tried to help find a peaceful conclusion to the problems in Iraq. He has also made constructive contributions to the resolution of conflicts in Northern Ireland, in Central Asia, and on the Horn of Africa. The Committee said that although the parties themselves have the main responsibility for avoiding war and conflict, "the Norwegian Nobel Committee has on several occasions awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to mediators in international politics: today Ahtisaari is an outstanding international mediator. Through his untiring efforts and good results, he has shown what role mediation of various kinds can play in the resolution of international conflicts". This year is also the 60th anniversary of the signing of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, which helped fuel speculation the award, might honour dissidents, particularly ones from China, Russia or Vietnam. "He is a world champion when it comes to peace and he never gives up," said Ole Danbolt Mjoes, the chairman of the peace prize committee, which is appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. Ahtisaari had been mentioned in speculation as a possible Nobel Peace Prize candidate since 2005, just after he negotiated an end to a conflict between the Indonesian government and separatist guerrillas in Aceh. Ahtisaari selection out of 197 nominees comes a year after former Vice President Al Gore and the UN panel on climate change received the award following the selection of anti-poverty activist and micro-credit pioneer Muhammad Yunus in 2006. Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng and AIDS and environmental activist Hu Jia, who were nominated by McMillan-Scott, were seen as favourites along with Russia's Lidia Yusupova, Vietnam's Thich Quang Do or the group Human Rights Watch. News that the two Chinese dissidents were being considered brought a harsh warning from Beijing, which declared on Tuesday that Hu was not a legitimate contender. "If the prize is awarded to such a person it would be against the purpose of such a prize," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said. Ahtisaari was a senior Finnish diplomat when in 1977 he was named the U.N. envoy for Namibia, where guerrillas were battling South African apartheid rule. He later rose to undersecretary-general, and in 1988 was dispatched to Namibia to lead 8,000 U.N. peacekeepers during its transition to independence. He 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. Kosovo's Prime Minister Hashim Thaci hailed the Nobel selection as "the right decision for the right man."