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Former Finnish president wins Nobel Peace Prize
Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for a long career of peace mediation work including a 2005 accord between Indonesia and rebels in its Aceh province.
- Agencies
- Published: 14:02 October 10, 2008
- Image Credit: AP
- Finland's Martti Ahtisaari wins the Nobel Peace Prize for resolving international conflicts.
Oslo: Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for a long career of peace mediation work including a 2005 accord between Indonesia and rebels in its Aceh province.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee chose Ahtisaari to receive the $1.4 million prize from a field of 197 candidates "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts."
Ahtisaari, who was Finland's president from 1994 to 2000, has had a diplomatic career stretching from Africa to the Balkans. He has been a favourite to win for years.
The prize will be handed over in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death in 1896 of Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel who created the awards.
Salute
Ahtisaari told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK that his work as the UN special envoy to Namibia had been the highlight of his career.
Some of the biggest names in world diplomacy were quick to salute Ahtisaari's conflict resolution efforts.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner praised him for "his courageous and determined action" to bring peace to the world's troublespots.
Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, himself a Nobel peace laureate in 2001, said he had telephoned Ahtisaari to personally congratulate him.
"No one better than he could win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Finnish President Tarja Halonen and Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen both congratulated Finland's first Peace Prize laureate. With its decision to hand the 2008 prize to Ahtisaari, the Nobel committee has returned to a more traditional interpretation of the award.
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