Finnish Nobel peace Laureate dies at 86

Martti Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland and global peace broker who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 for his work to resolve international conflicts, died yesterday. He was 86.

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 IRA's disarmament process.

"Wars and conflicts are not inevitable. They are caused by humans," Ahtisaari said when he accepted the Nobel award in 2008.

Ahtisaari was the Nordic country's president for one six-year term - from 1994 until 2000 - after which he founded the Helsinki-based Crisis Management Initiative, aimed at preventing and resolving violent conflicts through informal dialogue and mediation.

Born June 23, 1937, in the eastern town of Viipuri, which is now in Russia, Ahtisaari was a primary school teacher before joining Finland's Foreign Ministry in 1965. He spent about 20 years abroad, first as ambassador to Tanzania, Sambia and Somalia and then to the United Nations in New York.

He headed the UN operation that brought independence to Namibia in 1990.

After returning to Finland in 1991, Ahtisaari worked as a Foreign Ministry secretary of state before being elected president in 1994. He was the first Finnish head of state to be elected directly instead of through an electoral college.

Ahtisaari was a strong supporter of the European Union and NATO, which Finland joined in 1995 and 2023 respectively.

His international highlight came in 1999 when he negotiated the end to fighting in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo.

Ahtisaari is survived by his wife Eeva and their adult son, Markko.