The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, mourned the death of former Finnish head of state and 2008 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari this Monday, recalling his dedication to “conflict prevention and peace mediation.”
Marcelo Rebelo de Souza sent a telegram of condolences to his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinistö on the death of Martti Ahtisaari, the presidency emphasized in a note published on his website.
“World-renowned figure Martti Ahtisaari has dedicated decades to conflict prevention and peace mediation work in several countries and on different continents, setting an example for all who believe in the peaceful resolution of disputes between peoples,” he emphasized.
The Portuguese President also recalled that Martti Ahtisaari was the head of state of Finland when his country joined the European Union, thereby “also leaving his legacy to the European project and to future generations.”
Martti Ahtisaari died this Monday at the age of 86.
“He was a president at a time of change, he led Finland into the global era of the European Union,” said the Finnish president.
In 2021, it was announced that Ahtisaari has advanced Alzheimer’s disease.
Among his most notable achievements, Ahtisaari helped negotiate peace agreements surrounding Serbia’s withdrawal from Kosovo in the late 1990s, securing Namibian independence in the 1980s and autonomy for the Indonesian province of Aceh in 2005.
Ahtisaari was also involved in the Northern Ireland peace process in the late 1990s and was tasked with overseeing the disarmament of the IRA.
When the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee selected Ahtisaari in October 2008, it attributed the decision to “his important efforts to resolve international conflicts on several continents and over more than three decades.”
Ahtisaari, who served as the Nordic country’s president for six years from 1994 to 2000, later founded the Helsinki-based Crisis Management Initiative, which aims to prevent and resolve violent conflict through informal dialogue and mediation.
Ahtisaari was born on June 23, 1937 in the eastern city of Vyborg, now in Russia. Before joining the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1965, he worked as a primary school teacher.
He spent about 20 years abroad, first as ambassador to Tanzania, Zambia and Somalia, and then to the UN in New York.
He then joined the UN, working at its headquarters in New York, and then led the UN operation that led to Namibia’s independence in 1990.
Ahtisaari was actively involved in efforts to prepare Namibians for independence during his diplomatic stay in Africa in the 1970s.
He was appointed Namibia’s special representative by then UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim in 1978 and is widely credited with leading the African country to independence during his tenure as head of UN peacekeeping forces in the late 1970s.
The Namibian government thanked Ahtisaari for his work and subsequently made him an honorary citizen of the country.
Returning to Finland in 1991, Ahtisaari worked as Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in 1994 became the first Finnish head of state to be elected directly rather than through an electoral college.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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