Martti Ahtisaari, (1937- ) UN diplomat and president of Finland 1994-2000
Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari was born in Viipuri 1937. His father was of Norwegian descent. During the Continuation War his family moved to Kuopio, where he spent most of his childhood until they moved to Oulu 1952. In Oulu he joined to local YMCA. 1959 he graduated as a teacher through a distance-learning course.
1960 he left to Karachi, India, to lead YMCA's physical education training establishment, where he was accustomed to more international environment. He returned 1963 and went to Helsinki polytechnic but also was active in the organizations responsible to aid to developing countries. 1965 he joined the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland in its Bureau for Technical Co-operation.
1973 president Urho Kekkonen accredited him as Finnish ambassador for Tanzania, Zambia, Somalia and Mozambique. During his term (1973-1977) he formed contacts with SWAPO in Dar Es Salaam. At the end of the term he became an United Nations commissioner for Namibia with African support.
1978 Ahtisaari and his family moved to New York when he appointed under secretary-general of United Nations for administration and management - first with Kurt Waldheim and then with Javier Perez de Cuellar. He remained the special representative of the secretary-general for Namibia, studied possibilities for the eventual independence for Namibia and maintained contact between UN, SWAPO and OAU.
In March 1989 Ahtisaari was sent to Namibia to lead 8000 UN peacekeepers and civilian aides of UN's Transition Assistance Group. When SWAPO troops barged in, Ahtisaari had to deputize South-African troops to stabilize the situation in the name of UN. He still managed to direct country towards the first free elections of independent Namibia in November. He remains an honorary Namibian citizen.
Ahtisaari returned to UN but 1991 he was selected for the position of secretary of state in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. He also directed UN approach to Iraq in the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War but his moderate stance is believed to have made him lose US support in the election of UN secretary-general.
Ahtisaari's presidential campaign begun when he was still in the council about the war in Bosnia. Recession in Finland had made established political figures lose public support and the presidential elections were now direct, instead of handled through the elector process. 1993 Ahtisaari accepted the candidacy of Social Democratic Party. His politically untarnished image was a major factor in the election.
Ahtisaari began his term with a schism with the Centre Party-led government because prime minister Esko Aho did not approve of his wish to attend to foreign political affairs. During his term Finland joined the European Union and Boris Yeltsin and Bill Clinton met in Helsinki. He traveled extensively over the country. He also negotiated * alongside Viktor Chernomyrdin * with Slobodan Milosevic to end the fighting in Yugoslavia in 1999.
Ahtisaari did not seek re-election in 2000. He has accepted positions in various international organizations. In 2000 British government appointed him to the team overseeing the inspections of IRA weapons decomissioning in Northern Ireland.
