Martti Ahtisaari is one among possible winners of 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his broker a peace agreement between the Indonesian government and rebel forces in the province of Aceh.
The 69-year-old former Finnish president has been nominated several times in recent years and noted for his international peace work. He has a long history of peacemaking, including mediation efforts in Namibia, the former Yugoslavia and the Northern Ireland. He is currently the UN special envoy for talks on the final status of Kosovo.
Ahtisaari showed his predilection for informal settings when he chose a small mansion outside Helsinki as the site for a series of negotiating sessions he chaired between the Indonesian government and leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which ended GAM’s guerrilla war of independence with an agreement on autonomy.
Indonesia and Gerakan Aceh Merdeka signed a peace treaty to end nearly 30 years of fighting that killed 15,000 people. The signing ceremony in Helsinki followed seven months of talks mediated by Martti Ahtisaari, who spurred the two sides to agreement to help international aid reach Aceh province, which was devastated by last year’s tsunami.
The reputation of the self-deprecating former Finnish president as an impartial mediator has made him the world’s “go-to guy” for international crises.
Former US vice president Al Gore is also seen as a possible winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to save the planet from global warming.
The winner of the prize will be announced in October and it will be awarded, as tradition dictates, on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the founder of the prize, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel.
