Nobel Peace Prize 2008: Martti Ahtisaari

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award The Nobel Peace Prize 2008 to Martti Ahtisaari "for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts". So he has contributed to a more paeceful World.
The finnish Ahtisaari has worked for peace and reconciliation.

For the past twenty years, he has tried to resolve several serious and long-lasting conflicts:

• In 1989-90 he played a significant part in the establishment of Namibia's independence.
• In 2005 he and his organization Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) were central to the solution of the complicated Aceh question in Indonesia.
• In 1999 and again in 2005-07, he tried to find under especially difficult circumstances a solution to the conflict in Kosovo.
• In 2008, through the CMI and in cooperation with other institutions, Ahtisaari has tried to help find a peaceful conclusion to the problems in Iraq. He has also made constructive contributions to the resolution of conflicts in Northern Ireland, in Central Asia, and on the Horn of Africa.

Today Ahtisaari is an outstanding international mediator.