Martti Ahtisaari wins Nobel Peace Prize (3rd Lead)

Oslo - Veteran Finnish peace broker and former president Martti Ahtisaari has been awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced in Oslo on Friday. Ahtisaari, 71, was cited 'for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts,' the committee said. Minutes after the prize was announced, Ahtisaari said he regarded 'Namibia as the most important achievement' in his long career, referring to his work as a United Nations envoy that helped the southern African nation win independence in 1990. 'It took such a long time,' Ahtisaari told Norwegian broadcaster NRK minutes after the award announcement. Ahtisaari worked on the Namibia issue 1977 until 1990 when he served as special representative to the United Nations secretary general and head of the UN's transition assistance team. The one-time German colony, previously known as South West Africa gained independence from South Africa in March 1990. But he said his efforts to forge a peace deal in 2005 between the government of Indonesia and separatists in the province of Aceh, as well as recent attempts to solve the status of Kosovo were also 'very important.' Ahtisaari said the 10 million kronor (1.5 million) cash prize will offer 'many opportunities,' and provide funding for his organization Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) that has been engaged in various mediation efforts. Nobel Committee Chairman Ole Danbolt Mjos said Ahtisaari has been an 'outstanding international mediator,' noting he had shown 'what role mediation of various kinds can play in the resolution of international conflicts.' In addition to Nambia and Aceh in Indonesia, Ahtisaari has also been active with issues related to Northern Ireland, the Balkans and Iraq, Mjos said. Mjos said the committee had wanted to highlight the role of mediation and underlined the need for 'efforts to seek peaceful solutions' in today's world, mentioning Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Iraq as examples. Speculation before the prize had centred on dissidents in China and activists in Russia. Mjos refuted that the committee members had avoided controversy by picking a 'safe' candidate like Ahtisaari. The Finnish laureate has worked in 'a long tradition,' Mjos said, drawing the line back to 1906 when US president Theodore Roosevelt won the prize. Other laureates in that vein were former US president Jimmy Carter and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, he said. In Oslo, politicians from across the political spectre as well as peace researchers welcomed the selection of a traditional laureate. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said Ahtisaari 'was a peace builder who has given hope to many people' while former Norwegian premier Kjell Magne Bondevik said Ahtisaari was a believer in 'dialogue instead of military solutions.' Former Norwegian diplomat Jan Egeland, director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, said Ahtisaari's work in Namibia was an example of 'classic mediation.' Ahtisaari is the first Finnish national to win the peace prize awarded since 1901. Finnish President Tarja Halonen, who succeeded Ahtisaari in 2000, congratulated Ahtisaari to the award and said it gave credit to his many years of work to solve difficult conflicts. Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said it was 'a well- deserved recognition for his long career and his great efforts as mediator.' The Nobel Committee has in recent years appeared to have broadened the concept of peace with the 2004 selection of Kenyan human rights activist and environmentalist Wangari Maathai and the 2006 choice of Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh who spearheaded the Grameen Movement micro-banking system. In 2007, the peace prize was shared by the United Nations climate body the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore of the United States for their work on climate change. For this year's award, the five-member Nobel Committee had received 197 nominations for the coveted award including 33 organizations. The peace prize is one of the awards endowed by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Earlier this week awards for medicine, physics, chemistry and literature were announced in Stockholm, Sweden. The economic sciences prize - a prize not endowed by Nobel and awarded since 1968 - is scheduled to be announced Monday. The award ceremonies are held December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's 1896 death in San Remo, Italy.