A great Finn: Nobel Peace Prize winner Ahtisaari buried

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Bible texts were read in Finnish and Ndonga, which is spoken in Namibia and Angola. Among the mourners were Sweden’s King Carl XVI. Gustaf, Namibian President Hage Geingob and his Kosovar colleague Vjosa Osmani.

Ahtisaari died on October 16 at the age of 86. He was President of Finland from 1994 to 2000. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as a mediator in international conflicts. After the funeral service he was buried near his predecessors Urho Kekkonen and Mauno Koiviosto.

President Sauli Niinistö called Ahtisaari a great Finn. As a refugee from Karelia, which was conquered by the Soviet Union in 1940, he could empathize with the situation of people in conflict zones and always placed them at the center of his mediation in Indonesia, Nambia, Kosovo and other regions.

“Even in the most stubborn people he saw something good worth striving for,” Niinistö said. “But when necessary, he could become a tough and decisive negotiator.”

Niinistö said Ahtisaari was more of a diplomat than a politician and was elected president as an outsider. He thought little of political customs. ‘Ahtisaari was, as he was aptly described, a man with a flat hierarchy.’

(SDA)

Source: Blick