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Martti Ahtisaari

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World Leader

The Resume

    (June 23, 1937-October 16, 2023)
    Born in Viipuri, Finland (now Vyborg, Russia)
    Diplomat and politician
    President of Finland (1994-2000)
    UN Commissioner for Namibia (1976-81)
    Special Representative to head the UN Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) in Namibia (1989-90)
    United Nations Deputy Secretary-General (1977-81)
    United Nations Under Secretary-General for administration and management (1987-91)
    UN Special Envoy for Kosovo (2005-07)
    Received the Nobel Peace Prize (2008)

Why he might be annoying:

    Following an investigation into fraud at the UN, he secretly lengthened the grace period for officials to return misappropriated money from three months to three years (1990).
    He got into disputes with Finnish Prime Minister Esko Aho over which of them should attend European Union summits.
    He controversially awarded the Order of the Lion to Indonesia’s Forestry Minister (1998), despite widespread criticism in Finland of Indonesian human rights violations in East Timor.
    He defended George W. Bush’s war with Iraq as ‘a humanitarian intervention.’ (2003)

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was married to Eeva Hyvarinen for 55 years.
    He was fluent in Finnish, Swedish, English, German, and French.
    While working in Namibia, he was reportedly targeted for ‘a good hiding’ by the Civil Cooperation Bureau, the South African government-sponsored death squad. (He escaped injury, having cancelled his appearance at the meeting where two CCB operatives were to have assaulted him.)
    As president, he kept promises to visit one Finnish province every month and to donate several thousand markka each month to organizations for the unemployed.
    He supervised the decommissioning of arms as part of the Northern Ireland peace process (2001).
    He negotiated a successful peace agreement between the Indonesian government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement (2005).
    He drafted the constitution for independent Kosovo.

Credit: C. Fishel


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Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 18 Votes: 33.33% Annoying