Nobel peace prize winner is former school teacher

Martti Ahtisaari was a primary school teacher who became a peacemaker.

For his efforts, Ahtisaari, 71, was named winner of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

Ahtisaari joined Finland's Foreign Ministry in 1965 and spent 20 years abroad, first as ambassador to Tanzania and then to the United Nations in New York. He eventually became president of Finland and later opened a private private organization to press peace efforts around the world.

He was U.N. undersecretary of state for administration and management from 1987 to 1991, heading the U.N. operation that brought independence to Namibia in 1990.

In 2007, Ahtisaari's office - Crisis Management Initiative - started secret meetings in Finland between Iraqi Sunni and Shiite groups to agree on a roadmap to peace. Sixteen delegates from the feuding groups agreed to consult further.

In August 2005, Ahtisaari helped end 30 years of fighting between Aceh rebels and the Indonesian government with peace talks in Finland, which he initiated and mediated. A peace agreement was signed in Helsinki.

Ahtisaari also was chairman of the Bosnia-Herzegovina working group in the international peace conference on former Yugoslavia from 1992 to 1993, and was special adviser to the U.N. secretary-general on former Yugoslavia in 1993.

He insisted he would not go to Belgrade unless NATO, the EU and Russia could agree on a Bosnia peace plan that also was palatable to Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. After his meeting with Milosevic, Ahtisaari reported that the Yugoslav president had accepted the terms, thus opening up a peace deal.

Ahtisaari worked as a secretary of state in the Finnish Foreign Ministry from 1991 to 1994, when he was elected president for a six-year term.

After that, he decided to open his own office in Helsinki, which has focused on international crises.

Earlier this month, he was awarded the UNESCO Peace Prize for a "lifetime contribution to world peace." The president of the prize jury, former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, said the achievements of Ahtisaari's Crisis Management Initiative "were also highly noted in the declaration of the prize."