Ahtisaari later told the press that the meeting resulted in no breakthroughs, but added that the discussion was " frank and candid " and the atmosphere was better than he could have expected.

Concluding that there was little hope of the two sides reconciling their positions independently, Ahtisaari said he would submit to the UN Security Council his own proposed status arrangements, including an explicit recommendation for the status outcome itself, by the end of March.

UNTAG's Martti Ahtisaari took advice from British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who was visiting Southern Africa at the time, and authorized a limited contingent of South African troops to assist the South West African Police in restoring order.

Martti Ahtisaari was born in Viipuri, Finland ( now Vyborg, Russia ).

Kuopio was where Ahtisaari spent most of his childhood, eventually attending the Kuopion Lyseo high school.

Following the death of a later UN Commissioner for Namibia, Bernt Carlsson, on Pan Am Flight 103 on December 21, 1988 – on the eve of the signing of the Tripartite Accord at UN headquarters – Ahtisaari was sent to Namibia in April 1989 as the UN Special Representative to head the United Nations Transition Assistance Group ( UNTAG ).

Ahtisaari took advice from British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who was visiting the region at the time, and approved the SADF deployment.

In July 1989, Glenys Kinnock and Tessa Blackstone of the British Council of Churches visited Namibia and reported: " There is a widespread feeling that too many concessions were made to South African personnel and preferences and that Martti Ahtisaari was not forceful enough in his dealings with the South Africans.

Perhaps because of his reluctance to authorise this SADF deployment, Ahtisaari was alleged to have been targeted by the South African Civil Cooperation Bureau ( CCB ).

After the independence elections of 1989, Ahtisaari was appointed an honorary Namibian citizen.

During the three-week campaign between the two rounds of presidential elections, Ahtisaari was praised by his supporters for being more compassionate towards the many unemployed Finns than Rehn, who as Defence Minister had to officially support the Aho government's strict economic policies.

In January 1998 Ahtisaari was criticized by some NGOs, politicians and notable cultural figures because he awarded medals of honour to the Forest Minister of Indonesia and to the main owner of the Indonesian RGM Company, a parent company of the April Company.

Ahtisaari was the last " strong president ", since the 2000 constitution slightly reduced the president's powers.

On December 1, 2000, Ahtisaari was awarded the J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding by the Fulbright Association in recognition of his work as peacemaker in some of the world's most troubled areas.

In November 2005, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Ahtisaari as Special Envoy for the Kosovo status process which was to determine whether Kosovo, having been administered by the United Nations since 1999, should become independent or remain a province of Serbia.

Ahtisaari was chairman of the Interpeace Governing Council from 2000-2009.

In 2008 Ahtisaari was awarded an honorary degree by University College, London.

In August 2012, Ahtisaari opined on the sectarian violence in Syria and was mentioned as a possible replacement as Joint Envoy there to succeed former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

On October 10, 2008 Ahtisaari was announced as that year's recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

He was followed by President Martti Ahtisaari, who was also a supporter of EU membership.

Holkeri was awarded the highest Finnish honorary title of Valtioneuvos ( Counselor of State ) in 1998 by the President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari.

In later years of his career, Sorsa went into his Social Democratic Party's primary elections as candidate for president in 1993, but was defeated in a humiliating way by the relatively unknown international civil servant Martti Ahtisaari.

UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland, leads the status process with Austrian diplomat Albert Rohan, his deputy.

Nevertheless discussions proceeded with UN Commissioner for Namibia N ° 2 Martti Ahtisaari who played a key role in getting the Constitutional Principles agreed in 1982 by the front-line states, SWAPO, and the Western Contact Group.

Former UN Commissioner N ° 2 and now UN Special Representative Martti Ahtisaari arrived in Windhoek in April 1989 to head the UN Transition Assistance Group's ( UNTAG ) mission.

Ahtisaari served as UN undersecretary general for administration and management from 1987 to 1991 causing mixed feelings inside the organization during an internal investigation of massive fraud.

When Ahtisaari revealed in 1990 that he had secretly lengthened the grace period allowing UN officials to return misappropriated taxpayer money from the original three months to three years, the investigators were furious.

In early 2006, Ahtisaari opened the UN Office of the Special Envoy for Kosovo ( UNOSEK ) in Vienna, Austria, from where he conducted the Kosovo status negotiations.

At the National Assembly's first session on 14 February 2007, politicians voted overwhelmingly to reject the proposal by UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari on the preliminary resolution of the status of Kosovo.

The United Nations-backed talks, led by UN Special Envoy Martti Ahtisaari, began in February 2006.

In February 2007, Ahtisaari delivered a draft status settlement proposal to leaders in Belgrade and Pristina, the basis for a draft UN Security Council Resolution which proposes ' supervised independence ' for the province.

In June 1989, the UN Special Representative in Namibia and head of UNTAG, Martti Ahtisaari, told the Administrator-General ( South African appointee Louis Pienaar ) that this behaviour was inconsistent with the settlement proposal, which required the police to be lightly armed.

The UN Secretary-General pressed for the removal of all ex-Koevoet elements from SWAPOL, with Ahtisaari bringing to Pienaar's attention many allegations of misconduct by them.

Since 2009, Ahtisaari has been Chairman Emeritus and a Special Advisor.

She started her campaign for the presidency at the beginning of 1999 after President Martti Ahtisaari announced that he would not stand for a second term in the office.

Ahtisaari briefed Contact Group foreign ministers on 20 September 2006, in New York City at a meeting chaired by U. S. Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.

On Monday, 16 July 2007, after many weeks of discussions at the Security Council, Russia rejected a fifth draft of a Security Council resolution based on the Ahtisaari proposals.

After completing his military service ( Ahtisaari holds the rank of captain in the Finnish Army Reserve ), he began to study through a distance-learning course at Oulu teachers ' college.

In the event, Ahtisaari did not attend the meeting at the Keetmanshoop Hotel, where Le Roux and Barnard lay in wait for him, and thus Ahtisaari escaped injury.

Ahtisaari received the prize on December 10, 2008 at Oslo City Hall in Norway.

In the event, Ahtisaari did not attend the meeting at the Keetmanshoop Hotel, where Le Roux and Barnard were laying in wait for him, and thus escaped injury.