SAARI NOT SAARI
The year before Obama got a Nobel Peace Prize for not being Dubya, the Peace Nobel laureate was a little more meritorious. When elected president of Finland in 1994, Martti Ahtisaari had decades of diplomacy under his belt that including leading the UN peacekeeping operation that paved the way for Namibia’s independence from apartheid South Africa. From his presidential pulpit he successfully advocated for Finland to join the EU, and kept active as a peace broker while helping oversee the IRA’s disarmament and negotiating the end of the Kosovo War. After his presidency ended he continued his diplomacy, steering the longstanding conflict in Indonesia’s Aceh province to a peaceful conclusion and establishing himself as a human rights elder statesman in the vein of Tutu and Carter. An Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2021 has led to his death aged 86, and he was picked by two theme teams.
Martti Ahtisaari
23 June 1937 – 16 October 2023, aged 86
2 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀💀💀 6 POINTS)