Martti Ahtisaari wins 2008 Nobel Peace Prize

Martti Ahtisaari with his wife, Eeva, his father, Oiva, and his son, Marko, in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on August 2 1973. Ahtisaari was then the Finnish ambassador in Tanzania Photograph: Lehtikuva OY/Rex Features

Namibian youths celebrate their country's first hours of independence from South Africa on March 21 1989. Ahtisaari was the UN special representative who oversaw the country’s transition to independence Photograph: Graeme Williams/Corbis

Athisaari (l) is met by the Namibian president, Sam Nujoma, at Windoek airport on March 20 2000 for the 10th anniversary celebrations of Namibia's independence Photograph: Jutta Dobler/AFP

Then Finnish secretary of state, Ahtisaari poses with his wife in front of the presidential palace in Helsinki Photograph: Martti Kainulainen/AFP

As president of Finland, Ahtisaari (r) negotiated, alongside Russia's Balkan envoy, Viktor Chernomyrdin (c), with Slobodan Milosevic to end the fighting in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo Photograph: Jaakko Avikainen/AFP

After stepping down as president, in 2000 Ahtisaari was appointed by the UK government to the team overseeing the inspections of IRA weapons decommissioning in Northern Ireland Photograph: Paul Faith/Press Association

Ahtisaari, pictured with the British prime minister, Tony Blair, the Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Mandelson, and fellow IRA arms inspector Cyril Ramaphosa at a breakfast meeting at Downing Street Photograph: Fiona Hanson/Press Association

At the UN headquarters in New York on April 22 2002, the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan (l), named Ahtisaari as the head of a fact-finding team charged with investigating events at the Palestinian refugee camp in Jenin Photograph: Evan Schneider/AFP

In 2005, Ahtisaari successfully headed negotiations that led to a peace agreement between the Free Aceh Movement (Gam), of the Aceh province on the island of Sumatra, and the Indonesian government Photograph: STR/AFP

Ahtisaari (c) pictured with Indonesia's justice minister, Hamid Awaludin (l), and the Free Aceh Movement's chairman, Malik Mahmud, at the signing of the peace deal in Helsinki on August 15 2005 Photograph: Ruben Sprich/Corbis

In November 2005, Ahtisaari was appointed as UN special envoy for Kosovo to oversee the process to determine whether Kosovo would become an independent state or remain part of Serbia Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP

Ahtisaari (r) talks to the Serbian president, Boris Tadic (2-l), at a meeting in Belgrade on February 2 2007 during Kosovo talks Photograph: Sasa Stankovic/Corbis

Ahtisaari proposed internationally monitored independence for Kosovo. He stepped down as the province’s UN envoy in July 2007 – six months before it unilaterally declared independence Photograph: Markku Ulander/AFP