Former President of Finland to visit Aceh

Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari is scheduled to visit Nangroe Aceh Darussalam to meet with several prominent leaders during his four-day visit to the country, state news agency Antara has reported.

Indonesian ambassador for Finland and Estonia Harry Purwanto said Friday that Ahtisaari would visit the country from Feb. 21 to 24.

“He will talk about important issues with Vice President Jusuf Kalla and take a look at the progress of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Aceh,” he said.

He said that Ahtisaari wanted to find out if there were any problems hampering the peace process and sought the best solutions.
 
“To get actual reports on the MOU progress, I invited Minister for State-owned Enterprises Sofjan Djalil and General Secretary of the National Security Board Liutenant General Bambang Darmono to meet with Ahtisaari,” he said.

In August 2005, Ahtisaari helped end 30 years of fighting between Acehanese rebels and the Indonesian government with peace talks in Finland, which he initiated and mediated with Crisis Management Initiative. A peace agreement signed in Helsinki followed seven months of negotiations between the two parties, which Ahtisaari also mediated. (ewd)