Harri Holkeri chairing his first meeting after being voted the president of the 55th United Nations general assembly at the UN in New York.
Harri Holkeri, a former prime minister of Finland and an international diplomat and peacemaker who played a key part in the Northern Ireland peace process, has died aged 74. The 1994 IRA and loyalist ceasefires paved the way for comprehensive political negotiations about the future governance of Northern Ireland. However, such were the levels of political distrust that a year later the US and Irish governments succeeded in persuading a reluctant British government to internationalise the process and in 1995 an independent commission was appointed to lead the search for peace.
The primary role was given to the veteran US senator George Mitchell, who was to be assisted by the British nominee, General John de Chastelain, the former head of the Canadian armed forces, and Holkeri, the Irish nominee, who had been the prime minister of Finland from 1987 until 1991. Their first task was to encourage all the terrorist groups to disarm, but again, so great was the mutual suspicion that they could not be persuaded to do so.
The commission did manage to gain their agreement to a set of fundamental "principles of democracy and non-violence" whereby they would "renounce for themselves, and oppose any efforts by others, to use force, or threaten to use force, to influence the course or the outcome of all-party negotiations", and it was eventually agreed that negotiations could begin without decommissioning as a prior condition.
After resolving this lengthy stalemate Mitchell, De Chastelain and Holkeri were asked to lead a series of cross-party and inter-government political negotiations where every divisive issue was at last on the table. Away from the protracted formal talks, mainly in Belfast but also in London and Dublin, Holkeri conducted constant intensive soundings with all the main protagonists, offering them copious shots of Bushmills to loosen tongues and help confront troublesome issues, as he shuttled between them.
Although most of the public credit for achieving the subsequent Belfast Agreement on Good Friday 1998 – after a final week of round-the-clock discussions – is attributed to Mitchell, many of the principal participants in the process recognised that Holkeri's good humour, canniness, intellectual rigour and negotiating skills helped forge ground-breaking compromise positions on some of the most intractable issues, including disarmament, policing and the treatment of prisoners.
Harri Hermanni Holkeri was born at Oripää, in south-western Finland. He was a banker by profession but entered parliament in 1970 and served as chairman of the conservative National Coalition party from 1971 until 1979. After that he was a member of the board of directors of the Bank of Finland from 1978 until 1997 and unsuccessfully contested presidential elections in 1982 and 1988.
In 1987 he became prime minister. After his spell in Ireland he was speaker of the UN general assembly from 2000 until 2001. Two years later, he was appointed to the UN interim administration in Kosovo after the Serb crackdown on Albanians had been halted by Nato bombing. He left that post after a year because of ill health and suffered a further deterioration after being assaulted on the street in Helsinki in 2008. He died after a prolonged illness and is survived by his wife, Marja-Liisa Lepistö, whom he married in 1960, as well as their son and daughter.
• Harri Hermanni Holkeri, politician, born 6 January 1937; died 11 August 2011
The primary role was given to the veteran US senator George Mitchell, who was to be assisted by the British nominee, General John de Chastelain, the former head of the Canadian armed forces, and Holkeri, the Irish nominee, who had been the prime minister of Finland from 1987 until 1991. Their first task was to encourage all the terrorist groups to disarm, but again, so great was the mutual suspicion that they could not be persuaded to do so.
The commission did manage to gain their agreement to a set of fundamental "principles of democracy and non-violence" whereby they would "renounce for themselves, and oppose any efforts by others, to use force, or threaten to use force, to influence the course or the outcome of all-party negotiations", and it was eventually agreed that negotiations could begin without decommissioning as a prior condition.
After resolving this lengthy stalemate Mitchell, De Chastelain and Holkeri were asked to lead a series of cross-party and inter-government political negotiations where every divisive issue was at last on the table. Away from the protracted formal talks, mainly in Belfast but also in London and Dublin, Holkeri conducted constant intensive soundings with all the main protagonists, offering them copious shots of Bushmills to loosen tongues and help confront troublesome issues, as he shuttled between them.
Although most of the public credit for achieving the subsequent Belfast Agreement on Good Friday 1998 – after a final week of round-the-clock discussions – is attributed to Mitchell, many of the principal participants in the process recognised that Holkeri's good humour, canniness, intellectual rigour and negotiating skills helped forge ground-breaking compromise positions on some of the most intractable issues, including disarmament, policing and the treatment of prisoners.
Harri Hermanni Holkeri was born at Oripää, in south-western Finland. He was a banker by profession but entered parliament in 1970 and served as chairman of the conservative National Coalition party from 1971 until 1979. After that he was a member of the board of directors of the Bank of Finland from 1978 until 1997 and unsuccessfully contested presidential elections in 1982 and 1988.
In 1987 he became prime minister. After his spell in Ireland he was speaker of the UN general assembly from 2000 until 2001. Two years later, he was appointed to the UN interim administration in Kosovo after the Serb crackdown on Albanians had been halted by Nato bombing. He left that post after a year because of ill health and suffered a further deterioration after being assaulted on the street in Helsinki in 2008. He died after a prolonged illness and is survived by his wife, Marja-Liisa Lepistö, whom he married in 1960, as well as their son and daughter.
• Harri Hermanni Holkeri, politician, born 6 January 1937; died 11 August 2011
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