Juha Christensen
Finnish peace activist and negotiator
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Juha Christensen (born 1958) is a Finnish businessman, philanthropist[1] and negotiator who played an instrumental role in the 2005 Aceh peace process.[2][3][4][5] He was also involved in negotiations leading to the release of Phillip Mark Mehrtens, a New Zealand pilot taken hostage by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) during the 2023 Nduga hostage crisis.[6]
Life
Involvement in Aceh peace process
In June 2003 and acting on his own initiative, Christensen went to Stockholm where he initiated discussions with leaders of the Free Aceh Movement.[11][9] In February 2004 Christensen contacted Martti Ahtisaari, the former President of Finland, who he knew personally,[12] to become involved in peace negotiations.[11] Christensen was also able to connect another old friend, Farid Husain,[13] then the Indonesian Minister of Health, with Ahtisaari and the Finnish CMI (Crisis Management Initiative). Christensen was an active participant in the peace negotiations.[7][10] As a result of the negotiations that followed, a peace agreement between the parties in conflict was signed in Helsinki on 15 August 2005.[14][15]
Following the peace agreement, Christensen was a special adviser to the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) until 2006.[16]
In 2015, Christensen negotiated the surrender and disarming of Din Minimi,[17][18] a former GAM militant, and 30 of his followers east of Banda Aceh.[19][20][21][22]
As of 2017, Christensen is the general manager of Pacta (Architecture Peace and Conflict Transformation Alliance), a Finnish peace organization that he co-founded.[23][16]
Christensen was invited to join the Asian Peace and Reconciliation Council as a founding member.[24][25]
