Nobel Peace Prize for Colombia's Juan Manuel Santos

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the Farc leader known as Timochenko shake hands in ceremony in Cartagena in SeptemberImage copyrightAFP
Image captionMr Santos and the Farc leader known as Timochenko shook hands in a historic ceremony in Cartagena in September
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end the 52-year conflict with left-wing rebels.
The Nobel committee in Norway praised him for his peace agreement with Farc rebels, signed last month after four years of negotiations.
However, Colombians narrowly rejected the deal in a vote last weekend.
The conflict has killed about 260,000 people. More than six million have been internally displaced.
Mr Santos was selected from a list of 376 candidates - 228 were individuals and 148 were organisations. They included:
  • the Syrian White Helmets, civil defence volunteers who rescue bomb victims
  • the negotiators of the international deal to limit Iran's nuclear programme
  • Greek islanders on the front line of Europe's refugee crisis.
The award did not include Farc leader Rodrigo Londono, known as Timochenko, who signed the accord with Mr Santos.

Juan Manuel Santos

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos in press conferenceImage copyrightEPA
  • Born in Bogota in 10 August 1951 in an influential family
  • Elected Colombian president in 2010 and re-elected in 2014
  • Served as defence minister from 2006 until 2009
  • Married, has two sons and one daughter
Sources: BBC Monitoring, Colombian presidency

"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end," said committee chairwoman Kaci Kullmann Five.
"The award should also be seen as a tribute to the Colombian people who, despite great hardships and abuses, have not given up hope of a just peace, and to all the parties who have contributed to the peace process," she added.

A deal that wasn't: By Jonathan Marcus, BBC diplomatic correspondent

This was a Peace Prize for a peace deal that wasn't. President Santos joins a long line of Nobel Peace Prize winners who have been rewarded for effort as much as achievement.
But it is too easy to be cynical. The Nobel Peace Prize has often been controversial. In recent years a variety of international bureaucracies have won - the EU, the IAEA and the OPCW.
Why, some have argued, should people get a prize for simply doing their job? What, others ask, had US President Barack Obama actually done to merit the prize in 2009, other than be elected?
But the Nobel has often gone to extraordinary individuals who really have gone above and beyond to bring peace - in Northern Ireland and East Timor to name just two examples. Maybe the award to President Santos may yet galvanise public opinion in Colombia to think again about the deal.

Mr Santos has yet to publicly react to the announcement. But the secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee said: "He was overwhelmed. He was very grateful".
"He said it was of invaluable importance to further the peace process in Colombia," Olav Njoelstad told Norwegian state broadcaster NRK after talking to him on the phone.
The peace deal was rejected by 50.2% of voters who went to the polls on 2 October.
The committee acknowledged the result, saying: "What the "No" side rejected was not the desire for peace, but a specific peace agreement."
It also said that finding a balance between the need for reconciliation and ensuring justice for the victims would be a difficult challenge.
Graphic showing leading Nobel Prize countries, with the US on to, with more than 100 prizes
Critics, led by former president Alvaro Uribe, said the deal was too lenient to the rebels.
Under the agreement, special courts would have been created to try crimes committed during the conflict.
Those who confessed would have received lighter sentences and avoided serving any time in conventional prisons.
The Farc would also have been guaranteed 10 seats in the Colombian Congress in the 2018 and 2022 elections.

The Farc's 52-year fight

Marxist FARC rebels march through a guerrilla camp deep in the jungles of southern Colombia, 22 June 2001.Image copyrightREUTERS
1964: Set up as armed wing of Communist Party
2002: At its height, it had an army of 20,000 fighters controlling up to a third of the country. Senator Ingrid Betancourt was kidnapped and held for six years along with 14 other hostages
2008: The Farc suffers a series of defeats in its worst year
2012: Start of peace talks in Havana
2016: Definitive ceasefire

Despite the rejection by voters, Mr Santos vowed to continue with talks with the rebels.
Government negotiators have already returned to the Cuban capital Havana for further discussions with Farc leaders.

How the prize is decided

A national library employee shows the gold Nobel Prize medal awarded to the late novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in Bogota, ColombiaImage copyrightAP
  • Eligible nominators from around the world can put forward candidates up to 1 February of the award year, while Nobel Committee members have more time
  • All nominations are reviewed by the committee - whose five members are chosen by the Norwegian parliament - before a shortlist of 20-30 candidates are selected
  • A group of Norwegian and international advisers write individual reports on the shortlisted candidates. Using these and further reports, the committee narrows the selection down to a handful
  • A decision is reached in the last meeting of the committee, usually in late September or early October, before the prize is announced
  • If a unanimous decision cannot be reached, a simple majority vote is used
  • After the announcement, the award ceremony takes place on 10 December, the date of Alfred Nobel's death

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