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Open Field For Nobel Peace Prize
October 10, 2002 07:01 AM ET
By Alister Doyle
OSLO (Reuters) - Afghanistan's president or U.S. disarmament experts might win the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday from a bewilderingly wide field of nominees that also includes President Bush and Irish rock star Bono.
"If I'd been an outsider I think I would have had very great difficulty finding an obvious favorite," Geir Lundestad, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, which hosts meetings of the five-member Nobel committee, told Reuters.
"The choice often seems so obvious afterwards," he said.
Committee chairman Gunnar Berge will announce the winner of the $1 million prize at 11 a.m. (5 a.m. EDT) Friday from a record field of 156 candidates after a year overshadowed by the September 11 attacks on the United States.
"This year's Peace Prize could go to such different people as George W. Bush, Pope John Paul and (Cuban President) Fidel Castro," conservative Norwegian daily Aftenposten said on Thursday.
The United Nations and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan won the 2001 prize as widely predicted in the 100th year of the first award. The prizes were set up by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish philanthropist and the inventor of dynamite.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Orthodox Christian leader Patriarch Bartholomew are among candidates also including Chinese dissidents and Bono.
Lundestad says he does not even leak the name of the winner to his wife.
Stein Toennesson, head of Oslo's Peace Research Institute, tips U.S. Republican senator Richard Lugar and former Democratic senator Sam Nunn to win for efforts to dismantle nuclear and chemical weapons left by the Soviet Union's collapse.
He said an award to the two would twin environmental and security worries and back anti-terrorism efforts -- all likely to be major concerns for the prize committee.
Lugar has urged Bush to exhaust diplomatic efforts before taking military action to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Opinion polls indicate Norwegians strongly oppose such action.
ENCOURAGING "DREAMERS"
Karzai could be picked for leading efforts to rebuild Afghanistan after the U.S.-led defeat of the Taliban. But he might be viewed as a U.S. stooge who has done too little so far.
Even so, Alfred Nobel once said he wanted to encourage "dreamers" -- at 44 Karzai is young enough to escape criticism that the prize often goes to people at the end of their careers.
Among organizations could be the European Court of Human Rights or the U.N. war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
Bush is among nominees but a highly unlikely winner. Two committee members have publicly criticized Bush for U.S. bombings of Afghanistan and for a perceived pro-Israel bias in its conflict with the Palestinians.
Adding to the confusion, Lundestad said: "You can make an argument that every now and then you should have someone not very well known. But I'm not saying that that is the case this year."
He noted the last big surprise was the 1995 award to veteran British anti-nuclear campaigner Joseph Rotblat and his Pugwash organization. Even so, it was applauded on the 50th anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
"I called (Rotblat) to tell him ... He said 'you must be kidding'," Lundestad said.
Open Field For Nobel Peace Prize
October 10, 2002 07:01 AM ET
By Alister Doyle
OSLO (Reuters) - Afghanistan's president or U.S. disarmament experts might win the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday from a bewilderingly wide field of nominees that also includes President Bush and Irish rock star Bono.
"If I'd been an outsider I think I would have had very great difficulty finding an obvious favorite," Geir Lundestad, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, which hosts meetings of the five-member Nobel committee, told Reuters.
"The choice often seems so obvious afterwards," he said.
Committee chairman Gunnar Berge will announce the winner of the $1 million prize at 11 a.m. (5 a.m. EDT) Friday from a record field of 156 candidates after a year overshadowed by the September 11 attacks on the United States.
"This year's Peace Prize could go to such different people as George W. Bush, Pope John Paul and (Cuban President) Fidel Castro," conservative Norwegian daily Aftenposten said on Thursday.
The United Nations and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan won the 2001 prize as widely predicted in the 100th year of the first award. The prizes were set up by Alfred Nobel, a Swedish philanthropist and the inventor of dynamite.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Orthodox Christian leader Patriarch Bartholomew are among candidates also including Chinese dissidents and Bono.
Lundestad says he does not even leak the name of the winner to his wife.
Stein Toennesson, head of Oslo's Peace Research Institute, tips U.S. Republican senator Richard Lugar and former Democratic senator Sam Nunn to win for efforts to dismantle nuclear and chemical weapons left by the Soviet Union's collapse.
He said an award to the two would twin environmental and security worries and back anti-terrorism efforts -- all likely to be major concerns for the prize committee.
Lugar has urged Bush to exhaust diplomatic efforts before taking military action to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Opinion polls indicate Norwegians strongly oppose such action.
ENCOURAGING "DREAMERS"
Karzai could be picked for leading efforts to rebuild Afghanistan after the U.S.-led defeat of the Taliban. But he might be viewed as a U.S. stooge who has done too little so far.
Even so, Alfred Nobel once said he wanted to encourage "dreamers" -- at 44 Karzai is young enough to escape criticism that the prize often goes to people at the end of their careers.
Among organizations could be the European Court of Human Rights or the U.N. war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia.
Bush is among nominees but a highly unlikely winner. Two committee members have publicly criticized Bush for U.S. bombings of Afghanistan and for a perceived pro-Israel bias in its conflict with the Palestinians.
Adding to the confusion, Lundestad said: "You can make an argument that every now and then you should have someone not very well known. But I'm not saying that that is the case this year."
He noted the last big surprise was the 1995 award to veteran British anti-nuclear campaigner Joseph Rotblat and his Pugwash organization. Even so, it was applauded on the 50th anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
"I called (Rotblat) to tell him ... He said 'you must be kidding'," Lundestad said.
