NOBEL PEACE PRIZE - Kofi Annan

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NEWSFLASH: Kofi Annan wins Nobel Peace Prize

Kofi Annan is the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

The United Nations secretary-general has been awarded the prize in Norway.

We will bring you more details as we get them.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

Answers

BBC - Friday, 12 October, 2001, 09:57 GMT 10:57 UK

UN wins Nobel Peace Prize

The United Nations and its Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, have been awarded the centenary Nobel Peace Prize.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised the international organisation and its 63-year-old leader for working for human rights and to defuse global conflicts.

In making the award, a spokesman for the Nobel Committee said: "Kofi Annan has dedicated almost all his working life to the United Nations. As secretary-general, he has brought new life to the organisation."

The prize, named after Alfred Nobel, a Swedish philanthropist and inventor of dynamite, is worth $946,200.

In his first reaction to winning the award, Mr Annan said: "It's a wonderful feeling and a great encouragement for us and the organisation, for the work we have done until now. It's a great recognition for the staff."

"At the same time it is a great responsibility at such a difficult moment but reinforces us in pursuing the search for peace," Mr Annan added.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001


Kofi Annan is an ineffectual poop, IMHO.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001

Friday October 12, 05:43 PM

Massacre survivors blast Nobel prize for U.N.

By Jean Baptiste Kayigamba and Nedim Dervisbegovic

KIGALI/SARAJEVO (Reuters) - Survivors of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the massacre of Muslim men and boys in Bosnia a year later have refused to join the worldwide chorus of approval for the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Both groups blame the United Nations and its Secretary-General Kofi Annan, joint winners of this year's centenary prize, for failing to prevent the deaths of their relatives and neighbours.

Annan was head of the U.N.'s peacekeeping operations when some 800,000 people, mostly minority Tutsis, were massacred by extremists from the ethnic Hutu majority in Rwanda and up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed by Serbs in Bosnia.

"He has a heavy responsibility in the Rwandan genocide. It is a pity, it is unfortunate -- he should not have been awarded that Nobel Prize," said Antoine Mugesera, Chairman of the Ibuka association of genocide survivors.

"After all the mess he made in Rwanda, how can such a highly respected institution award him the prize?" he told Reuters.

U.N. peacekeepers were withdrawn from Rwanda when the massacres began and in Bosnia they were too lightly-armed, isolated and vulnerable to be able to prevent the killings in the eastern U.N. "safe area" of Srebrenica.

The Srebrenica survivors last year tried to sue the U.N. and several of its officials, including Annan, over their alleged guilt for the massacre carried out by Bosnian Serb forces who led their victims away from helpless Dutch U.N. peacekeepers.

The suit, filed with the U.N. war crimes court in The Hague, was dismissed almost immediately.

BOSNIA SURVIVIORS "APPALLED"

They said they were "appalled" by the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

"The United Nations and Kofi Annan are winners of the Nobel prize for genocide against the Bosniaks (Muslims) of the Drina valley and the whole of Bosnia," the Mothers of Srebrenica and Drina Valley association of survivors said in a statement.

In 1999, Annan issued a hard-hitting report in which he blamed the U.N. and key governments for failing to use force to prevent the atrocity in the valley in eastern Bosnia.

The world body has always insisted it can only do what its members are prepared to allow.

Rwanda's government, which was fiercely critical of Annan after the genocide but has since patched up relations, extended its congratulations to the winners, who received tributes from around the world, including trouble spots like the Middle East.

"As a member of the United Nations, we have to congratulate the organisation and its Secretary General for receiving the award," said Joseph Mutaboba, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"We hope that the failures of the past will be a lesson for both the organisation and the Secretary General to make sure that peace and security is assured for all," he said.

Bosnian officials made no immediate comment on the prize.

Ibran Mustafic of another association of Srebrenica survivors said Annan bore a large responsibility for the massacre in Srebrenica, which came towards the end of a war that killed around 200,000 people, mostly Muslims.

"He was the one who implemented the decisions of the U.N. Security Council on the ground," Mustafic said.

"After what happened in Bosnia and Srebrenica, there is a question of the legality of the United Nations and this award to me looks as it has been commissioned by the U.N. itself to help them wash their hands of responsibility," he said.

Survivor Sabra Kulenovic said all those who were involved in the Srebrenica massacre were being rewarded, including Bosnian Serb wartime leader Radovan Karadzic and his military chief Ratko Mladic. The pair have been indicted by the U.N. war crimes court for masterminding the massacre but remain at large.

"Annan has now been rewarded and Karadzic and Mladic are still free -- that's their reward," she told Reuters.

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2001


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