Dar es Salaam.. He won the accolade for his efforts to end a 52-year-old war with Marxist guerrillas.
But his selection as winner has surprised some people because he was declared only a few days after voters rejected a peace deal he signed with rebels.
In announcing the winner, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Santos had brought one of the longest civil wars in modern history significantly closer to a peaceful solution. However, despite efforts taken by President Santos, there is still danger the peace process could collapse.
Though he signed the peace deal, but FARC guerrilla leader Rodrigo Londono, better known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, was not excluded from the award. Santos has promised to revive the plan even though Colombians narrowly rejected it in a recent referendum. Many voters believed it was too lenient on the FARC guerrillas.
“There is real danger that the peace process will come to a halt and that civil war will flare up again. This makes it even more important that the parties... continue to respect the ceasefire,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.
“The fact that a majority of the voters said ‘No’ to the peace accord does not necessarily mean that the peace process is dead.”
More than 220,000 people have died on the battlefield or in massacres during the conflict between leftist guerrillas, government troops and right-wing paramilitaries. Millions have been displaced and many beg on the streets of the capital, while the economic potential has been held up in the mostly rural nation.
“I infinitely appreciate from all of my heart this honourable distinction, not in my name, but the name of all Colombians, and especially the millions of victims that have been left by the conflict we have suffered for more than 50 years,” Santos, 65, said in a brief statement after being named the winner. “Thank God peace is close. Peace is possible.”
Mixed feelings
Colombians are so deeply polarized over the peace deal that it is not clear the prize will do much to change public opinion. If anything, voters seemed to dig into their positions after the announcement.
“They rushed in giving him this prize,” said Marianella Suárez, 36, who works at a shoe warehouse in Bogotá and voted against the peace deal. “This didn’t seem the right moment. He hasn’t achieved peace, and we don’t know if the FARC will accept jail time for their crimes.”
Jairo Rodríguez, a 49-year-old driver, who supported the deal, said he hoped the prize would ease the renegotiation and soften the stances of hard-liners like Álvaro Uribe, Mr Santos’s predecessor as president, who led the campaign against the deal. “We all want peace,” he said.
In announcing the award, Kaci Kullmann Five, the chairwoman of the committee, commended Mr Santos for starting the process, even as she acknowledged that the people of Colombia had rejected the outcome.
She said she hoped awarding the prize to Mr Santos would spur a future agreement. “The committee hopes that the peace prize will give him strength to succeed in this demanding task,” she said.
“Further, it is the committee’s hope that in the years to come, the Colombian people will reap the fruits of a reconciliation process.”
Nominations and reactions
A total of 376 candidates received nominations for this year’s prize. They included 228 individuals and 148 organisations - the largest ever number of nominees, the previous record being 278 in 2014.
Notable other nominees included the “White Helmets” of the Syrian Conflict (who received several editorial endorsements from western newspapers), representative “Greek islanders”, particularly those from Lesbos, for their response to the related refugee crisis, Nadia Murad for her work in refugee advocacy and Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege for working with rape victims. Still further nominations included Svetlana Gannushkina, Ernest Moniz and Ali Akbar Salehi, and Edward Snowden. Gannushkina and Syrian Civil Defence had been jointly awarded the 2016 Right Livelihood Award in the weeks before. Six other Colombians, five of them being victims of the Colombian armed conflict, had also been nominated.
Unesco director-general Irina Bokova noted in a statement that this year’s prize “pays tribute to the audacity and perseverance of President Santos and all those, who seek to build peace every day, step by step to heal the wounds of the country, in their families and communities.”
Media coverage characterised the announcement as a surprise since the national referendum on October 2 was narrowly defeated.
Initial reports also expressed surprise that the prize was not awarded jointly with FARC leader Rodrigo Londoño, Santos’ main negotiating partner. Londoño, under the name Timoleon Jimenez, tweeted his reaction to the announcement: “The only award we want is peace with social justice for Colombia without paramilitarism, without retaliation or lies.”
Syria Civil Defence, tweeting as “The White Helmets”, congratulated Santos and wished for peace for the people of Colombia. An hour later the twitter account shared an image of a destroyed building with the text “At the time of the @NobelPrize announcement, @SyriaCivilDef center targeted in Hama. Back to work.”
Committee
The Norwegian Nobel Committee is responsible for selecting the Nobel Peace Prize laureates. It was established in commemoration of Alfred Nobel.
By the terms of Alfred Nobel’s will the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded by the Norwegian Nobel Committee since 1901. Alfred Nobel left no explanation as to why the prize for peace was to be awarded by a Norwegian committee, while the other four prizes were to be handled by Swedish committees.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee comprises five members appointed by the Storting (Norwegian Parliament). The Committee’s composition reflects the relative strengths of the political parties in the Storting and is assisted by specially appointed expert advisers.
Alfred Nobel was interested in social issues and was engaged in the peace movement. His acquaintance with Bertha von Suttner (who was later awarded the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize) influenced his own views on peace. Perhaps his peace interest was also because his inventions were used in warfare and assassination attempts? Peace was the fifth and final prize area that Nobel mentioned in his will.
The Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize comprises a golden medallion with an embossed image of Alfred Nobel facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text “ALFR•” then “NOBEL”, and on the right, the text (smaller) “NAT•” then “MDCCCXXXIII” above, followed by (smaller) “OB•” then “MDCCCXCVI” below.
The Nobel Prize is a set of annual international awards bestowed in a number of categories by Swedish and Norwegian institutions in recognition of academic, cultural, and/or scientific advances. It is usually awarded for outstanding contributions for humanity in chemistry, economics, literature, peace, physics, physiology or medicine
The prizes in chemistry, literature, peace, physics, and physiology or medicine were first awarded in 1901. The related Nobel Memorial Prize in economic sciences was established by Sweden’s central bank in 1968. Medals made before 1980 were struck in 23 carat gold and later from 18 carat green gold plated with a 24 carat gold coating.
Between 1901 and 2015, the Nobel Prizes and the Prize in Economic Sciences were awarded 573 times to 900 people and organisations. With some receiving the Nobel Prize more than once, this makes a total of 870 individuals (822 men and 48 women) and 23 organisations.
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