Former
U.S. President Jimmy Carter
Wins Nobel Peace Prize
Fri Oct
11, 6:27 AM ET
By
DOUG MELLGREN, Associated Press Writer
OSLO,
Norway - Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter won the Nobel
Peace Prize on Friday for his peace mediation efforts and
promotion of human rights in what the awards committee said
was a criticism of current U.S. policy and "a kick in the
leg" to those following the same line.
The Norwegian
Nobel Committee cited the 78-year-old Carter's "decades of
untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international
conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote
economic and social development."
The
award — worth 10 million Swedish kronor (US$1 million)
— singled out Carter's "vital contribution" to the
Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt and his efforts
in conflict resolution on several continents and the promotion
of human rights after his presidency.
Carter,
the 39th U.S. president, welcomed the award, saying the
Nobel Prize "encourages people to think about peace and
human rights."
He
said his most significant work has been through the Carter
Center, the ambitious, Atlanta-based think tank and activist
policy center he and wife Rosalynn founded in 1982.
"When
I was at the White House I was a fairly young man and I
realized I would have maybe 25 more years of active life,"
Carter told the Cable News Network. He decided to "capitalize
on the influence I had as the former president of the greatest
nation of the world and decided to fill vacuums."
The
secretive, five-member committee made its decision last
week after months of deliberations as it sought the right
message for a world still dazed by the Sept. 11, 2001, terror
attacks, the war on terrorism that followed and concern
about a possible U.S. military strike against Iraq.
"It
should be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the
current administration has taken," Gunnar Berge, chairman
of the Nobel committee, said in Norwegian. "It's a kick
in the leg to all that follow the same line as the United
States."
Carter,
who was president from 1977-1981, brokered the 1978 agreements
that were signed by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli
Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the U.S. presidential retreat
Camp David.
But
while Sadat and Begin shared the 1978 Peace Prize for their
efforts, the Nobel committee said Carter was left out due
to a technicality — he was not nominated in time.
Carter,
a Democrat and former Georgia governor, rose from life as
a small-town peanut farmer to become president in 1976 after
a campaign that stressed honesty in the wake of the Watergate
controversy.
But
he returned home after a landslide loss to Republican Ronald
Reagan in 1980 after a presidency undermined by double-digit
inflation, an energy crunch that forced Americans to wait
in line for gasoline, and the 444-day hostage crisis in
Iran.
Carter
overcame the voter repudiation and has doggedly pursued
a role on the world stage as a peacemaker and champion of
democracy and human rights.
He
helped defuse growing nuclear tensions in Korea, then helped
narrowly avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti in 1994, as well
as leading conflict mediation and elections monitoring efforts
around the world.
"In
a situation currently marked by threats of the use of power,
Carter has stood by the principles that conflicts must as
far as possible be resolved through mediation and international
co-operation based on international law, respect for human
rights, and economic development," the citation said.
Last
year's award was shared by the United Nations and its secretary-general,
Kofi Annan.
The
Norwegian Nobel committee received a record 156 nominations
— 117 individuals and 39 groups — by the Feb.
1 deadline. The list remains secret for 50 years, but those
who nominate sometimes announce their choice.
The
first Nobel Peace Prize, in 1901, honored Jean Henry Dunant,
the Swiss founder of the Red Cross.
The
prizes were created by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel
in his will and always are presented on Dec. 10, the anniversary
of his 1896 death.
The
week began with the naming of medicine prize winners American
H. Robert Horvitz and Britons Sydney Brenner and John E.
Sulston for groundbreaking research into organ growth and
cell death — work that has opened new avenues for treating
cancer, stroke and other diseases.
The
physics award went Tuesday to Masatoshi Koshiba of Japan
and Americans Riccardo Giacconi and Raymond Davis Jr. for
using some of the most obscure particles and waves in nature
to increase understanding of the universe.
On
Wednesday, the economics prize went to Americans Daniel
Kahneman and Vernon L. Smith for pioneering the use of psychological
and experimental economics in decision-making. That same
day, American John B. Fenn, Koichi Tanaka of Japan and Kurt
Wuethrich of Switzerland were given the chemistry prize
for making two existing lab techniques work for big molecules
like proteins.
Imre
Kertesz, a Hungarian who survived Auschwitz as a teenager,
won the literature prize Thursday for writing that "upholds
the fragile experience of the individual against the barbaric
arbitrariness of history," the Swedish Academy said.
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