[ALBSA-Info] Nobel Peace Prize

[Agron Alibali]

               February 23, 2000; Wednesday 1:52 PM, 

150 Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO, Norway

 
    The Nobel Peace Prize committee picked a new
leader and began trimming a
record 150-name nomination list at its first meeting
of the year on Wednesday.

   President Clinton, a small  Albanian  town and
American peace envoy George
Mitchell, as well as groups like the U.S.-based Human
Rights Watch, were among
the candidates.

   Geir Lundestad, the committee's nonvoting
secretary, said 36 groups and 114
individuals were nominated, but the lists are always
cut to 20 or 30 at the
first meeting of the year. He said the winner will
most likely be announced on
Oct. 13.

   The secretive five-member committee never releases
or confirms the names of
nominees, although those making nominations often
announce them.

   The number rose to 150 from the 144 announced on
Feb. 11 because more valid
nominations postmarked by the Feb. 1 deadline arrived
and the committee added
their own nominations.

   ''There is nothing dramatic about committee members
proposing candidates.
They add people to the list, but that does not mean
they feel bound to support
them,'' Lundestad told The Associated Press.

   Committee members are appointed by, but do not
answer to Norway's parliament.

   Clinton was nominated by two Norwegian legislators
for helping secure world
peace. Mitchell, a U.S. senator, was nominated for
trying to broker peace in
Northern Ireland.

   Other nominees include Finnish President Martti
Ahtisaari and former Russian 
Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin for their Balkan
peace efforts; the Salvation
Army; and the  Albanian  town of Kukes for sheltering
thousands of refugees
during the Kosovo crisis.

   The Nobel Prizes are always presented on the Dec.
10 anniversary of the death
of their creator, Alfred Nobel, a Swedish
industrialist. The peace prize is
awarded in Oslo and the other Nobel prizes in
Stockholm, Sweden.

   The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders won
last year's prize.
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