Indonesia’s president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said September 03 that he would be honored to accept the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for helping to end a bloody war in Aceh province, but it would be better if all parties involved in the peace process were awarded.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari who mediated the deal, and the former rebel movement have all been tipped as possible winners in the prize which will be announced on October 13 in Oslo, Norway.
Experts and bookmakers are predicting that the Norwegian committee that awards the prize will honor the peace agreement between Indonesia’s government and Aceh separatist rebels that ended 29 years of fighting which left 15,000 people dead.
Some experts say the committee is likely to split the award three ways.
Yudhoyono said dividing the award between Ahtisaari, himself, the former guerrillas, the negotiators, the Indonesian security forces, the peace monitors and local parliamentarians and religious leaders would be best.
“If Allah wants us to receive the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, then those parties who I mentioned surely have the right to the award,” Yudhoyono said in a statement read by his spokesman.
Other favorites this year include exiled Chinese human-rights activist Rebiya Kadeer, Chechen lawyer Lida Yusupova, U.N. chief war-crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, Belarus human-rights activist Aliaksandr Bialiats, as well as musicians Bono and Bob Geldof.
