Nobel committee selects peace prize laureate in wake of terrorism, war

Friday, October 4th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OSLO, Norway (AP) _ The Nobel Peace Prize committee has chosen this year's winner from nominees including President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The award will be announced next week.

As usual, the five-member panel offered no hint of the winner.

Committee secretary Geir Lundestad would only say that a decision was made Thursday and would be disclosed Oct. 11.

``We have noted in the media that there is no clear favorite,'' Lundestad said.

There were a record 156 nominations _ 117 individuals and 39 groups _ at the Feb. 1 deadline.

The Afghan president was among the known nominees for his efforts to lead his country to peace.

Stein Toennesson, director of the International Peace Research Institute, Oslo, said the prize could reflect the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks in New York and Washington by honoring a pro-democracy Muslim and he assumed Karzai ``was in the run-off.''

Nominations can be made by former laureates, committee members, some university professors and selected organizations. They are kept secret for 50 years, although those making them often announce their choice.

Bush and Blair were nominated for leading the war against terrorism but were seen as unlikely winners in the wake of unpopular efforts to convince the world of the need to overthrow Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

``The committee isn't that crazy,'' said Sverre Lodgaard, director of the Norwegian Institute of International affairs.

Toennesson said such a selection would be ``impossible.''

``The Nobel Peace Prize committee would lose all credibility in Europe,'' he said.

Both said any prize to an American probably would indirectly criticize current U.S. policies.

Former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia and Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the architects of the decade-old campaign to safeguard the former Soviet Union's nuclear waste and its arsenal, emerged as favorites on some lists as voices of moderation in U.S. foreign policy.

``Many would see this as at least as important as going to war against Iraq: to remove the nuclear weapons and materials that could fall into the hands of terrorists. And this is very much September 11-related,'' Lodgaard said.

Toennesson said such a prize would ``send a signal to the United States endorsing a more moderate line than that of the current administration.''

A prize reflecting Norwegian-led Sri Lankan peace talks was another possibility.

Other known candidates were former President Jimmy Carter, the Salvation Army, the Peace Corps and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world's 300 million orthodox Christians who promotes environmental protection and religious tolerance.

Last year's prize, marking the 100th anniversary of the first award in 1901, went to the United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The Nobel Prizes, worth $1 million, always are presented on Dec. 10, the anniversary of their Swedish creator Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.

The prizes in physiology or medicine, literature, physics, chemistry and economics are awarded in the Swedish capital, Stockholm, while the peace prize is awarded in Oslo.