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Carter prize dissent Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20021011/ap_on_re_eu/nobel_peace_flap_3
World - AP Europe
Criticism of Bush Causes Nobel Flap
Fri Oct 11, 1:16 PM ET
By DOUG MELLGREN, Associated Press Writer
OSLO, Norway (AP) - In a rare show of discord, members of the Nobel Peace Prize committee criticized their chairman for using the award Friday to former President Jimmy Carter to speak out against the Bush administration's threats of war against Iraq.
The secretive, five-member committee is appointed by parliament based on the strengths of the parties represented in the legislature, so they range from the far-left to the far-right of Norwegian politics. Committee decisions are made by consensus.
At a news conference, Nobel Committee Chairman Gunnar Berge said that, in addition to honoring Carter, the 2002 prize "should be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the current (U.S.) administration has taken."
"It's a kick in the leg to all that follow the same line as the United States," he added.
Although the committee has often used the prize to send a political message, it rarely makes such a direct comment and some committee members distanced themselves from the remarks.
"As I see it, that is not the committee's opinion," said Inger Marie Ytterhorn of the right-wing Party of Progress. She said only the awards citation represented the committee's view.
Hanna Kvanmo of the Socialist Left Party also said the statements represented Berge's own opinion.
However, committee member Gunnar Staalsett said he fully supported the remarks and agreed that the citation was indeed a criticism of President Bush (news - web sites).
"Berge offered an interpretation that I have no problem in supporting," Staalsett said.
The peace citation did not mention Iraq but clearly implies criticism of Bush's foreign policy.
"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," the citation said.
"There can't be much doubt about the intention of that," committee secretary Geir Lundestad said about the phrasing being an indirect criticism of Bush.
Lundestad, who does not have voting power and has been committee secretary since 1990, stressed the committee was unanimous about the selection of Carter.
Berge, whose term ends this year, later conceded the others might have phrased their response to questions about Iraq differently.
The Nobel committee had wanted to included Carter in the 1978 peace prize for brokering the Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt but could not because he wasn't nominated in time.
Carter had been nominated virtually every year since.
Stein Toennesson, director of the Peace Research Institute, Oslo, said he believed it was Carter's year because no other clear candidate emerged and the committee wanted to send a subtle message to the Bush administration.
"Berge was just too direct," Toennesson said.
The last, and one of the largest, public disputes on the committee was in 1994, when member Kaare Kristiansen quit rather than be party to a prize that included Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites), who shared the prize with Israeli leaders Yitzhak Rabin (news - web sites) and Shimon Peres.
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