[Kabar-indonesia] Indonesia President: Any Nobel Prize For Aceh Should Be Shared

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

Indonesia President: Any Nobel Prize For Aceh Should Be Shared

JAKARTA, Oct. 3 (AP) -- Indonesia's president said Tuesday he would be 
honored 
to accept this year's Nobel Peace Prize for helping to end a bloody war in 
Aceh province, but said it would be better if all parties involved in the deal 
were awarded. 

Experts and bookmakers are predicting that the Norwegian committee that 
awards the prize will honor the Aug. 15, 2005, peace agreement between Indonesia's 
government and Aceh separatist rebels, which ended 29 years of fighting that 
left 15,000 people dead. 

Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president who mediated the deal, President 
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the former rebel movement have all been tipped 
as possible winners. Some experts say the committee is likely to split the 
award three ways. 

Yudhoyono said dividing the award among 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. 

The Nobel Peace Prize, first awarded in 1901, will be announced on Oct. 13 
in Oslo, Sweden. 

------------------------------------------
Joyo Indonesia News Service
------------------------------------------