Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos wins Nobel Peace Prize 2016

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 goes to President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos for his work to bring peace to his country.

We congratulate the new Nobel Peace Laureate and hope for peace in Colombia for many years to come.

The Nobel committee spokeswoman applauded President Santos for saying he would fight for peace until his last day in office.

“The committee hopes that the peace prize will give him strength to succeed in this demanding task. Further it is the committee’s hope that in the year’s to come, the Colombian people will reap the fruits of the reconciliation process.”

She said that though the peace accord was rejected in the referendum, the negotiations have “brought the bloody conflict significantly closer to a peaceful solution” and Santos’ “endeavours to promote peace demonstrate the spirit of Alfred Nobel’s will.”

The peace prize committee says that the result of the referendum, which was to reject the peace accord negotiated by President Santos and leader of the Farc rebels, Timochenko, could lead to a flare-up of conflict and civil war in the country and the committee strongly encourages Santos and Timochenko to respect the accord and “take their share of responsibility and participate constructively in the upcoming peace talks”.

She says that the referendum result was not the Colombian people rejecting peace, but rejecting the specific details of the peace deal put forward last week. She says that Santos’ role as president, as “keeper of the process” was very important and that while other attempts have been made to achieve peace in the country in the past, Santos went “all in”.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2016/oct/07/nobel-peace-prize-2016-announcement-live