06:40

Colombia is just waking up to the news of the Nobel peace prize for President Juan Manuel Santos. It comes as a surprise for many Colombians who believed his chances had been scuttled by the rejection of the peace deal his government had hammered out with Farc rebels after four years of talks in a referendum on 2 October.

According to Kristian Herbolzheimer, of peace consultancy Conciliation Resources, given the “toxic dynamic” of local politics after the referendum, the prize’s consequences domestically are “unpredictable”.

Critics of Santos had derided the president for allegedly being motivated by winning the Nobel prize in his search for peace in Colombia. Last night someone who voted no in the plebiscite told me she was happy because the result of the vote meant Santos wouldn’t get the prize.

Carlos Holmes Trujillo, a member of the opposition Democratic Centre party and the committee designated to search for a way out of the crisis, told local radio that the prize is “a well-deserved recognition by the international community of the efforts he has been making for peace”.

The former president Álvaro Uribe, who campaigned vehemently against the peace deal with the Farc and has been a constant critic of Santos, has been tweeting since 5am (11am UK time) but has made no mention of the peace prize for his arch-rival. Also no reaction yet from Farc leadership who are in Havana.

César Rodriguez Garavito, the director of Dejusticia, a Colombian thinktank, says the Nobel prize will boost efforts to reach a new peace deal. Those who led the campaign for rejecting the peace accord in last week’s referendum are in talks with the government to make changes to the agreement that will make it more palatable to the half of Colombian voters who rejected it.

“It doesn’t change the results of the plebiscite, but it reminds the parties that what is at stake is the end of the war, not political calculations,” said Garavito. “It’s a recognition of the titanic efforts to reach peace.”</s>The Nobel Prize Teacher Summit is an international teacher conference held in Stockholm every year. Teachers meet Nobel Prize Laureates, top scientists and peace activists around a theme of great importance. The 2019 theme is 'Climate change changes everything'.

Read more at the Nobel Prize Museum’s website.</s>WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2016 'for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end.'



Santos was selected from a list of 376 candidates.



Announcing the award on Friday, Kaci Kullman Five, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the award should also be seen as a tribute to the Colombian people who, despite great hardships and abuses, have not given up hope of a just peace, and to all the parties who have contributed to the peace process. 



President Santos initiated the negotiations that culminated in the signing of a peace accord between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas in Cartagena in September, putting an end to a war that cost the lives of at least 220,000 Colombians and displaced close to six million people.



However, a narrow majority of the over 13 million Colombians who cast their ballots said no to the accord. This result has created great uncertainty as to the future of Colombia, and a real danger that the peace process will come to a halt and that civil war will flare up again. 



The Norwegian Nobel Committee emphasized the importance of the fact that President Santos is now inviting all parties to participate in a broad-based national dialogue aimed at advancing the peace process. 



The civil war in Colombia is one of the longest civil wars in modern times and the sole remaining armed conflict in the Americas. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it firmly believes that President Santos, despite the 'No' majority vote in the referendum, has brought the bloody conflict significantly closer to a peaceful solution, and that much of the groundwork has been laid for both the verifiable disarmament of the FARC guerrillas and a historic process of national fraternity and reconciliation. 



The Nobel Peace prize, worth Swedish kronor 8 million or $0.925 million, will be awarded on December 10, the date of Alfred Nobel's death.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX</s>Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos has been awarded the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end five decades of war in his country. PHOTO | AFP

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in a surprise choice after Colombians voted "No" to an agreement he signed with Marxist rebels to end 52 years of war.

President Santos has promised to revive the peace plan even though Colombians, in a referendum on Sunday, narrowly rejected the accord. Many voters believed it was too lenient on the FARC guerrillas.

"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end," said committee leader Kaci Kullmann Five.

"The award should also be seen as a tribute to the Colombian people," she added when announcing the prize.

Voters did not say "No" to peace but to the agreement, she said.

The award pointedly excluded FARC guerrilla leader Rodrigo Londono, better known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, who signed the deal with Santos.

Some Nobel watchers had taken Colombia off their lists of favourites after the referendum "No".

"The fact that a majority of the voters said "No" to the peace accord does not necessarily mean that the peace process is dead," the committee said.

"This makes it even more important that the parties, headed by President Santos and FARC guerrilla leader Rodrigo Londoño, continue to respect the ceasefire," the committee said.

The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 8 million Swedish crowns ($930,000), will be presented in Oslo on December 10.</s>Efforts by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos to end five decades of war in his country were recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

The award came despite voters’ shock rejection of the terms of a historic deal he reached last month with FARC chief Rodrigo Londono, alias Timoleon “Timochenko” Jimenez, after nearly four years of talks.

“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end,” said committee chairwoman Kaci Kullmann Five.

Santos takes home the eight million Swedish kronor (around $924,000 or 831,000 euros) prize sum.

The peace prize is the only one of the six awards announced in Norway. Swedish inventor and scholar Alfred Nobel, who created the prizes in his 1895 testament, wanted to include Norway in his initiative, since Norway and Sweden were joined in a union at the time.</s>The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his resolute efforts to bring the country’s more than 50-year-long civil war to an end.

This war has cost the lives of at least 220 000 Colombians and displaced close to six million people. The Nobel Committee says the award should also be seen as a tribute to the Colombian people who, despite great hardships and abuses, have not given up hope of a just peace, and to all the parties who have contributed to the peace process. This tribute is paid, not least, to the representatives of the countless victims of the civil war.

By awarding this year’s Peace Prize to President Juan Manuel Santos, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to encourage all those who are striving to achieve peace, reconciliation and justice in Colombia. The president himself has made it clear that he will continue to work for peace right up until his very last day in office. The Committee hopes that the Peace Prize will give him strength to succeed in this demanding task. Furthermore, it is the Committee’s hope that in the years to come the Colombian people will reap the fruits of the ongoing peace and reconciliation process. Only then will the country be able to address effectively major challenges such as poverty, social injustice and drug-related crime.

The civil war in Colombia is one of the longest civil wars in modern times and the sole remaining armed conflict in the Americas. It is the Norwegian Nobel Committee’s firm belief that President Santos, despite the "No" majority vote in the referendum, has brought the bloody conflict significantly closer to a peaceful solution, and that much of the groundwork has been laid for both the verifiable disarmament of the FARC guerrillas and a historic process of national fraternity and reconciliation. His endeavors to promote peace thus fulfil the criteria and spirit of Alfred Nobel’s will.</s>The award should also be seen as a tribute to the Colombian people, said the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2016 has been awarded to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos for his efforts to end his country's 50-year civil war.

Mr Santos negotiated a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) guerrilla group but the peace deal was rejected by a narrow majority of Colombians when it was put to referendum.

“The award should also be seen as a tribute to the Colombian people who, despite great hardships and abuses, have not given up hope of a just peace, and to all the parties who have contributed to the peace process,” said a statement by the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

”Thank you from the bottom of my heart and in the name of all the Colombians, especially the victims.” President Santos said on being awarded the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. He emphasised that he received the award on behalf of his fellow citizens.

One of the five prizes instituted by Alfred Nobel, the Peace Prize is awarded to those who have “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Last year’s Peace Prize went to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet for “for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.”</s>Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos has said he is deeply honoured to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end a five-decade civil war that has killed more than 200,000 people.</s>BOGOTA, Colombia — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his efforts to end Latin America's longest-running armed conflict, an honor that came just five days after voters dealt him a blow by rejecting a peace deal with leftist rebels.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Santos for his "resolute" attempts to stop a civil war that has killed more than 200,000 Colombians and displaced millions since the 1960s. But in a departure from its tradition of honoring both sides of a peace process, the five-member committee left out Santos' counterpart, rebel leader Rodrigo Londono, from the honor.

Santos, 65, dedicated the prize to his fellow Colombians, especially victims of the bloody conflict, and said it redoubles his commitment to ending hostilities, something he said he would work toward for the rest of his life.

"I invite everyone to bring together our strength, our minds and our hearts in this great national endeavor so that we can win the most important prize of all: peace in Colombia," Santos said alongside his wife in his first public appearance since winning the Nobel.

Santos and Londono — leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, better known by its Spanish acronym FARC — signed a peace deal last month to end the conflict after more than four years of negotiations in Cuba.

But Sunday, voters rejected the deal by the narrowest of margins — less than half a percentage point — over concerns that the rebels, who are widely loathed by Colombians for committing scores of atrocities, were getting a sweetheart deal.

Under the accord, rebels who turn over their weapons and confess their crimes would be spared jail, and the group would be reserved seats in congress to help smooth its transition to a political movement.

"The referendum was not a vote for or against peace," the Nobel committee said Friday, insisting the peace process wasn't dead. "What the 'No' side rejected was not the desire for peace, but a specific peace agreement."</s>OSLO, Norway (AP) — Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his efforts to end a five-decades-long civil war that has killed more than 200,000 people in the South American country.

The award came just days after Colombian voters narrowly rejected the peace deal that Santos helped bring about, and Nobel judges conspicuously left out his counterpart, Rodrigo Londono, the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), from the honor.

"The referendum was not a vote for or against peace," the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, insisting the peace process wasn't dead. "What the 'No' side rejected was not the desire for peace, but a specific peace agreement."

Colombian voters rejected the deal Sunday by the narrowest of margins — less than a half percentage point — over concerns that the rebels, who were behind scores of atrocities, were getting a sweetheart deal. Under the terms of the accord, rebels who turn over their weapons and confess their crimes will be spared jail time and the FARC instead would be given 10 seats in congress through 2026.

There was no immediate reaction from Santos to the award, which was announced in the middle of the night in Colombia. But the Nobel media group on Twitter quoted him as saying: "I have received this award in their name: the Colombian people who have suffered so much with this war."

In Bogota, some 20 activists camped out in front of Colombia's congress to demand the peace deal not be scuttled shouted "Peace deal now!" and "Colombia wants peace!" at the news.

"This is a big help, but we're not leaving until there's peace," said Juliana Bohorquez, a 31-year-old artist.

Santos and Londono, better known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, signed the peace deal last month after more than four years of negotiations in Cuba. Six days later, Colombians rejected it in the referendum.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it believes that Santos, despite the "No" vote, "has brought the bloody conflict significantly closer to a peaceful solution."

It said the award should also be seen "as a tribute to the Colombian people who, despite great hardships and abuses, have not given up hope of a just peace, and to all the parties who have contributed to the peace process."

Committee secretary Olav Njoelstad said there was "broad consensus" on picking Santos as this year's laureate — the first time the peace prize went to Latin America since 1992, when Guatemalan human rights activist Rigoberta Menchu won.

Yet awarding Santos alone was a departure from the Nobel committee's tradition of honoring both sides in a peace process, like it did in 1994 for an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord and in 1998 for peace talks in Northern Ireland.

"I can't think of another time when they didn't give to both sides," said Nobel historian Asle Sveen, who isn't connected to the committee. "But the referendum made it difficult. The opposition who won the referendum would have been provoked. I suspect the committee took the FARC out at the last minute."

Santos, 65, is an unlikely peacemaker. The Harvard-educated scion of one of Colombia's wealthiest families, as defense minister a decade ago, he was responsible for some of the FARC's biggest military setbacks. Those included a 2008 cross-border raid into Ecuador that took out a top rebel commander and the stealth rescue of three Americans held captive by the rebels for more than five years.

Santos and Londono met only twice during the entire peace process: last year when they put the final touches on the most-controversial section of the accord — how guerrillas would be punished for war crimes — and last month to sign the accord before an audience of world leaders and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

The Colombian vote Sunday was also seen as a referendum of sorts on Santos, who has staked his presidency on securing peace but in the process, critics say, neglected the economy and other pressing issues. Santos' approval rating in July was near the lowest it has been since he took office in 2010.

Prize committee chair Kaci Kullmann Five said Santos has made it clear that he will continue to work for peace in Colombia.

"The Committee hopes that the peace prize will give him strength to succeed in this demanding task," she said.

Norway, along with Cuba, has been a sponsor of the Colombian peace process since the outset. The public phase of talks began in Oslo in 2012 and the Norwegian government's bald-headed, mustached representative to the talks, Dag Nylander, has become a minor celebrity among Colombians, who have followed every announcement from Havana on TV. "It takes great courage pursuing peace and securing a final outcome that can end the conflict," he wrote. A record 376 candidates were nominated for this year's award, which carries a prize of 8 million Swedish kronor (about $930,000). Last year's peace prize went to Tunisia's National Dialogue Quartet for its efforts to build a pluralistic democracy. The 2016 Nobel Prize announcements continue with the economics prize on Monday and the literature award on Thursday. All awards will be handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896. Ritter reported from Stockholm. Joshua Goodman in Bogota, Colombia, contributed to this report.
The Nobel Prize committee awards Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos the Nobel Peace Prize for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end, a war that has cost the lives of at least 220 thousand Colombians and displaced close to six million people.