MSF wins NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

[thiru balasubramaniam <thiru@cptech.org>]

Fearless' MSF Wins Nobel Peace Prize

                   By Alister Doyle

  OSLO (Reuters) - Medical relief group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)
  won the last Nobel Peace Prize of the century Friday and dedicated it
to
  ``forgotten populations'' of the world from Congo to Afghanistan.

 The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the prize honored MSF, also known
 as Doctors Without Borders, for ``pioneering humanitarian work on
several
 continents'' and for its speed and fearlessness in providing emergency
aid.

 MSF welcomed the award -- one of the least controversial Nobel Peace
Prizes in years. But it
 expressed concern that the prestige of the prize might jeopardize an
independence built up since it was
 founded in 1971, mainly by French doctors.

 MSF calls itself the world's largest independent medical aid agency. It
has offices in 23 nations and
 sends more than 2,000 white-coated workers around the globe annually.

 James Orbinski, MSF International president, said in Paris that the
award was ... ``an important high-level
 confirmation of the fundamental right of ordinary people to
humanitarian assistance and protection.''

 He called it ... ``an opportunity to highlight the forgotten
populations of the world who exist in extremely
 precarious situations, for example in Congo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan
and in many of the other 80
 countries where we work.''

 Praise for the prize came from politicians including French President
Jacques Chirac, who called it an
 ``honor for France'' and a tribute to MSF's volunteers. The Red Cross
and the U.N. refugee agency, both
 former laureates, also praised MSF.

 Orbinski, a Canadian, sounded a wary note that the award ... ''is in
some ways a risk for MSF because it
 in some ways reinforces the institutionalization of humanitarian
assistance.''

 No Auschwitz

 MSF co-founder Bernard Kouchner, an ex-French health minister and now
interim U.N. administrator in
 Kosovo, said that the presence of groups like MSF would make massacres
such as at Auschwitz,
 Cambodia and Rwanda impossible in the next century.

 MSF won the prize from a field of 136 candidates including Chinese
dissidents, Pope John Paul and
 Israeli President Ezer Weizman.

 China had warned the committee not to give the prize to dissidents,
saying it would be ``rude
 interference.'' Committee chairman Francis Sejersted said MSF was
picked last month, so Beijing's
 warning Thursday had no impact.

 The Nobel committee said MSF ...''has adhered to the fundamental
principal that all disaster victims,
 whether the disaster is natural or human in origin, have a right to
professional assistance, given as
 quickly and efficiently as possible.

 ``Each fearless and self-sacrificing helper shows each victim a human
face, stands for respect for that
 person's dignity, and is a source of hope for peace and
reconciliation,'' it said.

 MSF played a key role in this year's biggest humanitarian crises, in
Kosovo and East Timor, where its
 doctors were the last medical aid workers to leave the strife-torn
regions at the height of the fighting and
 among the first to return.

 It was also active in helping victims of Turkey's deadly earthquake,
which killed more than 17,000
 people. MSF says that less high-profile projects include fighting
sleeping sickness in Uganda or bone
 disease in Tibet.

 After the end of the Cold War, it broke new ground by providing medical
aid not just to Third World
 nations but also industrialized states -- like Russia and Albania --
with struggling health services.

 First Nobel To Organization Since 1988

 It was the first Nobel Peace Prize given solely to an organization
since the U.N. peacekeeping forces
 won the award in 1988. The last medical group to win was International
Physicians for the Prevention of
 Nuclear War, in 1985.

 Sejersted noted there was a long tradition of giving the prize to
humanitarian groups, stretching back to
 the first award in 1901 that went to Henri Dunant, the founder of the
Red Cross.

 The award is named after Sweden's Alfred Nobel, the inventor of
dynamite, and is worth 7.9 million
 Swedish crowns ($980,000). It will be handed out in Oslo on December
10.

 MSF traces its roots to outrage caused by images of starving children
during the Biafran war in Nigeria in
 1970.

 The prize was the last Nobel award this century. Prizes for economics,
physics, literature, medicine and
 chemistry were announced in Stockholm earlier this month. 
-- 
Thiru Balasubramaniam
thiru@cptech.org
http://www.cptech.org/thiru