U.N., Annan win Nobel Peace Prize

Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS — In an era of spreading global terrorism and widening conflict, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the United Nations and Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday for their roles at the "forefront of efforts to achieve peace and security in the world."

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, marking the centennial of the prize, said its choice was designed "to proclaim that the only negotiable route to global peace and cooperation goes by way of the United Nations."

Annan said he was awakened in the early hours Friday by a phone call, which typically would have meant "something disastrous."

"But, of course," he said, "it was a wonderful way to wake up."

"I think the timing couldn’t be better," he told reporters who thronged his home in Manhattan. "I think it’s a great shot in the arm for us."

For an organization that has struggled financially and often been the target of vicious criticism, especially among conservative U.S. politicians, the award was a dizzying achievement. Delight spread among the 52,100 U.N. employees in offices and hot spots from Geneva and Lebanon to East Timor and Sierra Leone.

In its citation, the Nobel committee said, with the Cold War done, the United Nations was finally playing its intended role "at the forefront of efforts to achieve peace and security in the world, and of the international mobilization aimed at meeting the world’s economic, social and environmental challenges."

The secretary-general, it said, "has been pre-eminent in bringing new life to the organization."

Created from the ashes of World War II by 51 nations as a shell-shocked world’s hope for peace, the United Nations remains the unique global gathering place for nations — rich and poor, large and small — to try to settle international problems.

President Bush called Annan and told him "what a magnificent honor" it was to have won the 100th peace prize, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said in Washington, D.C.

Even Sen. Jesse Helms, a North Carolina Republican and longtime U.N critic who only recently made peace with the organization, praised the award.

"I extend my heartiest congratulations to my friend, the distinguished secretary-general, Kofi Annan," Helms said in a statement from Washington. "It’s significant that the secretary-general is being honored at a time when the world is gravely challenged in almost every respect."