The UN today hailed this year’s Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, for his political courage and voiced hope the award would boost his country’s troubled peace process.
The UN rights Chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, would obviously hope that this gives a big boost to the peace process which has been going through a bit of a roller coaster in the past two weeks.
Today’s announcement by the Norwegian Nobel Committee came as a surprise after Colombian voters rejected the terms of a historic deal Santos reached last month with FARC rebel chief Rodrigo Londono, alias Timoleon “Timochenko” Jimenez, after nearly four years of talks.
The Colombia conflict has killed more than 260,000 people and left 45,000 missing over five decades. It has also forced some seven million people to flee their homes, displacing them either inside the country or prompting them to become refugees.