Nobel Peace Prize for the man who ended the bloodbath in Colombia

The 2016 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Colombian president for successfully negotiating a peace deal with the FARC rebels, ending decades of instability in the country.

On October 7 in Oslo, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the winner of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize as Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Mr Santos was awarded the prize for his "resolute efforts to end more than 50 years of civil war that has killed at least 220,000 Colombians and displaced nearly 6 million."

The award, the committee said, should be seen as a recognition of the Colombian people, who “have suffered much and have been persecuted… but have not given up hope for peace.”

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos. Photo: AP

Mr. Santos initiated the negotiations that led to the signing of the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrillas. Despite knowing that the agreement would be controversial, given the number of victims killed by the FARC over the past 50 years, Mr. Santos persisted in pursuing the peace agreement.

The Colombian Civil War is one of the longest civil wars in modern history and is currently the only ongoing armed conflict in the Americas.

The result was surprising because Colombians had rejected the deal in a referendum less than a week earlier. The parties were expected to renegotiate.

There were fears that violence could return if the FARC refused to return to the negotiating table. The Nobel committee acknowledged that the referendum result was unsatisfactory to Mr Santos and raised questions about Colombia's future.

“This makes it all the more important that the parties respect the ceasefire agreement,” the commission said in a statement. The result of the referendum does not mean “the peace process is dead,” the commission said.

According to the Nobel Committee, despite the referendum defeat, Mr. Santos' peace deal has brought "the bloody conflict closer to a peaceful solution."

This year's Nobel Peace Prize winner was chosen from a list of 376 nominees, including 228 individuals and 148 groups, the most ever. However, the specific identities of the nominees are kept secret and will not be announced until 50 years after the award, similar to other Nobel Prizes.

Between 1901 and 2015, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded 96 times to individuals and groups. In 2015, the Norwegian Nobel Committee surprised everyone by awarding the prize to the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet for its efforts to bring democracy to the North African country.

The only Vietnamese person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was Mr. Le Duc Tho, who represented the Democratic Republic of Vietnam delegation to sign the Paris Agreement in 1973. However, Mr. Le Duc Tho refused to accept the prize on the grounds that peace had not yet been restored in Vietnam. He is also the only person in the history of this award to refuse to accept the prize.

According to Zing.vn