Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos yesterday won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize  for his efforts to end a 52-year-old war with Marxist guerrillas, a surprise choice and a show of support days after voters rejected a peace deal he signed with the rebels.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Santos had brought one of the longest civil wars in modern history significantly closer to a peaceful solution, but there was still a danger the peace process could collapse.
The award excluded Farc guerrilla leader Rodrigo Londono, better known by his nom de guerre Timochenko, who signed the peace accord with Santos in Cartagena on September 26.
Santos has promised to revive the plan even though Colombians narrowly rejected it in a referendum on Sunday. Many voters believed it was too lenient on the Farc guerrillas.
“There is a real danger that the peace process will come to a halt and that civil war will flare up again. This makes it even more important that the parties... continue to respect the ceasefire,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.
“The fact that a majority of the voters said ‘No’ to the peace accord does not necessarily mean that the peace process is dead.”
More than 220,000 people have died on the battlefield or in massacres during the conflict between leftist guerrillas, government troops and right-wing paramilitaries. Millions have been displaced and many beg on the streets of the capital, while economic potential has been held up in the mostly rural nation.
“I infinitely appreciate from all of my heart this honourable distinction, not in my name, but the name of all Colombians, and especially the millions of victims that have been left by the conflict we have suffered for more than 50 years,” Santos, 65, said in a brief statement on television.
“Thank God peace is close. Peace is possible.”
The committee released audio of the winner being informed of his award. In it, Santos sounded moved, saying he was “so honoured and so grateful”, adding that the prize would be a “great push” towards peace.
“We’re on the verge of reaching that end of this war, and this (the award) is going to be very important,” he added.
Asked why Londono was left out, committee leader Kaci Kullmann Five said Santos had been central to the process.
“President Santos has been taking the very first and historic initiative. There have been other tries, but this time he went all-in as leader of the government with a strong will to reach a result. That’s why we have put the emphasis on president.”
She declined to elaborate on Londono’s role. Londono via Twitter congratulated Santos, and thanked countries including Cuba and Venezuela for supporting the process.
“The only prize to which we aspire is that of peace with social justice for a Colombia without paramilitarism, without retaliation nor lies,” he wrote on his personal Twitter account after the award went only to Santos.
Santos is the first Latin American to receive the peace prize since indigenous rights campaigner Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala won in 1992, and is the second Colombian laureate after writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who won the literature prize in 1982.
The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 8mn Swedish crowns ($930,000), will be presented in Oslo on December10.

Greetings from Qatar


HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, HH the Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani and HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani have sent  cables of congratulations to Colombian President  Juan Manuel Santos on the occasion of his being awarded the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his resolute efforts to end more than five decades of civil war in his country.