Bush deserves Nobel Peace Prize for Sudan efforts

WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (AFP) — US President George W. Bush should be awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize if his efforts to promote a resolution to Sudan’s long-running civil war are successful, a US lawmaker said.

In fact, in the event that Khartoum and southern rebels reach a permanent settlement and Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and former senator John Danforth, the special US envoy for Sudan, do not win the award, the Nobel selection committee would be guilty of “severe bias,” Representative Frank Wolf said.

“Quite frankly, if the administration is successful, … I think the president and the secretary and senator Danforth ought to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize,” he said.

“And, quite frankly, if there is a peace agreement in Sudan — a true one, a real one — and the Bush administration doesn’t get the Nobel prize, then I think it will indicate severe bias by the Nobel Prize selection committee,” Wolf opined.

“This is amazing. This war has been going on for 20 years,” he said. “This would be a big, big deal, and this administration deserves credit.”

Wolf, a Virginia Republican who has taken a special interest in Sudan, made the comments during a House budget subcommittee hearing on State Department public diplomacy efforts.

Despite high hopes for an agreement by the end of last year, Kenyan-mediated peace talks between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) are now on hiatus and not due to resume until mid-February.

Although they have reached a deal to split the country’s wealth, particularly oil revenues, the two sides remain deadlocked on several key areas, including power sharing and the future status of three disputed regions.

The war in Sudan, Africa’s largest nation, erupted in 1983 and has pitted the south, where most observe traditional African religions and Christianity, against the Muslim, Arabized north.

The conflict and war-related famine and disease have claimed at least 1.5 million lives and displaced an estimated four million people mostly in the south.