Decades of peace work culminate in Nobel for Carter

The former president is awarded the peace prize for his efforts in the White House, and since leaving it.

©Los Angeles Times
October 12, 2002

ATLANTA -- Former President Jimmy Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in recognition of his role in brokering Middle East peace while in office and his globetrotting efforts since then to defuse conflicts and promote clean and fair government in some of the world's most forsaken places.

In awarding the prize to the 78-year-old Carter, the Norwegian Nobel Committee cited "his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development." The committee cited Carter's frequent work as an elections observer and credited the efforts of the Carter Center, founded in 1982, to combat disease and promote progress in the developing world.

As president, Carter played a central role in achieving the historic Camp David accords between Egypt and Israel in 1978. For 13 days at the Camp David presidential retreat, Carter served as host and mediator while Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli President Menachem Begin inched toward agreement. Sadat and Begin were jointly awarded the peace prize that year, but Carter wasn't nominated.

During the two decades since leaving office in 1981, Carter has used his prominence as a former U.S. president to broker talks in conflict-torn zones and to push for fair elections and other basic rights in hot spots around the world. Much of that work has been done under the aegis of the Atlanta-based Carter Center, founded by Carter and his wife, Rosalynn.

Carter said he was "humbled" by the Nobel prize, for which he had been nominated numerous times. "People everywhere share the same dream of a caring international community that prevents war and oppression. During the past two decades, as Rosalynn and I traveled around the world for the work of our center, my concept of human rights has grown to include not only the rights to live in peace, but also to adequate health care, food and to economic opportunity," the former president said in a statement released by the Carter Center.

Carter became the third U.S. president to win the Nobel honor, his predecessors being Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt. Carter said the peace prize "serves as an inspiration not only to us, but also to suffering people around the world."

The Nobel announcement, coming as the U.S. Congress granted President Bush authority to make good on threats to use force against Iraq, stirred fresh controversy over the escalating preparations for a possible war. The Nobel committee's statement appeared to allude to the Bush administration's threats to use force, if necessary, to disarm Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

"In a situation currently marked by threats of the use of power," the committee said, "Carter has stood by the principles that conflicts must as far as possible be resolved through mediation and international cooperation based on international law, respect for human rights and economic development."

The Nobel committee chairman, Gunnar Berge, was quoted as saying that the decision to award the prize to Carter "should be interpreted as a criticism of the line that the current administration has taken." But another committee member said the panel had not discussed Bush's policy toward Iraq and that Berge's opinion was his own.

Bush called to congratulate the former president about 7 a.m. Friday -- 21/2 hours after Carter got word of the award -- and the two spoke for "a couple of minutes," according to White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.

Fleischer declined to comment on Berge's comments. "The president thinks this is a great day for Jimmy Carter. That's what he's going to focus on," he said.

In a televised interview, Carter sidestepped a question about the committee's apparent criticism of the Bush administration's Iraq policy. But Carter said he would have voted against the Senate resolution authorizing Bush to use force. The resolution passed early Friday morning.

Former President Bill Clinton added his voice to a global chorus of congratulatory good will for Carter. "I cannot think of anyone more qualified to receive this year's Nobel Peace Prize than President Jimmy Carter," Clinton said in a statement. "He continues to inspire people everywhere, young and old alike, through his vigorous quest for peace, justice and a better quality of life for all citizens of the world."

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was among this year's nominees for the prize, said Carter "deserved it better than I, and he won it, and I'll try for it next year."

Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio said Carter's award was "wholly deserved." Sampaio praised Carter's efforts at achieving peace for East Timor, a former Portuguese colony annexed by Indonesia.

Carter, a Democrat, rose from a small-town peanut farmer to the presidency in 1976 after a campaign that stressed honesty in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

Four years later, he was turned out of office in a landslide to Ronald Reagan in 1980, undermined by double-digit inflation, an energy crunch that forced Americans to wait in line for gasoline, and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. In a famous speech in 1979, he lamented that the country was in a state of "paralysis and stagnation and drift."

Since leaving the White House, Carter has been an indefatigable advocate for finding peaceful answers to messy conflicts, from Sudan to Bosnia-Herzogovina. Over the years, his efforts at crisis resolution have produced a peaceful transition to civilian rule in Haiti and defused nuclear tensions between North Korea and the United States.

Admirers say that Carter has succeeded abroad by making effective use of the prestige -- and access to people in high places -- lent by his former office.

"People listen to him and respect what he has to say, most of the time. He carries the clout of the United States but not the baggage of the United States," said Heidi Burgess, co-director of the Conflict Resolution Consortium, which is based at the University of Colorado and examines long-standing disputes, such as those in the Middle East.

Carter will have little time to savor the Nobel honor. Next week, he is to lead a delegation to observe presidential elections in Jamaica.

"This is a great day for all of us," said Phil Wise, a Carter Center official. "But I guarantee that on Monday morning, life will be back to normal and we'll be back at work on these issues."

-- Information from the Associated Press was included in this report.

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