Walesa on Nobel prize list again

Press, 25 September 1982, Page 8

Walesa on Nobel prize list again

NZPA-Reuter Oslo American Middle East envoy. Philip Habib. King Juan Carlos of Spain, and interned Polish. union leader, Lech •Walesa, are among 79 candidates for the 1982 Nobel Peace prize, to be announced on October 13. said Nobel institute director. Jakob Sverdrup yesterday. Mr Sverdrup confirmed press reports about the list of candidates, although the Norwegian Nobel Committee which awards the coveted prize never reveals the names. Mr Walesa, the Polish Solidarity leader who has been in internment since the declaration on martial law in December, was among the nominees for last year’s peace prize, which went to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Earlier this year. Mr Walesa received the Norwegian Fritt Ord (free speech) Prize, worth about $NZ22,000, which is normally awarded to Norwegians only. Others included in the list of individuals and organisations proposed for the 1982 Nobel Peace prize are the Swedish humanist Raoul

Wallenberg, who disappeared in the Soviet Union after World War two. and the Swedish disarmament expert. Alva Myrdal. The peace prize has been awarded 62 times in 80 years. This year's. prize is worth 1.25 million crowns (5NZ260.000). The prize money, together with the gold medal and diploma, will be handed to the winner on December 10. the anniversary of the death of the institute's founder. Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite. Meanwhile, the Nobel Prize Committee has received dozens of letters demanding that the 1978 peace prizd jointly awarded to Israel's Prime Minister. Mr Menachem Begin, and the late President Sadat of Egypt, be withdrawn from Mr Begin because of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. After the massacre of Palestinian refugees in Beirut last week. Norway’s Socialist Left and Liberal parties added their voices to the demands. But under the rules of the committee, the prize once awarded cannot be withdrawn.