WBT | Added on October 11, 2013
CNN's Fred Pleitgen talks about what the 2013
Nobel Peace Prize winners were doing in Syria.
By Ben Brumfield and Laura
Smith-Spark, CNN
October 11, 2013 -- Updated 1611 GMT (0011
HKT)
(CNN) -- The Nobel Peace Prize has turned the global spotlight back
on the conflict in Syria.
The prize committee in Oslo, Norway, awarded
it Friday to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the
international chemical weapons watchdog helping to eliminate the Syrian army's
stockpiles of poison gas.
Its inspectors have just begun working in the
active war zone, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee said it hopes the award
offers "strong support" to them as they face arduous and
life-threatening tasks.
But the OPCW did not receive the prize
primarily because of its work in Syria, committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland
said. "It is because of its long-standing efforts to eliminate chemical
weapons and that we are now about to reach the goal and do away with a whole
category of weapons of mass destruction. That would be a great event in
history, if we can achieve that."
Nevertheless, OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said he wants the
prize to inspire everyone to reach for peace in Syria.
"I truly hope that this award ... will
help broader efforts to achieve peace in that country and (ease) the
suffering of its people," Uzumcu said told reporters Friday afternoon.
Uzumcu, saying he was "pleasantly
surprised" by the award and acknowledging it was a great honor, added that
"events in Syria have been a tragic reminder that there remains much work
yet to be done."
"The recognition that the peace prize
brings will spur us to untiring effort, even stronger commitment and greater
dedication," he said.
Team
in Syria
A team from the OPCW and the United Nations
has been in Syria since October 1, and it oversaw the first destruction of
chemical weapons equipment this week.
On Sunday, Syrian personnel used
"cutting torches and angle grinders to destroy or disable a range of
items," the OPCW said. "This included missile warheads, aerial bombs
and mixing and filling equipment."
Given the danger the inspectors face, U.N.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week described the joint OPCW-U.N. mission
in Syria as "an operation the likes of which, quite simply, have never
been tried before."
The joint mission is tasked by a U.N. Security
Council resolution with eliminating all chemical weapons in the country by
midyear 2014.
Ban has set out the three phases of the
mission: establishing an initial presence and verifying the Syrian government's
declaration of its stockpiles; overseeing the destruction of chemical weapons;
and verification of the destruction of any and all chemical weapons-related
programs or materials.
The team is in Syria is made up of 35
members, but the OPCW is preparing to deploy a second team to strengthen the
effort. The group plans to grow the team to 100.
The government in Damascus has been
cooperative so far, and there is hope they will reach their goal.
"These developments present a constructive beginning for what
will nonetheless be a long and difficult process," Uzumcu said.
On August 21, a chemical attack outside
Damascus led the United States and its allies to call for military intervention
in Syria's civil war -- a confrontation that was defused in mid-September, when
Damascus agreed to a U.S.-Russian plan to give up its chemical weapons
stockpile.
The United States estimates the Syrian
arsenal at about 1,000 tons of blister agents and nerve gas. The Syrians
provided an initial declaration of its stockpile and must submit a plan for
destroying the weapons by October 27, Uzumcu said.
Nobel
justification
The award to the OPCW was intended in part as
a message to countries still harboring chemical weapons to get rid of them,
Jagland said.
In awarding the prize, the Norwegian
committee highlighted the widespread use of chemical weapons in World War I and
efforts to stop it since.
In 1925, the Geneva Convention prohibited
their use. But during World War II, the Nazi dictatorship under Adolf Hitler
employed them to extinguish the lives of millions of concentration camp inmates
in the Holocaust.
The Geneva Convention left some loopholes
open, though, the Norwegian committee said. It does not prohibit the production
and storage of chemical weapons.
But in 1997, an international convention
banning that as well was instituted.
About
the OPCW
The Organisation for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons, based in The Hague, in the Netherlands, is the independent
implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, an international arms
control treaty.
The Chemical Weapons Convention entered into
force in April 1997, at which point 87 states had ratified it, and the work of
the OPCW to implement its provisions began at that point.
According to the treaty's wording,
signatories are "determined for the sake of all mankind, to exclude
completely the possibility of the use of chemical weapons, through the
implementation of the provisions of this Convention."
Sixteen years later, more than 100 additional
states have ratified the treaty. In September, Syria became the latest nation
to ask to join the convention. It is due to enter into force in Syria on
October 14, when it will become the 190th member state.
Peace
prize
In the lead-up to the prize announcement
Friday, the global media speculated that an individual would win, possibly
Congolese physician Denis Mukwege, who treats victims of gang rape, or Malala
Yousafzai, the teenage education activist from Pakistan whom a Taliban assassin
shot for her work to promote education for girls.
Malala appeared to be the front-runner in
headlines around the world.
CNN's Monita Rajpal asked Jagland why she did
not win.
"Fortunately, we have many good
candidates every year, actually this year, more than 250. And the woman you
mentioned, Malala, is an outstanding woman, but we never comment on why she or
others didn't get the prize," he said. "The right answer is that she
didn't get the prize because OPCW got it. She and others will probably be
candidates in the years to come."
A Twitter account in Malala's name sent out a
message congratulating the OPCW and thanking it for its work. In an interview
with CNN's Christiane Amanpour, which is to air at 7 p.m. Sunday, Malala said it
might be premature for her to receive the Nobel Peace Prize this early in her
life.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
congratulated the OPCW, saying it has "greatly strengthened the rule of
law in the field of disarmament and non-proliferation."
"From the battlefields to the
laboratories to the negotiating table, the United Nations is honored to work
hand-in-hand with the OPCW to eliminate the threat posed by chemical weapons
for all people and for all time," Ban said Friday.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also
voiced congratulations. He highlighted the organization's role in Syria.
"The Nobel Committee has rightly
recognized their bravery and resolve to carry out this vital mission amid an
ongoing war in Syria," he said.
Last year, the Norwegian committee awarded
the peace
prize to the European Union as it grappled with the worst crisis since
its founding -- devastating debt and the threat of disintegration.
The award was a salute to the struggling
27-nation union for its work in promoting democracy and reconciliation since
World War II.
It is common for the Nobel Peace Prize to go
to organizations.
Other large organizations that have won it
include the United Nations, Doctors Without Borders, U.N. peacekeeping forces,
the U.N. atomic energy agency, the Red Cross and the International Campaign to
Ban Landmines.
The Peace Prize is the fifth Nobel Prize to
be awarded this week, preceded by honors in medicine, physics, chemistry and
literature.
The final Nobel Prize, recognizing
achievement in the field of economics, will be awarded Monday.
(CNN's Jason Hanna contributed to this report.)
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