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- <text id=89TT1210>
- <title>
- May 08, 1989: World Notes:Prizes
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1989
- May 08, 1989 Fusion Or Illusion?
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- WORLD, Page 48
- World Notes
- PRIZES
- And the Winner Is . . .
- </hdr><body>
- <p> The Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights has a
- surreal and oxymoronic ring. Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi,
- better known as a patron of terrorism than a benefactor of
- humanitarian causes, has unaccountably set up a Swiss foundation
- to bestow an annual award on a Third World figure in the
- forefront of "liberation struggles." Last week Nelson Mandela,
- the jailed black South African leader, was named the first
- recipient of the prize and the $250,000 that goes with it.
- </p>
- <p> Gaddafi, who put $10 million in trust to fund the award,
- had no say in choosing the winner. Swiss Socialist Deputy Jean
- Ziegler, a member of the jury that selected Mandela, said
- "ironclad guarantees" assured that Tripoli's influence would not
- be felt in Geneva. Nonetheless, human rights activists were
- clearly worried about the new philanthropist. Said an official
- of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: "If the
- jury would consider people like Salman Rushdie, it would give
- more credibility to its independence."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-