Cheers, confusion in Tehran over Nobel Prize award

Cheers, confusion in Tehran over Nobel Prize award

Agence France-Presse, Paris/Tehran

The Nobel committee once again proved the tipsters and bookmakers
wrong, naming a dark horse, Iranian pro-reform activist Shirin
Ebadi, winner of the coveted Peace Prize in what quickly drew
widespread praise, uncertainty in Tehran, and a sour note out of
Poland.

In Tehran -- where the reformist government behind embattled
President Mohammad Khatami treads a delicate line between a
conservative-controlled judiciary and powerful hardline mullahs
-- the government spokesman initially said the leadership was
"happy" over the choice of lawyer and human rights activist
Ebadi, 56, before retracting his comments.

She was the first Muslim women to be named a peace laureate
and the first Iranian ever to win a Nobel Prize.

"We are happy that an Iranian Muslim woman was qualified to be
noticed by the world community for her activities in bringing
about peace," Abdollah Ramazanzadeh told AFP when asked for an
official reaction, adding "we hope that we could use her expert
views more in Iran."

But shortly after he said it was his personal opinion and that
a written official reaction would be issued later on Friday.

Iran's Vice President Ali Abtahi hailed a choice he said
showed the active role of Iranian women in trying to shape the
Islamic republic.

But in one of her first comments after being named laureate,
Ebadi called for the quick release of "many people who fight for
liberty and democracy" now imprisoned in Iran, in what was seen
as unlikely to ease the wrath she has already earned from the
Islamic republic's religious hardliners.

Pope John Paul II, 83, and former Czech president Vaclav
Havel, 67, both in frail health, had been tipped the first and
second favorites to win the prize.

Havel, a key player in both the 1968 Prague Spring and the
1989 Velvet Revolution that overthrew the Czechoslovakian
communist regime, quickly offered warm praise for Ebadi.

"From what he knows of her, he believes she certainly merits
it and he warmly congratulates her," his secretary Jakub Hladik
said.

Similarly the Rome-based Roman Catholic Sant' Egidio
community, a lay group whose work for peace and human rights also
made it a top contender for the Peace Prize, conceded it was a
"surprise, but a great opportunity for democracy and human
rights, and for women's rights in the Muslim world."

"It was a great surprise, especially for the media, because
many expected it to go to Pope John Paul II," Sant' Egidio
spokesman Mario Marazziti told AFP.

But he hailed a choice he said could help in the battle
against terrorism and in "freeing religions and cultures from the
tendancy towards fundamentalism."

In Rome a Vatican source said Pope John Paul II would himself
send a message of congratulations to Ebadi.

But the pope's countryman, former Polish president and Nobel
peace laureate Lech Walesa, was not so acquiescent, calling the
choice a "big mistake" in a surprisingly frank attack.

"For me it is a big mistake, a bad mistake, an unfortunate
mistake," a visibly annoyed Walesa told television in the heavily
Catholic Poland.

"I have nothing against this woman, but if there is someone
alive in the world who deserves this distinction it is certainly
the Holy Father", he said from Gdansk, saying he would seek to
investigate the Nobel committee's choice.

Elsewhere, praise poured in for both the laureate and the
Nobel committee in choosing Ebadi.

French President Jacques Chirac, on visit in Tangiers,
Morocco, hailed an "exceptional choice", while German Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder saluted her "commitment to tolerant coexistence
and understanding between cultures".

A German government spokesman also praised the Nobel
committee, saying the choice of Ebadi "honored democracy efforts
in the entire region" around Iran, which boder Iraq.

European Union foreign affairs envoy Javier Solana said now
"Ms. Ebadi is an inspiration for her region more than ever and
for the rest of the world," while Prime Minister Kjell Magne
Bondevik of Norway, where the prize was announced, said the
choice offered "support for dialog and better relations between
the Western and Islamic worlds."

Amnesty International meanwhile said the choice of Ebadi was
particulary timely now, to "bring renewed hope for those engaged
in the daily fight to uphold human rights."