Bosnian groups have nominated Malaysia's former premier Mahathir Mohamad for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for helping the country after its bloody civil war, the Star newspaper reported Sunday. It said that he was nominated by four civil groups in Bosnia spearheaded by former president Ejup Ganic.
Mahathir was described in their nomination paper as the developing world's "most courageous advocate," the newspaper said.
Under Mahathir, Malaysia provided economic, political and humanitarian aid for Bosnia while it reeled from the trauma of conflict and ethnic cleansing in the 1992-95 civil war.
Mahathir will this week host a conference on exposing war crimes, which he hopes will encourage governments to criminalise war. When asked to comment on his nomination at a press conference on Sunday, Mahathir simply laughed and tried to brush the question aside.
"I don't know about these things. I don't know if I will be asked to accept it or not ... can we have some other more interesting questions?" the former prime minister told reporters. The deadline for nominations to the Nobel Institute in Oslo closed February 1. The winner will be announced in October and the prize will be awarded on December 10. Last year, Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank were selected from a list of 191 nominees.
Mahathir, 81, who stepped down in 2003, has seized on the issue of conflict in the Middle East during his retirement. He launched an unofficial war crimes tribunal last week to focus on victims of abuse in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories. Mahathir said the international war crimes conference, which will be held in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, from February 5-11, would highlight testimonies from people tortured and abused in war.
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