Chemicals inspectors win Nobel peace prize

The prestigious prize has been awarded to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which was set up in 1997 to eliminate all chemicals weapons worldwide.

The OPCW has gained critical importance following a sarin gas strike in the suburbs of Damascus, which killed more than 1,400 people in August.

Washington blamed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for the attack, a charge he denied, instead blaming rebels.

Facing the threat of a US military strike, he agreed to destroy Syria’s sizeable chemical weapons programme and allow in OPCW inspectors.

We were aware that our work silently but surely was contributing to peace in the world. The last few weeks have brought this to the fore. Ahmet Uzumcu, OPCW

The $1.25m prize will be be presented in Oslo on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.

‘Contributing to world peace’

The head of the OPCW, Ahmet Uzumcu, said: “We were aware that our work silently but surely was contributing to peace in the world. The last few weeks have brought this to the fore. The entire international community has been made aware of our work.”

Nobel peace prize committee head Thorbjoern Jagland said the award was a reminder to nations such as the US and Russia that they should eliminate their own large stockpiles, “especially because they are demanding that others do the same, like Syria”.

He added: “We now have the opportunity to get rid of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction … that would be a great event in history if we could achieve that.”

Pakistani teenager and campaigner for girls’ education, Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban, had been the bookmakers’ favourite to win the prize.

The OPCW mission is unprecedented in that it is taking place in the middle of a civil war that has led to more than 100,000 deaths. A team from the organisation came under sniper fire on 26 August.

‘Crimes against humanity’

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Friday that anti-Assad forces had killed at least 190 civilians and taken more than 200 hostage during an attack in Latakia province in August, in what it called the first example of crimes against humanity by the rebels.

HRW said many of the dead had been executed by militant groups, some linked to al-Qaeda.

Read more: What's the point of the Nobel peace prize? 

The OPCW, based in the Hague in the Netherlands, has about 500 staff and an annual budget of under $100m.

The organisation has said that Syria is cooperating and could eliminate its chemical weapons by mid-2014, provided it receives support from all sides in the civil war.

Chemical weapons experts believe Syria has roughly 1,000 tonnes of sarin, mustard and VX nerve gas, some of it stored as bulk raw chemicals and some of it already loaded on to missiles, warheads or rockets.

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