Maltese former premier Dom Mintoff, who this month turned 92, has been awarded the Al-Qathafi Peace Prize by the International Committee for the Al-Qathafi Award for Human Rights, according to The Tripoli Post.
The Libyan Embassy could not be contacted for comments yesterday.
The statement announcing the award to Mr Mintoff said: “In their appreciation of those honourable leaders of the North who have stood by justice and right and who defended the causes of oppressed peoples, especially in Palestine and Iraq, the International Committee of Al-Qathafi Award for Peace of 2008 is awarded to the European leader and former Prime Minister of Malta.”
The committee said that by bestowing it on Mr Mintoff, the Al-Qathafi Award aims to attract the attention of all peoples of the North and South that they should commit their relentless struggle toward world justice and peace.
The Al-Qathafi International Prize for Human Rights is an annual prize founded by and named after Libyan leader Muammar al-Qathafi. It was established by its namesake along with Swiss globalisation critic Jean Ziegler.
It was established in 1988 by Muammar al-Qathafi who initially granted 10 million US$ to the Swiss-based foundation North-South which awards the prize. According to its website, the prize is awarded to one of the “international personalities, bodies or organisations that have distinctively contributed to rendering an outstanding human service and has achieved great actions in defending human rights, protecting the causes of freedom and supporting peace everywhere in the world.” The sum of the prize money is US$250,000.
Previous winners include Nelson Mandela in 1989, the children of Palestine in 1990, the children of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1993, Fidel Castro in 1998, the Children of Iraq in 1999 and Venezuelan President Hugo Chaves in 2004.
Mr Mintoff was born in 1916. He was leader of the Malta Labour Party from 1949 to 1984 and was Prime Minister during colonial times between 1955 and 1958 and again as PM of independent Malta between 1971 and 1984. Mr Mintoff’s tenure was characterised by very close ties with Libya and was regarded as one of Muammar Qathafi’s closest friends.
Various nations have bestowed awards to Mr Mintoff including the Order of the Republic by Libya in 1971, the Grand Cordon De l’Ordre de la Republique of Tunisia in 1973. The University of Political Studies, Ponterios of Greece, awarded him a doctorate Onoris Causa in 1976 and Morocco granted him the Order of the Gran Cordon of Oissam Alaouite in 1978.