Colombia's Santos accepts Nobel Prize as 'gift from heaven'

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Saturday accepted the Nobel Peace Prize, saying it helped make possible the "impossible dream" of ending his country's half-century-long civil war, ABC News reported.

In his acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway, Santos described the award as a "gift from heaven" and dedicated it to all Colombians, particularly the 220,000 killed and 8 million displaced in the longest-running conflict in the Western Hemisphere.

"Ladies and gentlemen, there is one less war in the world, and it is the war in Colombia," Santos said in Oslo's city hall.

He won the prestigious award for reaching a historic peace deal with leftist rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, earlier this year.

Several victims of the conflict attended the prize ceremony, including Ingrid Betancourt, who was held hostage by FARC for six years, and Leyner Palacios, who lost 32 relatives including his parents and three brothers in a FARC mortar attack.

The five other Nobel Prizes will be handed out later Saturday at a separate ceremony in Stockholm.

Source: MENA