Hume, Trimble Win Peace Prize

John Hume and David Trimble, leaders of Northern Ireland's largest Roman Catholic and Protestant parties, won the Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their efforts to resolve the decades-long conflict in the British province.

Hume, head of the Catholic Social Democratic and Labor Party, and Trimble, leader of the Protestant Ulster Unionist party, were cited by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for work toward ending "the national religious and social conflict in Northern Ireland that has cost over 3,500 people their lives."

CBS Senior European Correspondent Tom Fenton reports that, in awarding this year's prize to Hume and Trimble, the Nobel committee is honoring not just these two men but the entire Northern Ireland peace process.

"I see it not as an award to myself but as a very powerful international approval of the peace process in Northern Ireland and a very strong international approval of peace for all of the people of Northern Ireland,"Hume said Friday in Londonderry.

Hume and Trimble were the prime movers in the negotiations that officially ended 30 years of armed conflict in Northern Ireland. They represented the triumph of compromise over hate.

Hume was, in fact, the principal architect of the peace, criticized and despised by the gunmen and bombers on both sides but never swerving in his determination to bring the two communities together.

"John Hume has throughout been the clearest and most consistent of Northern Ireland's political leaders in his work for a peaceful solution," the committee said in its citation.

Trimble also had a rough road to follow. Many members of his own Unionist Party felt he gave away too much in the peace agreement signed in April. He is now the head of the new Northern Ireland local government, created by the agreement.

"As the leader of the traditionally predominant party in Northern Ireland, David Trimble showed great political courage when, at a critical stage in the process, he advocated solutions which led to the peace agreement," the citation said.

The Nobel committee appears to be using this year's peace prize to encourage a work in progress. After so many years of bloody conflict, the Northern Ireland, the peace agreement is still a fragile thing.

The committee also noted that the peace agreement that was signed in April also was the work of other Northern Ireland political leaders, as well as the governments of the United Kingdom, the United States and Ireland.

The prize of $963,000 will be divided equally between Hume and Trimble.

The peace prize was the last of the six Nobel awards to be named this year.

The economics prize was won Wednesday by Amartya Sen, an Indian scholar cited for his work in studying the causes of famine and other catastrophes.

On Tuesday, Robert B. Laughlin of Stanford University, Horst L. Stormer of Columbia University and Daniel C. Tsui of Princeton University won thNobel physics prize for discovering how electrons can change behavior and act more like fluid than particles.

The chemistry prize went to Walter Kohn of the University of California at Santa Barbara and John A. Pople of Northwestern University for developing ways of analyzing molecules in chemical reactions.

On Monday, the medicine prize was given to three Americans - Robert Furchgott, Louis Ignarro and Ferid Murad - for their work on discovering properties of nitric oxide, a common air pollutant but also a life-saver because of its capacity to dilate blood vessels.

The literature prize was awarded last week to Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago.

The prizes are presented on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite who established the prizes in his will.

By DOUG MELLGREN