Sangaree wins UNESCO award

COLOMBO: The UNESCO Director-General Ko'chiro Matsuura has designated Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) President Veerasingham Anandasangaree as the laureate of the 2006 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence.

The prize was attributed on the recommendation of an international jury. The members of the jury are: Andres Pastrana Arange, former President of Colombia; Bahia Hariri, President of the Commission for Education, Science and Culture of the Lebanese Parliament; Inder Kumar Gujral, former Prime Minister of India; Sergei Markarov and Manu Dibango, both UNESCO Artists for Peace.

The prize-giving ceremony will be held on International Day for Tolerance celebrated every year on November 16.

The $100,000 UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh prize was created in 1995 on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the birth of the Mahatma Gandhi, thanks to the generosity of Indian writer and diplomat Madanjeet Singh, who is also a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.

Dedicated to advancing the spirit of tolerance in the arts, education, culture, science and communications, the prize is awarded every two years to an individual or an institution or exceptional contributions in the promotion of tolerance and non-violence.

In 2004, the UNESCO-Madanjeet Singh prize for the Promotion of Tolerance and Non-Violence was attributed to the Bangladeshi writer and journalist Taslima Nasreen.