"The celebration of Columbus is for us an insult."
-- Rigoberta Menchu
NORWAY'S NOBEL COMMITTEE HAS never been reluctant to use the immense prestige of its Peace Prize to make a political point. Over the years it has found timely reason to honor such powerful figures as Martin Luther King Jr., Willy Brandt, Lech Walesa and Bishop Desmond Tutu. Few of those were more calculatedly controversial than this year's Nobel Peace laureate, Rigoberta Menchu. The award to the 33-year-old Guatemalan Indian-rights activist was announced in the week marking the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World.
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