MANDELA INVITED TO AMBON

Ambon, Nov 3 (ANTARA) - Former South African President Nelson Mandela has been invited to World Peace Day commemoration in eastern Indonesian scenic city of Ambon this month.

Contacted by phone from here on Tuesday, World Peace Day committee chairman Djuyoto Suntani in Semarang, Central Java, said Mandela had been invited to attend the ceremony.

Djuyoto is currently in Semarang to check the finishing touches on the world peace gong which is being built by a Central Java art worker in Jepara district.

He said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was scheduled to strike the gong to mark the opening of the World Peace Day commemoration in the middle of this month.

Commenting on Mandela's expected presence in Ambon, Djuyoto said it had yet to be confirmed whether the Noble Peace Prize laureate would meet the invitation.

The former South African leader (91) has received more than one hundred awards in four decades, most notably the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1993.

Born on July 18, 1918, in Transkei, South Africa, Mandela was the first to be elected president in a fully representative democratic election to hold the presidential office from 1994 to 1999.

Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of the African National Congress's armed wing.

"We are still waiting for a confirmation of Mandela's presence in Ambon because it depends on his health condition," Djuyoto said, adding that another international figure and also Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, was founder of Grameen Bank.

In 1998 he was awarded the Concorde Prince of Asturias award, and in 2006, Yunus and the bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, "for their efforts to create economic and social development from below."
"We are looking forward to the presence of Mandela and Yunus in the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon," Djuyoto said, adding that the ambassadors of some other countries in Jakarta were also invited to the international event.