L. Ramdas

Admiral (retd.) L. Ramdas, former Chief of Staff of the Indian Navy, and Ibn Abdur Rehman, former chief editor of the Pakistan Times newspaper, have been named winners of the 2004 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, according to a press release.

Ibn Abdur Rehman

Ramdas and Rehman were among 24 likeminded Indians and Pakistanis who formed the Pakistan India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy in 1994. The forum has, through conventions and people’s delegations, promoted demilitarization, denuclearization and peace between these countries. “In electing Laxminarayan Ramdas and Ibn Abdur Rehman to receive the 2004 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding, the board of trustees recognizes their reaching across a hostile border to nurture a citizen-based consensus for peace between India and Pakistan,” said a citation of the Magsaysay Foundation.

(Compiled from news dispatches by Charles Isaac)