Maradona seeks Nobel prize for Argentine rights group

Buenos Aires: Argentine soccer great Diego Maradona asked in a letter to Norway`s parliament on Tuesday that the human rights group Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo be recognised with the Nobel Peace Prize, Argentina`s Sports secretariat said.

The former Argentina captain, 49, was quoted as praising the Grandmothers` "unflinching, serene and brave fight for the restitution (to their rightful families) of children kidnapped by state terrorism". The group was created to find children abducted under the 1976-83 military regime when 30,000 people disappeared, and to return them to their relatives. Norway`s Noble Committee is due to announce the Peace Prize winner on Friday. Maradona, who led Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, lost his post as national team coach after its quarter-final elimination at the South Africa finals in July.He said the group, whose president Estela de Carlotto visited the team in Pretoria in June, deserved the prize "for the love and care shown to 102 recovered grandchildren and their continued search for the nearly 400 still missing". The Grandmothers had recovered 102 children by the last count last month. Bureau Report