AP
 
Stockholm, Sep 28: An Indian rights activist, Ruth Manorama and Daniel Ellsberg, the former US Defence Department official who leaked secret Pentagon documents during the Vietnam war, were among the winners of the "alternative Nobels" announced on Thursday in the Swedish capital.

Ellsberg shared the 2 million kronor (US$ 273 million) Right Livelihood Award with Ruth Manorama and a poetry festival in Medellin, Colombia. Anti-corruption campaigner Chico Whitaker Ferreira of Brazil won the honorary award.

Manorama was honoured for her work toward achieving equality for Dalit women in India. Dalits, or untouchables, belong to no caste and have faced centuries of discrimination.

The prize committee said this year's awards honoured "justice, truth and peace-building." The awards were founded in 1980 by Jakob von Uexkull, a stamp dealer who sold his collection to fund a programme to recognise work that he believed was ignored by the prestigious Nobel Prizes.

Ellsberg was given the award "for putting peace and truth first, at considerable personal risk, and dedicating his life to inspiring others to follow his example." The prize committee also cited the "The Festival Internacional de Poesia de Medellin" for promoting peace in what it called one of the most violent cities in the world.

Whitaker Ferreira, a Roman Catholic activist, won the honorary award "for a lifetime's dedicated work for social justice that has strengthened democracy in Brazil".

The awards will be presented in a ceremony at the Swedish Parliament on December 8, 2006 two days before the Nobel Prizes are handed out.