vrijdag 8 oktober 2010

Nobel Peace Prize for human rights activist Liu Xiaobo

  Nederlandse versie

In advance there was buzz over 237 candidates including Helmut Kohl. Besides individuals the Price also can go to organizations, this year the Internet and the european union where nominated. This morning The Nobel Committee announced that the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo has won. A few weeks ago, Václav Havel (former Czech President) pleaded to give the award to Liu. Directly the Chinese responded that the Norwegians have to count on their fit. The pressure was enormous and Norway is brave to give the Price to him.

Liu Xiaobo was one of the students who wanted to avoid bloodshed at the Tiananmen Square protest in 1989. Since then he has been critic of the Chinese state. He fights for freedom and democracy, the man writes really beautiful with an edge. After the 1989 protest it costed him five years behind bars. In 1996 he was sentenced again to forced labour and labour camp because he advocated the multiparty system and wants negotiations with the Dalai Lama. Out of prison he constantly was monitored by the government and had house arrest. Now as a literature professor he is trapped for his critic on the Chinese communist regime.

Better administrate justice and respect human rights

The Charter 08 written by him is inspired by the Czech democracy movement and is blueprint for democracy in China. Lia Xiaobo analyses the chinese one-party system, writes sharp in a row about all things that go wrong and comes up with 19 steps leading to democracy. The charter calls for more justice and human rights. About 10,000 dissident artists and journalists have signed, that has really shot down the wrong way in Beijing. The Chinese version of the manifesto was removed immediately from the internet and a lot of people got visit from the police and were put under severe strain. Liu Xiaobo as author is actually picked out as an example, around Christmas 2009 he was sentenced to 11 years behind bars for subversive activities. Now the poor man is in isolation in the northern province Lia Ling at about 300 km from Beijing. Wittingly he is pulled out of the centre of power and question is whether his family can reach him. Anyway sooner or later he must hear about his Prize, not all information flows are closed by the government. Such a severe penalty because of subversion, normal can you get for 15 years, he has had 11 years - China is not happy with him.

December 27th 2009: european union against severe persecution

Cramps in the buttocks

In Beijing at this time of year there always are cramps in buttocks because they might give the Prize to one of our Chinese dissidents. After the Dalai Lama has won, China fears the Nobel Prize and is really furious. Every year there are nominees under the Chinese dissidents, this time four. China put the heels in the sand and suggests that the abroad has nothing to do with inland affairs. They exercised pressure and in the coming months we will see angry reactions or resentment against the Western world. According to China the human rights situation is not so bad, the Chinese even are going ahead and have freedom. Still the life of Lia Xiaobo proofs that this is not the case. Some people think it is not polite to point at that kind of Chinese black lace, there are dissidents who say that the international attention to dissidents is good, China should be heavy criticized, otherwise here nothing will change. Another Chinese dissident last year was awarded the european Anrej Sakharov human rights award and his wife says he is treated less well and access to him is reduced. On the other hand, yesterday no one knew who Liu Xiaobo is, today there is awareness of a certain aspect of China. And for him the Prize will be an incredible boost, that's for sure.

Statement from the Nobel Committee

The Norwegian Nobel committee has decided to award the Nobel peace prize for 2010 to Liu Xiaobo for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in china. The committee has long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace. Such rights are a prerequisite for the fraternity between nations of which Albert Nobel wrote in his will. Over the past decades china has achieved economic advances to which history can hardly show any equal. The country now has the worlds second largest economy, hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. Scope for political participation has also broadened. China's new status must intend increased responsibility. China is in breach to several international agreements to which it is a signatory as well as of its own provisions concerning political rights.

President of Nobel committee Thorbjoern Jagland, 8 oct 2010

Article 35 of china's constitution lays down that citizens of the peoples republic enjoy freedom of- speech, press, assembly, association, procession and of demonstration. In practice these freedoms have proved to be distinctly curtailed for citizens. For over two decades Liu Xiaobo has been a strong spokesman to maintain fundamental human rights also in china. He took part in the Tiananmen protest in 1989. He was a leading author behind charter 08, the manifesto of such rights in China which were published on the 16th anniversary of the UN universal declaration of human rights. The following year Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison and two years deprivation of political rights for inciting subversion of state power. Liu has constantly sustained that these sentences violates china's own constitution and fundamental human rights. The campaign to maintain universal human rights is been waged by many chinese, both in china itself and abroad. Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide ranging struggle for human rights.

When released in 2005 from a psychiatric clinic in Assen (netherlands), I promised to report about the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010. Today the prize is awarded to the fighter for human rights in communist china.

Bert Kerkhof

Read more …

New York - By persecution of the most prominent Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in a predetermined political process, the Chinese government is showing contempt for universal human rights, says Human Rights Watch December 22, 2009: China: Liu Xiaoboa's trial is a travesty of justice

Labels: International