Myanmar's Suu Kyi accepts 1991's Nobel Peace Price

By ONE Liners Agency
June 17, 2012 

 Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi accepted her long waiting Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday in Oslo. In 1991 she was awarded the prize, 21 years ago.

 The 'female Gandhi', as mentioned by many, was under house arrest for a total of 15 years in Myanmar. Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, Suu Kyi said full transformation to democracy of Myanmar was still far off.

 Suu Kyi is the daughter of Oxford University-educated General Aung San who is the country's assassinated independence hero. She is now 66-year-old and said much remained to be resolved in Myanmar.

This year in April Suu Kyi was elected to parliament, after being released from house arrest in 2010. Kyi said she was confident her country's President Thein Sein wants to put Myanmar on a new path.

In 1991 her Nobel Peace Prize was accepted by her sons Kim and Alexander on her behalf. Her husband Michael Aris, an Oxford academic, was also present in the ceremony then. Aris died in 1999 after getting diagnosed with prostate cancer.

In 1992 she said of using the $1.3 million Nobel Peace Prize money in establishing education and health trust for her country people.

On Saturday she accepted the prize in presence of son Kim and late husband's identical twin brother Anthony Aris.

She thanked Norway for all the support the country with five million people played in transformation of Myanmar.

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June 17, 2012 | 0 comments

Nobel Prize Committee Asks China To Free Liu Xiaobo

By ETHAN Markoff

CHINA NEWS – This year Oslo had witnessed two standing ovations for a person who was represented only by an empty chair. The jailed Nobel Prize winner Liu Xiaobo received much sympathy and support from all over the world, and moreover, Nobel Prize committee strongly come against china, asking for the immediate release of Chinese dissident Mr. Xiaobo, winner of the 2010 Peace Prize.

The China also showed its anger by the award given and waged a campaign from months, putting intellectuals and media into forced silence. In an aggressive mood, China declared that it would resolutely resist any country or any person using the Nobel Peace Prize to interfere with China’s internal affairs. Further, the Foreign Ministry called the Prize ceremony a “political farce.”

On the other hand, Nobel chairman Thorbjorn Jagland appreciated the efforts of China to curb the poverty factor and acclaimed as an "extraordinary achievement", but also warned China to be ready for criticism as world power had to bear the brunt.

In the Nobel Prize ceremony the question of freedom gained the highest decibel where Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann read out a statement that Mr Liu had made in court during his trial in December 2009.

"I, filled with optimism, look forward to the advent of a future, free China," said the statement.

A special report of the United Nation says China arrested at least 20 activists before Nobel ceremony. It is reported that Beijing imposed house arrests, travel restrictions, forced relocation of at least 120 cases.

Mr. Liu, one of China's leading dissidents, was arrested in North-east China for state subversion. His wife, Liu Xia, is under house arrest before the ceremony and still confined to her home.

Before the ceremony China had created pressure on countries to boycott the prize ceremony. 16 countries - including Russia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan didn’t attend the ceremony, while China returned their invitation unopened.

Liu Xiaobo was first come into limelight in 1989 when he protested in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

He was strongly vocal against Chinese government and sent to prison for two years, since then he has written several accounts against the government. In December 2009 he was given an 11-year prison sentence for inciting the subversion of state power. He co-authored a document known as Charter 08 that clearly asks for political reforms and isolation of powers and legislative democracy.

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December 10, 2010 | 0 comments

China Doesn't Allow The Dissident Liu Xiaobo Or Family To Attend Nobel Ceremony

By ETHAN Markoff

CHINA NEWS - History repeat itself, however, this time in a more uncompromising manner. When Soviet physicist and human rights advocate Andrei D. Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in midst of cold war, he wasn't allowed to attend the ceremony but his wife to collect the award. In a similar example Polish authorities didn't allow trade unionist Lech Walesa to travel to Oslo, but his wife collected the award in his stead. In 1991, Myanmar opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's son accepted the prize when his mother was being held under house arrest.

But the obstinate Chinese government have decided to break but not bend on their approach. They have been practicing a muscular offensive way to protest against the so called Western ploy to undermine the Chinese Communist Party's hold on power. This year Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Liu Xiaobo, 54 years-old who is currently serving an 11-year sentence for subversion. The government has decided not to allow his wife or family member to collect the award, and adding insult to the injury, wife of Mr. Xiaobo has been held incommunicado since news of the award broke last month.

Chinese authority is very clear in the approach, giving warning foreign governments to boycott the award ceremony. Not only that, the government has put strict restriction and surveillance on prominent dissidents and intellectuals.

The uncompromising hostile attitude of Chinese government is remarkably offensive. In fact, the government declared that the prize money including a medal and $1.5 million in cash would probably be postponed.

China in the recent past has gained an unprecedented economic mileage and probably because of its strong economic integration into the global economy that neither achieved by any Communist nation before, giving voice to confront the West mobilization technique to whole world.

“Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo once again reflects the strong attempts of Western countries to intervene in the political process in China,” said a commentary that ran this month in the official newspaper People’s Daily.

Although it appears that China urge not to attend the Oslo ceremony to other nations has hit an iron wall of disapproval. A very few countries such as Russia, Iraq, Cuba and Kazakhstan have agreed to China's plea for a boycott. However, 36 other countries have declared that they would send attend the ceremony.

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November 19, 2010 | 0 comments

Bejing Livid Over Nobel Peace Prize To Liu Xiaobo

By ONE Liner Agencies

Liu Xiaobo

Chinese government loathed at the Nobel Peace Prize committee for the Nobel Peace Prize award that is awarded to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. He is believed to be involved in anti-government rebellion and political reform in the country.

The Chinese government lashed the Nobel and in an explicit way called the award “an obscenity” that goes against the aims of the award. In a statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry threatened that the award would hurt China’s relations with Norway.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu in a recent statement said in less harsh language, accusing Liu Xiaobo for violating Chinese law.

Liu was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment in December, though there were no official details given by authorities stated which laws he has violated.

The 54-year-old writer was detained two years back for the release of controversial Charter 08- a manifesto he helped organize that asks for political reform in the nation.

Patrick Poon, of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, a writers’ group that Liu has earlier lead, says Chinese government harsh step actually backfired and people will inspire to speak out openly.

"As we can also see in the situation in the past few years, there may have been more and more crackdowns, but we have not seen a decreasing number of dissidents, people expressing their views," said Poon.

The Chinese media also banned the news of Nobel Peace award and the international media broadcasting were temporarily cut. Internet users could find the news but only if they use proxies to bypass the cyber blocks the Chinese government maintains to sieve out information that seems to them sensitive or illegal.

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October 09, 2010 | 0 comments