Post date: Dec 10, 2010 1:51:3 PM
OSLO, NORWAY - Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was on Friday (December 10) awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in an Oslo ceremony and dedicated it from his prison cell to the "lost souls" of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
China has dereided the ceremony as a farce and in Beijing, police stepped up patrols at key points, including Tiananmen Square, where witnesses say hundreds or thousands were killed when troops crushed reform protests, and Liu's apartment where his wife is believed to be under house arrest. Authorities tightened a clampdown on dissidents.
In his speech before 1,000 guests in the richly decorated City Hall, Norwegian Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said that China with its 1.3 billion people was "carrying mankind's fate on its shoulders".
"If the country proves capable of developing a social market economy with full civil rights, this will have a huge favourable impact on the world. If not, there is a danger of social and economic crises arising in the country, with negative consequences for us all," he said.
The absence of the laureate, sentenced last year to 11 years jail for subversion, was symbolised at the ceremony by an empty chair and a large portrait.
It was the first time that a laureate under detention has not been formally represented since Nazi Germany barred pacifist Carl von Ossietzky from attending in 1935.
Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann read out an address made by Liu, who was closely involved in Tiananmen and more recently helped found the reform group Charter 08, to a court
during his trial for subversion in December 2009.
"Hatred can rot away at a person's intelligence and conscience. (The) enemy mentality will poison the spirit of a nation, incite cruel mortal struggles, destroy a society's
tolerance and humanity, and hinder a nation's progress toward freedom and democracy," the address said.
But the former literature professor saw cause for hope.
"I, filled with optimism, look forward to the advent of a future free China. For there is no force that can put an end to the human quest for freedom, and China will in the end become a nation ruled by law, where human rights reign supreme."
Jagland said Chinese attempts to control the internet showed its weakness. "Information technology cannot be abolished. It will continue to open societies," he said.
"Liu has told his wife that he would like this year's Peace Prize to be dedicated to 'the lost souls from the 4th of June.' It is a pleasure for us to fulfil his wish."
The Peace award, as often in the past, has stirred international diplomatic conflict, with China accusing the Committee of representing the interests of arrogant Western
nations who seek to impose their ideas on an unreceptive world.