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Dharamshala: "No medal or diploma will be presented Today," Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland said as he opened a simple ceremony of music and readings during which the 1,000-member audience of diplomats, dissidents-in-exile and Norway's elite were repeatedly brought to their feet in prolonged applause. "But this fact alone shows that the award was necessary and appropriate. We congratulate Liu Xiaobo on this year's Peace Prize."
Liu, a 54-year-old critic and writer who was nominated for his "long and nonviolent struggle for fundamental human rights in China," is serving an 11-year prison sentence for inciting subversion after coauthoring Charter 08, an appeal for democratic reform in the People's Republic. His wife, Liu Xia, has been held under house arrest since the award was announced last month.
Despite China's fury at the Committee's Oct. 8 decision, which it branded an insult to the 109-year tradition of the Nobel Peace Prize, and warnings of "consequences" for nations that attended, around 50 of the 65 national embassies in Oslo were represented today. Several, including Serbia, Ukraine and the Philippines, which had said they would stay away, appeared to have been persuaded to change their minds.
Jagland said China's treatment of Liu showed that despite its astonishing economic success, for which "it must be given credit", Beijing must learn to take criticism for its restrictions on free speech and its other undemocratic practices. Articles 35 and 41 of China's own constitution, he noted, allow citizens "freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association" as well as "the right to criticize and make suggestions regarding any state organ or functionary". To some degree, he said, China's size and economic might mean it is "carrying the fate of mankind on its shoulders," all the more reason for Chinese leaders to act responsibly towards their citizens.
Standing beside a blown-up portrait of a bespectacled and smiling Liu, Jagland added: "Many will ask whether China's weakness - for all the strength it is currently showing - is not manifested in the need to imprison a man for 11 years merely for expressing his opinions on how his country should be governed."
He argued that Liu "has exercised his civil rights. He has done nothing wrong. He must be released," a statement received warmly by the audience.
At the end of his speech, he announced that since neither the Nobel diploma nor the winner's medal could be presented, he would "place them on the empty chair". Embossed in gold with the letters LXB, the honorary items remained there throughout the hour-long ceremony.
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