http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-wo ... 16cf3.html
Jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, sparking a furious backlash from Beijing and renewed Western calls for his immediate release.
The 54-year-old writer and university professor was honoured "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China," Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said in his announcement.
"The Norwegian Nobel Committee has long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace," he added.
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Liu was sentenced last December to 11 years behind bars for subversion, following the 2008 release of "Charter 08", a manifesto for reform signed by more than 300 Chinese intellectuals, academics and writers.
He is one of only three people to win the Peace Prize while in prison, after 1991 laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar and German pacifist Carl von Ossietzky, who was in a Nazi jail when he won in 1935.
Following Friday's announcement, US President and 2009 Peace laureate Barack Obama called for Liu's release, as did a number of European governments and human rights groups.
"By granting the prize to Mr. Liu, the Nobel Committee has chosen someone who has been an eloquent and courageous spokesman for the advance of universal values through peaceful and non-violent means, including his support for democracy, human rights, and the rule of law," Obama said in a written statement.
While China has made "dramatic progress" in its economic development over the past 30 years, Obama said "this award reminds us that political reform has not kept pace, and that the basic human rights of every man, woman and child must be respected."
Two other former Peace Prize winners, the Dalai Lama and Lech Walesa of Poland, also hailed Liu's win and called for his release.
China, however, reacted furiously, calling the award "blasphemy" and a violation of the principles of the Peace Prize.
China's reaction raised concerns of a crackdown on other pro-democracy activists, but Jagland insisted that was no reason not to speak about the country's human rights violations.
Liu, who has been detained several times, was a key figure in the pro-democracy student movement in China in 1989, which was brutally crushed by Chinese authorities and culminated in the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
China said Liu's award would damage relations with Norway at a time when the two countries are negotiating on a trade agreement which Oslo hopes to sign by the end of the year.
But instead of ducking what could be a pending diplomatic row, Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was among the first to congratulate Liu.
"Liu Xiaobo has been awarded the prize for defending freedom of expression and democracy in a way that deserves attention and respect," he said in a statement.
Norway's ambassador to China, Svein O. Saether, was meanwhile summoned to to answer for the Nobel Committee's choice.
"The ambassador of Norway in Beijing was asked to go to the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry, where Chinese authorities voiced their discontent and protests," Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ragnhild Imerslund told AFP.
The Nobel Committee was unable to reach Liu to inform him of his win Friday, and in China, news of the prize was difficult to come by due to a vast censorship network blocking Internet keyword searches for "Nobel Peace Prize" and "Liu Xiaobo", and even blocking text messages containing the new laureate's full name.
China's official Xinhua news agency carried news of the prize in English and Chinese -- but only by headlining the government's angry reaction to it.
The laureate's wife, Liu Xia, meanwhile said she was "so excited" at the news, and thanked her husband's supporters including the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
She told AFP police had advised her that they would take her to the northeastern province of Liaoning, where Liu is imprisoned, so that she could tell him on Saturday of his Nobel win.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said, "We welcome this recognition of the very important role human rights defenders play in China and in many other countries, as well as the challenges they face."
"Advocates like Liu Xiaobo can make an important contribution to China's development," she added.
But another senior figure in the democracy movement, Wei Jingsheng, said others deserved the Nobel Peace Prize more than Liu, calling him a moderate willing to work with Beijing.
The award worth 10 million Swedish kroner (1.49 million US dollars, 1.09 million euros), which surprisingly went last year to US President Barack Obama, will be presented in Oslo on December 10.
Not really sure if awarding him with the peace price would have any impact on human rights movement in China, but oh well.
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- PeZook
