This Year's Nobel Peace Prize Jointly Awarded to Ukraine CCL, Russian Memorial, and Belarusian Activists
Laureates Unite in Condemning the Ukraine War as a "Mad Crime"
Natalia Pinchuk, wife of Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski (from left), Jan Raczynski, chairman of the board of the Russian civic organization Memorial, and Oleksandra Matviychuk, head of the Ukrainian civic organization Center for Civil Liberties (CCL), are taking photos on the 10th (local time) in Oslo, Norway, after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. Photo by AFP·Yonhap News
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] On the 10th (local time), the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony held in Oslo, Norway, became a platform for condemning Putin.
According to AFP, AP, and other news agencies, the ceremony was attended by Oleksandra Matviychuk, head of the Ukrainian civic group Center for Civil Liberties (CCL); Jan Raczynski, chairman of the board of the Russian civic group Memorial; and Natalia Pinchuk, wife of Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski. This year’s Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to the Center for Civil Liberties, Memorial, and Bialiatski.
All the recipients of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize come from countries related to Russia and Ukraine. The CCL, headquartered in Kyiv, Ukraine, was established in 2007 and conducts human rights activism. Memorial, founded in 1989, is Russia’s oldest human rights organization, researching and documenting political repression in the former Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia, while monitoring human rights conditions in Russia and other former Soviet states. Last year, Russia dissolved Memorial’s headquarters and affiliated organizations, accusing them of colluding with foreign entities to harm national security.
Bialiatski has long opposed Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, known as Europe’s last dictator. He has been imprisoned since July last year on charges of tax evasion, which Bialiatski’s side claims are fabricated political repression. Belarus, one of the most pro-Russian countries, served as a staging ground during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February and has faced international sanctions.
The Belarusian authorities not only prevented Bialiatski from attending the ceremony but also blocked the delivery of his acceptance speech, forcing his wife to accept the award on his behalf. Bialiatski is the fourth person in the 121-year history of the Nobel Prize to receive the award while imprisoned.
Since all the joint laureates harbor strong animosity toward Russia and Putin, the occasion to express their honored Nobel Prize acceptance remarks turned into a forum for fierce criticism of Russia and Putin.
First to take the stage was Matviychuk, who raised her voice demanding that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Lukashenko be brought before the International Court of Justice to prove that justice still lives.
She also showed a strong determination to fight to the end rather than negotiate with Russia. Matviychuk said, “The struggle for peace is not about succumbing to the pressure of the aggressor but protecting the people from their cruelty,” adding, “Peace cannot be achieved by the attacked country laying down its arms. That is not peace but occupation.”
Raczynski, chairman of Memorial, described the Russia-Ukraine war as a “mad crime” and “insanity,” intensifying his condemnation. He criticized, “Russia is ideologically justifying its insane act of aggression by belittling the history, statehood, and independence of Ukraine and other former Soviet countries.”
He further stated, “One of the first victims of this madness is Russia’s own historical memory,” and said, “Currently, Russian mass media are discussing war crimes justified as a necessity to fight fascism, including unjust military invasion of neighboring countries, territorial annexation, and terrorism against civilians in occupied areas.” However, Raczynski, a Russian himself, described the invasion of Ukraine as an “enormous burden” but firmly rejected the concept of it being a “national crime.”
Pinchuk, delivering the acceptance speech on behalf of her husband, also joined in condemning Putin, saying, “We know what kind of Ukraine Russia and Putin want. It is a dependent dictatorship,” and added, “This is exactly like today’s Belarus, where the voices of oppressed people are ignored and dismissed.” She continued, “My entire homeland Belarus is imprisoned,” and said, “This award belongs to all friends, civic activists, and tens of thousands of Belarusians who have been tortured, beaten, and arrested in defense of human rights.”
The Nobel laureates receive a gold medal and a prize of 10 million Swedish kronor (approximately 1.27 billion KRW).
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