The Nobel Prize was left on a chair

Oslo was the strangest ceremony of the Nobel Peace Prize. Not a winner, a Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo, nor his relatives were not, and 17 countries boycotted the event. Dissident symbolized the empty chair.
In the Town Hall in the Norwegian capital Friday, a ceremony of awarding the Nobel Peace Prize 2010 awarded to Chinese dissident writer Liu Xiaobo, who is serving at home 11- year prison sentence for ... The ceremony was attended by the Norwegian royal couple, King Harald V and Queen Sonja, and over a thousand guests, including Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, actors Denzel Washington and Anne Hathaway.



For the first time since 1936, when the prize was awarded to German pacifist Carl von Ossetski, by the winner at a ceremony attended by no one.



Wife of dissident Liu Xia in Beijing placed under house arrest without access to telephone and Internet, other relatives, Liu Xiaobo to travel abroad were denied. Diploma and medal were left lying on a chair, a monetary prize of 10 million Swedish kronor ($ 1.4 million ) also remained unclaimed.



Chair, prepared for Liu Xiaobo, remained empty. This visual image has become part of an international campaign of solidarity with the prisoners, which is a party, in particular, Amnesty International.



Winner was present at the ceremony symbolically, a huge portrait of him has taken one of the walls of the hall, and with the Department of the Norwegian actress Liv Ullman read the last word dissident in court December 23, 2009, titled ...



Most of his 40-minute speech, the Nobel committee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland dedicated historical parallels, linking with other winners, Liu, whose award was accepted in their home countries as a challenge to existing orders. The absence of Liu or his representatives only shows, according to Jagland that the award was ...



... In the intentions of the Nobel Committee had to say something about the relationship between human rights, democracy and peace - said Jagland. - It is important to remind the world that the rights we enjoy today, fought, and they conquered the people who took a great risk to themselves. They did it for the other. That is why Liu Xiaobo deserves our support today ...

Himself the winner, recognizing the award of the prize, after his wife asked, ... At the area was and Liu Xiaobo.



Award of the imprisoned dissidents provoked a diplomatic row. Chinese newspapers miscall member Nobel committee clowns, and the official Beijing of their decision to accredit as a conscious political interference in the internal affairs of China.



... - A handful of the West wants to destroy China's development, and this apparent insult to democracy ...



Beijing urged to boycott the ceremony. ... This proposal was somehow adopted by 17 states. Award of the dissident China opened only to those countries boycotting the outcasts - Ambassadors of Afghanistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Cuba, Morocco, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Ukraine and the Philippines.



Russia also joined the boycott, but denies it in words. The Russian ambassador Vyacheslav Pavlovsky, as explained in the Foreign Ministry, is located on a trip, so to attend the ceremony could not. ...


Serbia, as originally announced that its representatives be present at the ceremony will not be changed on Friday morning, a decision under pressure from the European Union and its citizens. ...

Jagland reacted to the move in his speech. Without naming any countries, he noted that ... As noted recently in an interview with ... Ru » Director of the Russian branch of the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, Anna Sevortyan, ceremony of the Nobel Peace Prize, which is traditionally held on December 10, is one of the most important diplomatic event in Norway. ...






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