By Kalsang Rinchen
Dharamsala, October 8 – Last year’s winner of Nobel peace prize and United States President Barack Obama has joined the Tibetan leader Dalai Lama in calling on the Chinese government to release the jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo who was declared the winner of the 2010 Nobel peace prize on Friday.
A White House statement issued today welcomed the Nobel Committee’s decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Mr. Liu Xiaobo. “Last year, I noted that so many others who have received the award had sacrificed so much more than I. That list now includes Mr. Liu, who has sacrificed his freedom for his beliefs,” the statement reads.
Obama said 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.
“As I said last year in Oslo, even as we respect the unique culture and traditions of different countries, America will always be a voice for those aspirations that are universal to all human beings.”
While lauding the progress China has made over the last 30 years economically Obama said the 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.
Liu is the first Chinese to ever win the most coveted prize for peace.
Announcing the prize, the Norwegian Nobel committee praised Liu for his “long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China. The … committee has long believed that there is a close connection between human rights and peace.”
The announcement, however, reportedly provoked a furious reaction from Chinese authorities, who warned that the decision would hurt relations with Norway.
“Liu Xiaobo is a criminal who has been sentenced by Chinese judicial departments for violating Chinese law,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Awarding the peace prize to Liu “runs completely counter to the principle of the prize and is also a blasphemy to the peace prize”, the statement said.
