Dear Editor,
Mr Hamilton Green says that China’s Liu Xiaobo did not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize (SN, October 13). The reason he gave is that Mr Liu does not fit the criteria set out by Alfred Nobel: that the prize should go to one who “shall have done the most or the best work for the fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
Mr Green’s assessment is outdated, since our world is far different from the world of 1900 when these criteria were first created. Most of the conflicts of recent times have not involved two nations at war with each other. Consider Yugoslavia’s break-up, Sierra Leone’s civil war, Mexico’s drug war, Sudan’s genocide, Somalia’s piracy and the governmental oppression of women in Iran.
Peace in today’s world is not a nation-centred concern, but a concept of individual liberty which we must struggle to preserve against antagonists that could be rival tribes, criminal gangs, terrorists, ethnic supremacists and, yes, oppressive governments, like the one in China.
I’m sure that Liu Xiaobo would have been delighted to hold a traditional peace conference as set out in the Nobel criteria, but he was locked away for 11 years just for asking for the freedom of assembly which would be necessary for such a conference in the first place. In the end, we must recognise that Mr Liu has sacrificed his freedom, his livelihood and his family life for the mere hope of peace for his people. I salute and encourage him. He was the right person to be honoured with Nobel Peace Prize.
Yours faithfully,
Imam Baksh
