Some Ukrainians voice mixed reactions to Nobel prize winners
By SABRA AYRES
By SABRA AYRES
October 8, 2022
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Center for Civil Liberties head of the board Oleksandra Matviychuk, center, executive director Oleksandra Romantsova, center left, and managers react after press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, Oct. 8, 2022. On Friday, Oct. 7, 2022 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to jailed Belarus rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian group Memorial and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A day after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize with fellow human rights campaigners from Belarus and Russia, the head of the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties praised the work of her fellow laureates but cautioned against lumping the three together in a Cold War-like narrative.
“We don’t see — and we shouldn’t see — this prize … as a Soviet narrative about brotherhood nations,” said Oleksandra Matviychuk at a press conference on Saturday in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. “This is a story about fighting against a common enemy.”
Matviychuk’s comments came a day after some in Ukraine voiced mixed reactions to the Nobel committee’s decision to award the prize to her organization along with imprisoned Belarus activist Ales Bialiatski and Russia’s best-known human rights group, Memorial.
The Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties was founded in 2007 to defend human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the panel decided to honor “three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence.”
Some Ukrainians expressed resentment for what they saw as lumping Ukraine in the same category as Russia and Belarus, whose territory Moscow has used to wage its war on Ukraine.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak mocked the prize in a tweet Friday, saying the committee had an “interesting understanding of the word ‘peace.’”
Belarusian and Russian human rights defenders are “fighting for the rights of people in dictatorships,” while in Ukraine, groups like the Center for Civil Liberties are documenting “the war crimes of these dictatorships because missiles fly to Ukraine from Belarus and Russia,” Ukrainian journalist Anastasia Magazova tweeted Friday.
“Despite all the merits of the laureates from Russia and Belarus, Ukrainians do not want the struggle for human rights in the three countries to be perceived equally,” wrote Magazova, who has covered Ukraine for German and Ukrainian publications since 2014.
Matviychuk, the head of the Ukrainian civil liberties group, on Saturday dismissed suggestions that awarding the prize to representatives from the three countries at the same time diminished its importance.
The prize, “which belongs to all the people of Ukraine who fight for freedom and democracy,” is a symbol of the fight “for your freedom and ours,” she said, referencing a phrase that was often repeated by Soviet dissidents.
“Russia still hasn’t overcome its imperial complex. This is a threat. The same as in Belarus, where Lukashenko gave up his land to occupation,” said the center’s executive director, Oleksandra Romantsova.
Romantsova praised the work of Bialiatski and Memorial, which she pointed out was the first organization to document Russian war crimes during the first war from 1994 to 1996 in Chechnya, the majority Muslim region on Russia’s southern flank that has fought two wars with Moscow for independence.
“Perhaps if the world had paid attention to the war crimes in Chechnya from the start, we wouldn’t have the war in Ukraine today,” Romantsova said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as of Saturday had not called the Ukrainian group to congratulate it on the prize, which both Matviychuk and the organization’s executive director brushed aside as insignificant, given the ongoing war in Ukraine.
It was unlikely Zelenskyy would have been able to reach either of them Friday after the news broke, she said.
“I don’t wish to anyone to go through war, but this complicated time gives us time to show our best qualities that we have, from the farmer protecting his land or tractor to the president who doesn’t flee the country during the war,” Matviychuk said.
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AP journalist Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.
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Follow all AP stories about the Nobel Prizes at https://apnews.com/hub/nobel-prizes
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A day after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize with fellow human rights campaigners from Belarus and Russia, the head of the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties praised the work of her fellow laureates but cautioned against lumping the three together in a Cold War-like narrative.
“We don’t see — and we shouldn’t see — this prize … as a Soviet narrative about brotherhood nations,” said Oleksandra Matviychuk at a press conference on Saturday in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. “This is a story about fighting against a common enemy.”
Matviychuk’s comments came a day after some in Ukraine voiced mixed reactions to the Nobel committee’s decision to award the prize to her organization along with imprisoned Belarus activist Ales Bialiatski and Russia’s best-known human rights group, Memorial.
The Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties was founded in 2007 to defend human rights, democracy and the rule of law.
Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the panel decided to honor “three outstanding champions of human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence.”
Some Ukrainians expressed resentment for what they saw as lumping Ukraine in the same category as Russia and Belarus, whose territory Moscow has used to wage its war on Ukraine.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak mocked the prize in a tweet Friday, saying the committee had an “interesting understanding of the word ‘peace.’”
Belarusian and Russian human rights defenders are “fighting for the rights of people in dictatorships,” while in Ukraine, groups like the Center for Civil Liberties are documenting “the war crimes of these dictatorships because missiles fly to Ukraine from Belarus and Russia,” Ukrainian journalist Anastasia Magazova tweeted Friday.
“Despite all the merits of the laureates from Russia and Belarus, Ukrainians do not want the struggle for human rights in the three countries to be perceived equally,” wrote Magazova, who has covered Ukraine for German and Ukrainian publications since 2014.
Matviychuk, the head of the Ukrainian civil liberties group, on Saturday dismissed suggestions that awarding the prize to representatives from the three countries at the same time diminished its importance.
The prize, “which belongs to all the people of Ukraine who fight for freedom and democracy,” is a symbol of the fight “for your freedom and ours,” she said, referencing a phrase that was often repeated by Soviet dissidents.
“Russia still hasn’t overcome its imperial complex. This is a threat. The same as in Belarus, where Lukashenko gave up his land to occupation,” said the center’s executive director, Oleksandra Romantsova.
Romantsova praised the work of Bialiatski and Memorial, which she pointed out was the first organization to document Russian war crimes during the first war from 1994 to 1996 in Chechnya, the majority Muslim region on Russia’s southern flank that has fought two wars with Moscow for independence.
“Perhaps if the world had paid attention to the war crimes in Chechnya from the start, we wouldn’t have the war in Ukraine today,” Romantsova said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as of Saturday had not called the Ukrainian group to congratulate it on the prize, which both Matviychuk and the organization’s executive director brushed aside as insignificant, given the ongoing war in Ukraine.
It was unlikely Zelenskyy would have been able to reach either of them Friday after the news broke, she said.
“I don’t wish to anyone to go through war, but this complicated time gives us time to show our best qualities that we have, from the farmer protecting his land or tractor to the president who doesn’t flee the country during the war,” Matviychuk said.
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AP journalist Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed.
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Follow all AP stories about the Nobel Prizes at https://apnews.com/hub/nobel-prizes
By KARL RITTEROctober 7, 2022
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Nobel Commitee chairman Thorbjorn Jagland sits next to an empty chair with the Nobel Peace Prize medal and diploma during a ceremony honoring Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo at city hall in Oslo, Norway, on Dec. 10, 2010. Liu was serving an 11-year sentence for inciting subversion by advocating sweeping political reforms and greater human rights in China.
(AP Photo/John McConnico, File)
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Belarussian pro-democracy campaigner Ales Bialiatski, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with human rights groups in Russia and Ukraine, is the fourth person in the 121-year history of the Nobel Prizes to receive the award while in prison or detention.
Bialiatski, 60, who founded the non-governmental organization Human Rights Center Viasna, was detained following protests in 2020 against the re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. He remains in jail without trial and faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted.
Nobel committee chairwoman Berit Reiss-Andersen urged Belarus to release Bialiatski but acknowledged that chances of that happening in time for the Dec. 10 award ceremony were slim.
Here is a look at what happened to the other Nobel Peace Prize winners who were in captivity when they were awarded the prize.
CARL VON OSSIETZKY
The German journalist, a staunch opponent of militarism, was imprisoned for exposing secret plans for German rearmament in the 1920s. He was released after seven months but arrested again and sent to a concentration camp after the Nazis took power in 1933. Despite a campaign to set him free, the government refused to release Ossietzky, who was ill with tuberculosis.
His 1935 Nobel Peace Prize made Nazi leader Adolf Hitler so furious that he prohibited all Germans from receiving Nobel prizes.
According to biographical notes on the Nobel website, Ossietzky was barred from traveling to Norway to accept the award and was kept under surveillance at a civilian hospital until his death in 1938. He was the first Nobel peace laureate to die in captivity.
AUNG SAN SUU KYI
The Myanmar opposition leader was under house arrest for participating in anti-government protests when she was awarded the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. Her husband and sons accepted the award on her behalf.
The Nobel helped galvanize international support for Suu Kyi, but she remained in on-and-off house arrest until her release in 2010.
She eventually became Myanmar’s leader, but her peace prize glory faded and she faced criticism for ignoring and sometimes defending atrocities by the military, including a 2017 crackdown on Rohingya Muslims.
Suu Kyi was detained again when the military ousted her elected government in 2021 and remains imprisoned, despite calls for her release by the Norwegian Nobel Committee and others.
LIU XIAOBO
The decision to give imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 deeply angered Beijing, which reacted by suspending trade negotiations with Norway.
Liu was serving an 11-year sentence for inciting subversion by advocating sweeping political reforms and greater human rights in China. No friend or relative was able to accept the award on his behalf. His wife was placed under house arrest and dozens of his supporters were prevented from leaving the country.
Liu’s absence was famously marked by an empty chair at the award ceremony in Oslo. The award prompted world, leaders including President Barack Obama, to call for Liu’s release, but to no avail. He died from liver cancer in 2017.
Europe praises, Belarus scorns Nobel for rights defenders
By FRANK JORDANS
October 7, 2022
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Managers of the Center for Civil Liberties react in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. On Friday, Oct. 7, 2022 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to jailed Belarus rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian group Memorial and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
BERLIN (AP) — Officials in Europe and the U.S. praised the awarding of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to activists standing up for human rights and democracy in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine while authorities in Belarus scorned the move.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year has pushed Moscow’s relationship with its Western neighbors to a new low. Even before that, ties had been fraught over President Vladimir Putin’s backing for pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, his support for authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Syrian leader Bashar Assad, and his repression of political opponents, such as dissident Alexei Navalny at home.
“I hope the Russian authorities read the justification for the peace prize and take it to heart,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said after the Nobel Committee awarded the 2022 prize to imprisoned Belarus rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian rights group Memorial and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties, which is focusing on documenting war crimes.
“It sends a signal that keeping civil society down is protecting one’s own power. It is seen from the outside and it is criticized,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron was among the world leaders who quickly hailed the laureates, tweeting that their prize ”pays homage to unwavering defenders of human rights in Europe.”
“Artisans of peace, they know they can count on France’s support,” the French leader said.
U.S. President Joe Biden said the winners “remind us that, even in dark days of war, in the face of intimidation and oppression, the common human desire for rights and dignity cannot be extinguished.”
“The brave souls who do this work have pursued the truth and documented for the world the political repression of their fellow citizens — speaking out, standing up, and staying the course while being threatened by those who seek their silence,” Biden said in a statement.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg congratulated the winners, tweeting that “the right to speak truth to power is fundamental to free and open societies.”
Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said the award needs to be seen against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
“There is war in Europe. Your work for peace and human rights is therefore more important than ever before,” he said to the winners. “Thank you for that.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the three groups “fully deserved” the awards.
“The bravery, passion and clarity with which (they) are fighting for freedom and justice deserves the highest respect,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of European Union leaders in Prague.
In Paris, exiled Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press that the award was “recognition of all the people who are sacrificing their freedom and lives for the sake of (Belarus).”
Over the last two years, the government of Belarus has waged a violent crackdown on journalists and protesters who say that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, beating thousands, detaining tens of thousands and charging rights defenders with cases that the opposition calls politically motivated. Many have fled the country for their own safety.
“Physically, you know, this prize will not influence their situation but I am sure it (will) influence the moods and intentions of other countries to help those people who are behind bars,” Tsikhanouskaya said.
Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarusian journalist and writer who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in literature, called Bialiatski “a legendary figure.”
“What Viasna, founded by him, has done and is doing in the current circumstances, is in his spirit, in his philosophy,” Alexievich told reporters Friday.
She added that Bialiatski is “seriously ill” and needs medical treatment, but is “unlikely to be freed from behind bars.”
Belarus’ Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, denounced the Nobel committee’s decision to award the prize to Bialiatski as “politicized.”
Ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz said “in recent years, a number of important decisions — and we’re talking about the peace prize — of the Nobel committee have been so politicized, that, I’m sorry, Alfred Nobel got tired of turning in his grave.”
Olav Njølstad, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, dismissed the criticism.
“I’m quite sure we understand Alfred Nobel’s will and intentions better than the dictatorship in Minsk,” he said.
Meanwhile, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also took issue with the award, saying the Nobel Committee “has an interesting understanding of (the) word ‘peace’ if representatives of two countries that attacked a third one receive (the prize) together.”
“Neither Russian nor Belarusian organizations were able to organize resistance to the war,” Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted. “This year’s Nobel is ‘awesome.’”
But Oleksandra Matviichuk, a Ukrainian lawyer who heads the Center for Civil Liberties, said the award was for the groups, not the countries they were based in. In an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel, she said her co-laureates had spoken out clearly against Russia’s hostility toward Ukraine since 2014.
“They always called things by their name,” she said. “That’s why Ales Bialiatski is in prison now and Memorial is banned.”
“It’s not about the countries, but about the people who are jointly standing up to evil,” she said.
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Follow all AP stories about the Nobel Prizes at https://apnews.com/hub/nobel-prizes
BERLIN (AP) — Officials in Europe and the U.S. praised the awarding of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to activists standing up for human rights and democracy in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine while authorities in Belarus scorned the move.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine this year has pushed Moscow’s relationship with its Western neighbors to a new low. Even before that, ties had been fraught over President Vladimir Putin’s backing for pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine, his support for authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and Syrian leader Bashar Assad, and his repression of political opponents, such as dissident Alexei Navalny at home.
“I hope the Russian authorities read the justification for the peace prize and take it to heart,” Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said after the Nobel Committee awarded the 2022 prize to imprisoned Belarus rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian rights group Memorial and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties, which is focusing on documenting war crimes.
“It sends a signal that keeping civil society down is protecting one’s own power. It is seen from the outside and it is criticized,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron was among the world leaders who quickly hailed the laureates, tweeting that their prize ”pays homage to unwavering defenders of human rights in Europe.”
“Artisans of peace, they know they can count on France’s support,” the French leader said.
U.S. President Joe Biden said the winners “remind us that, even in dark days of war, in the face of intimidation and oppression, the common human desire for rights and dignity cannot be extinguished.”
“The brave souls who do this work have pursued the truth and documented for the world the political repression of their fellow citizens — speaking out, standing up, and staying the course while being threatened by those who seek their silence,” Biden said in a statement.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg congratulated the winners, tweeting that “the right to speak truth to power is fundamental to free and open societies.”
Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said the award needs to be seen against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine.
“There is war in Europe. Your work for peace and human rights is therefore more important than ever before,” he said to the winners. “Thank you for that.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the three groups “fully deserved” the awards.
“The bravery, passion and clarity with which (they) are fighting for freedom and justice deserves the highest respect,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of European Union leaders in Prague.
In Paris, exiled Belarus opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press that the award was “recognition of all the people who are sacrificing their freedom and lives for the sake of (Belarus).”
Over the last two years, the government of Belarus has waged a violent crackdown on journalists and protesters who say that the 2020 presidential election was rigged, beating thousands, detaining tens of thousands and charging rights defenders with cases that the opposition calls politically motivated. Many have fled the country for their own safety.
“Physically, you know, this prize will not influence their situation but I am sure it (will) influence the moods and intentions of other countries to help those people who are behind bars,” Tsikhanouskaya said.
Svetlana Alexievich, a Belarusian journalist and writer who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in literature, called Bialiatski “a legendary figure.”
“What Viasna, founded by him, has done and is doing in the current circumstances, is in his spirit, in his philosophy,” Alexievich told reporters Friday.
She added that Bialiatski is “seriously ill” and needs medical treatment, but is “unlikely to be freed from behind bars.”
Belarus’ Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, denounced the Nobel committee’s decision to award the prize to Bialiatski as “politicized.”
Ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz said “in recent years, a number of important decisions — and we’re talking about the peace prize — of the Nobel committee have been so politicized, that, I’m sorry, Alfred Nobel got tired of turning in his grave.”
Olav Njølstad, director of the Norwegian Nobel Institute, dismissed the criticism.
“I’m quite sure we understand Alfred Nobel’s will and intentions better than the dictatorship in Minsk,” he said.
Meanwhile, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also took issue with the award, saying the Nobel Committee “has an interesting understanding of (the) word ‘peace’ if representatives of two countries that attacked a third one receive (the prize) together.”
“Neither Russian nor Belarusian organizations were able to organize resistance to the war,” Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted. “This year’s Nobel is ‘awesome.’”
But Oleksandra Matviichuk, a Ukrainian lawyer who heads the Center for Civil Liberties, said the award was for the groups, not the countries they were based in. In an interview with German weekly Der Spiegel, she said her co-laureates had spoken out clearly against Russia’s hostility toward Ukraine since 2014.
“They always called things by their name,” she said. “That’s why Ales Bialiatski is in prison now and Memorial is banned.”
“It’s not about the countries, but about the people who are jointly standing up to evil,” she said.
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Follow all AP stories about the Nobel Prizes at https://apnews.com/hub/nobel-prizes
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