20101120 Peace Prize may not be handed out, Nobel official says

Peace Prize may not be handed out, Nobel official says

AP, OSLO

The Nobel Peace Prize may not be handed out this year because China is not likely to let anyone from the family of imprisoned award-winner Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波) attend the ceremony, a Nobel official said, calling China’s diplomatic pressure this year unprecedented.

Outraged by the award, Beijing has reportedly clamped down on Liu’s relatives and pressured other countries not to send representatives to the Dec. 10 award ceremony in Oslo.

Ambassadors from Russia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Morocco and Iraq have all declined invitations to the ceremony, but didn’t specify the reasons, Norwegian Nobel Committee secretary Geir Lundestad said on Thursday.

“For an embassy to actively try to persuade other embassies to not participate in the ceremony is something new,” Lundestad said.

The prestigious 10 million kronor (US$1.4 million) award can only be collected by the laureate or close family members.

Liu, a Chinese dissident, is serving an 11-year sentence for subversion after co-authoring an appeal calling for reforms to China’s one-party political system. His wife, Liu Xia (劉霞), has been under house arrest and subject to police escort since the award was announced last month.

Lundestad said no other relatives have announced plans to travel to Oslo for the ceremony.

“The way it looks now, it is not likely that someone from his close family will attend,” Lundestad said. “Then we will not give out the medal and the diploma during the ceremony.”

If that happens, it will be the first time since 1936, when there was no one present to accept the medal and diploma for German journalist Carl von Ossietzky, who was seriously ill and not allowed to leave Nazi Germany. However, a representative of Ossietzky received the prize money only, Lundestad said.

Lundestad said the committee has not lost hope that someone from Liu’s family could attend the ceremony.

“If someone shows up at the last minute, it will not be a problem to change plans,” he said.

Liu Xiaobo has three brothers, the most well-known being Liu Xiaoxuan (劉曉暄), the youngest.

A Hong Kong-based human rights group has reported that two of the brothers have been unable to visit Liu in prison despite repeated requests.

Liu Xiaoxuan has also been told by his employer not to go, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said.

Lundestad said 36 ambassadors have accepted the invitation to the ceremony and 16 ambassadors have not yet replied. Some of them have asked for more time to decide, he said.

The Chinese embassy has returned all Nobel correspondence unopened, he added.

Russian embassy spokesman Vladimir Isupov said the Russian ambassador would not be in Norway at the time of the award ceremony.

“It is not politically motivated and we do not feel we are pressured by China,” Isupov said.

In addition to the award cere-mony, the peace prize program includes a banquet on Dec. 10 and a concert held in the laureate’s honor the next day.

Organizers said the concert would be co-hosted by actors Anne Hathaway and Denzel Washington and feature performances by Barry Manilow, Jamiroquai and Elvis Costello among others.