unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (10/11/89)
Forwarded-From : Greenlink
October 6, 1989
DALAI LAMA WINS 1989 NOBEL PEACE PRIZE
By HANS RUSTAD
OSLO, Norway (UPI) -- The dalai lama, Tibet's exiled god-king who has
advocated non-violent struggle against Chinese domination of his
homeland, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 1989, Nobel officials
announced Thursday.
China immediately accused the Nobel Committee of meddling in China's
internal affairs in making the award, which observers had predicted
would go to Czech dissidents or to democracy movements in the Soviet
Baltic states.
Norwegian Nobel Peace Committee Chairman Egil Aarvik said the
committee gave the prize to Tibet's 14th dalai lama, 54-year-old Tenzin
Gyatso, for "opposing the use of violence in his struggle for the
liberation of Tibet."
"He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and
mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural
heritage of his people," the chairman said.
Aarvik denied the award was designed as a "slap in the face" to
Chinese authorities in the wake of the brutal suppression of the
student-led democracy movement in Beijing.
"The committee does not have motives of that sort," he told reporters.
"We are, however, aware that the Nobel awards often have such effects."
He said developments in the East, not least in China, had made the
dalai lama the leading candidate this year. "If I were a Chinese
student leader now, I would say the Nobel Committee has done the right
thing."
The dalai lama, who lives in exile in India, was in Newport Beach,
Calif., to attend the international East-West Conference for world
peace when the award was announced at 6 a.m. EDT.
"Frankly speaking, there was not much of a reaction," Tenzin Geyche
Tethong, secretary to the dalai lama, told United Press International
by telephone. "His holiness was not overly excited, but he feels
greatly honored at the awarding of the prize to him as a recognition of
his efforts for peace and understanding during the last three decades.
"He also feels this is a recognition of the Tibetan peoples' struggle
for freedom through peaceful means," said the secretary.
Aides said the dalai lama, who was staying at the home of ketchup heir
Clifford Heinz, was not told of the award until about two hours later
because he was in prayer.
At the Chinese Embassy in Oslo, spokesman Wang Guisheng called the
award "a clear interference in the internal affairs of China."
"The dalai lama is not only a religious leader, but an exiled
political figure who is carrying on political efforts to try and split
the fatherland and undermine national unity," Wang said.
The award, designed by Swedish dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel in his
1895 will, this year carries with it a cash prize of $445,000.
In New Delhi, Tibetan refugees celebrated upon hearing the news,
embracing each other and shouting, "Victory to Tibetans."
"It is a recognition of not only the plight of the Tibetans, but of
all the suppressed people of the world," said Nima Gyaltsen, 61, a
co-chairman of the Chushi Gangdrug, a Tibetan political organization in
New Delhi.
The Indian government issued a carefully worded reaction to the dalai
lama's selection for the prize, reflecting the cautious line New Delhi
treads between providing sanctuary to the dalai lama and some 100,000
rabidly anti-Chinese Tibetan refugees and attempting to improve its
relations with Beijing, its rival giant to the north.
"We have always held the Dalai Lama in the highest esteem as a
spiritual leader, a steadfast proponent of peace and an apostle of
non-violence," said the statement read by Indian Foreign Ministry
spokesman Aftab Seth.
Aarvik said the dalai lama developed his philosophy of peace from "a
great reverence for all things living."
"In the opinion of the committee, the dalai lama has come forward with
constructive and forward-looking proposals for the solution of
international conflicts, human rights issues and global environment
patterns," Aarvik said.
Born July 6, 1935, to a peasant family in northeastern Tibet, the
dalai lama was "recognized" at age 2 as the 14th in a series of
god-kings to rule his native land. But he never exercised full
sovereignty over the Himalayan "roof of the world."
The spiritual leader of the largest of the Tibetan Buddhist
communities maintains his claim to the position of head of state in
Tibet despite his exile in India.
At age 5 in 1940, he was brought to the capital Lhasa to be installed
in the position of dalai lama of Tibet, but the country was ruled by a
regent while he underwent his education and initiation.
By 1950, Chinese troops had crossed the border into Tibet, claiming
the country constituted Chinese territory. The claim was hotly denied
by Tibet, which said it had severed all ties with China after the fall
of the last Chinese emperor in 1912.
In 1954, the young dalai lama spent almost a year in Beijing for
meetings with Chairman Mao Tse-tung.
The situation in Tibet deteriorated, however, and in 1959, following a
failed Tibetan uprising against Chinese control, the dalai lama fled to
India with tens of thousands of followers.
Since then, the Buddhist leader has been living in the mountain town
of Dharamsala in northern Himachal Pradesh.
Some 100,000 Tibetan refugees live in settlments in Dharamsala, New
Delhi and in southern Karnataka state.
During his exile, the dalai lama has continued to lobby international
support for Tibetan autonomy and in a speech to the European parliament
in 1988 he conceded the possibility of a compromise with China,
entailing the formation of Tibet as a self-governed nation within a
union with China.
China would be given limited control over Tibet's defense and foreign
policy until Tibet could be established as a neutral, demilitarized
"zone of peace."
Despite the dalai lama's mediation efforts, riots have racked the tiny
mountain state, and the Potala -- the dalai lama's palace -- has
resounded with the sound of demonstrating monks and nuns opposed to
Chinese rule.
At least 16 people were said to have been killed in three days of
rioting in March this year, just days before the 30th anniversary of
the 1959 uprising.
That bout of anti-Chinese dissent came after similar riots in
September 1987 and March and December 1988. Chinese authorities cracked
down hard on the popular revolt, slapped martial law on Lhasa and
expelled foreigners.
Because of the clampdown on foreigners and information reaching the
outside world from Tibet, only sparse reports have been available since
March.
According to some reports, Chinese troops remain posted throughout the
capital and demonstrations, though limited by the harsh clampdown, have
continued. A small group of Tibetan nuns was arrested last month for
staging a protest in central Lhasa.
Thursday's award to the dalai lama came as an embarrassment to
Norway's authorities. During a visit to Norway several months ago,
former Norwegian Prime Minister Kaare Willoch refused to meet the
Tibetan leader as did Foreign Minister Thorvald Stoltenberg.
Although the dalai lama had been a candidate for the peace prize for
eight years, attention had focused on candidates reflecting the
political turmoil of Eastern Europe.
Norwegian news reports this week consistently pointed to Czechoslovak
dissidents Vaclav Havel and Jiri Hajek, as well as popular movements
for democracy in the Soviet Baltic States. Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev and former President Ronald Reagan were on a short list of
likely candidates earlier this year.
Among the 97 nominees for the 1989 prize were the International
Olympic Committee, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for
Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, and the Boy Scout movement.
Also nominated were Bruno Husser, a Catholic priest who founded the
Jewish-Palestinian peace village Neve Shalom, and Indian Prime Minister
Rajiv Gandhi.
Imprisoned African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, President
Corazon Aquino of the Philippines and Brazil's Joao Havelange of the
International Football (soccer) Association also were on the nomination
list.
Recent winners were Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel in 1986, Costa
Rican President Oscar Arias in 1987 for the Central American peace plan
and the U.N. Peacekeeping Forces in 1988.
The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, but all of the other prizes
awarded in Stockholm. Award ceremonies take place on Dec. 10 each year,
the anniversary of the 1896 death of Nobel.
It is unclear why Nobel chose Norway as the appointer for the Peace
Prize.
The Stockholm prizes will be awarded next week with the prize for
medicine on Oct. 9 and physics and chemistry prizes on Oct. 12. The
date for the announcement of the Nobel Prize in literature is always
kept secret until at most a week beforehand, normally at the end of
October.
The sixth prize, in economics, was set up by the Swedish National Bank
in 1968 as the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.
The 1989 winner of that award will be announced Oct. 11.
####
* Origin: TouchStone HST: A FINE Standard (509)292-8178 (1:346/1.0)
---
Patt Haring | United Nations | Did u read
patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information | misc.headlines.unitex
patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange | today?
-=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-