A trio representing the three nations at the center of the war in Ukraine were yesterday to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, showing no sign of giving up the fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Minsk ally.
Jailed Belarusian human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski, Russian human rights organization Memorial, and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) were to be presented with their awards at a formal ceremony in Oslo.
While the Peace Prize might be a small balm for the laureates’ souls, it has in no way weakened their resolve.
Photo: Reuters
“Putin will stop when he will be stopped,” CCL head Oleksandra Matviichuk told reporters on Friday at the Norwegian Nobel Institute.
“Authoritarian leaders ... see any attempt to dialogue as a sign of weakness,” she said, urging Western countries to continue to help Ukraine liberate its territories occupied by Russia, including Crimea.
The CCL has documented war crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine for the past eight years, crimes for which Matviichuk wants to see Putin and his ally, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, brought to justice.
“This war has a genocidal character,” she said in English. “If Ukraine stops its resistance, there will be no more of us... So I have no doubt that sooner or later Putin will appear before an international court.”
Memorial chairman of the board Yan Rachinsky, agreed, while remaining more cautious in his remarks due to the penalties imposed by Moscow on those who criticize the conflict in Ukraine.
“Ukraine has to fight for its independence,” he said. “Ukraine is not fighting for its interests alone. It is fighting for our joint peaceful future.”
“The choice before the international community ... is between the unpleasant situation today and the catastrophe tomorrow,” he said.
Founded in 1989, Memorial has for decades shed light on crimes committed by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin’s totalitarian regime and worked to preserve the memory of the victims, as well as documented human rights violations in Russia.
The country’s Supreme Court ordered it dissolved at the end of last year, and ordered a raid of its Moscow offices on Oct. 7 — the day it was announced as cowinner of this year’s Peace Prize.
“When it comes to rights defenders, at this juncture in Russia, the situation is terrible,” Rachinsky said.
The third colaureate, Ales Bialiatski, founder of rights group Viasna, has been detained since July 2020 pending trial following Minsk’s crackdown on large-scale protests against the regime.
He faces 12 years in prison. His wife Natalia Pinchuk, who was to accept his Nobel prize on his behalf, said that “the issue of Belarus is also being decided on the battlefield of Ukraine.”
She said Bialiatski — whom she has seen only once since his arrest, through a glass pane — was not authorized to give her an acceptance speech for the prestigious prize.
This year’s laureates are to receive a gold medal, diploma and check for 10 million kronor (US$966,352).
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