They denounced Putin’s paranoid war of aggression in Ukraine and called for arms not to be laid down
Receiving the awards Nobel Peace Prize 2022 today in Oslo, those from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus awarded they denounced Putin’s paranoid war of aggression in Ukraine and called for arms not to be laid down.
Imprisoned Belarusian dissident Ales Beliatsky, the NGO Memorial, which was disbanded by order of the Russian judiciary, and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties were awarded for their “adherence to human rights, democracy and peaceful coexistence” in the face of authoritarian forces.
Peace in Ukraine cannot be achieved by laying down arms against Vladimir Putin’s Russia, he said Ukrainian Oleksandra Matvichuk receiving the award at the ceremony in Oslo.
“The people of Ukraine want peace more than anyone in the world,” said the head of the Center for Civil Liberties.
“But peace for a country under attack cannot be achieved by laying down arms. It would not be peace, but occupation.”
The Center for Civil Liberties was founded in 2007. Today it documents the war crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine: destruction of homes, churches, schools and hospitals, bombing of civilian evacuation corridors, forced displacement of the population, torture…
In the nine months since the Russian invasion, the Center has recorded “more than 27,000 incidents of war crimes and this is only the tip of the iceberg,” she said during her speech at the ceremony. The speech she wrote by candlelight, in the absence of electricity caused by the Russian bombings in her country.
“War turns people into numbers. We have to give a name again to all the victims of war crimes,” he said.
In a voice choked with emotion, Oleksandra Matvichuk launched a new appeal for the establishment of an international court “to try Putin, Lukashenko and other war criminals”.
Putin’s imperial ambitions
The too Memorial president laureate Jan Raczynski he denounced the “imperial ambitions,” a legacy of the Soviet Union, “that continue to flourish today.”
Vladimir Putin’s Russia has distorted the historical meaning of the anti-fascist struggle “for the benefit of its own political interests”, he said.
Now, “resistance to Russia is tantamount to fascism,” he said.
A metamorphosis that offers “the ideological justification of the paranoid and criminal war of aggression against Ukraine,” said Jan Raczynski in his speech during the Nobel Prize ceremony.
The Memorial organization was founded in 1989 and with its decades-long work brought to light the crimes of the Stalinist period, kept alive the memory of the victims and gathered evidence on the violation of freedoms and rights in Russia.
The organization was dissolved in 2021 by Russian justice, in the context of the persecution of every opposition voice. Its offices in Moscow were seized on October 7, the evening of the Nobel Peace Prize announcement.
“Today, the number of political prisoners in Russia is greater than the total number of them in the entire Soviet Union at the beginning of the perestroika period in the 1980s,” said Jan Raczynski.
The International of Dictatorships
The third 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate is the Belarusian dissident Ales Baliatsky, founder of the human rights non-governmental organization Viasna. He has been in prison since July 2021.
Awaiting his trial and facing a 12-year prison sentence for “smuggling” money to benefit the opposition to Lukashenko’s regime, the 60-year-old activist did not get permission to broadcast his award speech.
At today’s ceremony, his wife Natalya Pinsuk represented him and expressed himself in his own words, calling for resistance to the “International of Dictatorships”.
“I know exactly what kind of Ukraine suits Russia and Putin – a dependent dictatorship. The same as today’s Belarus, where the voice of the oppressed people is ignored and discredited,” said Ales Baliatsky during today’s ceremony through the mouth of his wife.
“Goodness and truth must be able to be protected,” he said.
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With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
