Serbia, others criticized for Nobel ceremony boycott
By DPA, IANSWednesday, December 8, 2010
BELGRADE/BRUSSELS/BERLIN - Serbia’s decision to join 18 other countries in boycotting the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony drew sharp criticism from the European Union (EU) Wednesday.
Belgrade would not be represented at the event in Oslo Friday to honour the 2010 laureate, jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic said Wednesday.
“We give great weight to our bilateral ties with China. All our decisions are linked to our national interests,” he told reporters.
The move is widely seen as a thank you for Beijing’s support of Serbia in its campaign against Kosovo’s secession. Two years ago, Beijing boycotted the awards ceremony when former UN diplomat Martti Ahtisaari was awarded the prize. Belgrade has accused Ahtisaari of engineering Kosovo’s independence.
Liu is serving an 11-year sentence for subversion.
Officials from the EU, which Serbia strives to join, criticized Belgrade Wednesday. “We are disappointed, we are concerned about this line of action,” said Angela Filote, spokeswoman for the EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule.
No EU country - and no other EU-hopeful in the Balkans - has joined the boycott of Friday’s ceremony.
“We would expect a country that has aspirations to join the EU to fully share the values of the EU … and coordinate its position with our member states,” she said.
Filote said that Fule was due to meet Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic Thursday and “this issue might be raised”.
The EU parliament rapporteur for Serbia, Slovenian Jelko Kacin, sharply condemned Belgrade’s position, blasting it as the indicator of its “policies regarding human rights”.
“No other candidate for membership in the EU or a potential candidate manifested such servility,” Kacin was quoted as saying by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
Serbia has a spotty human rights record itself and is yet to fully deal with the legacy of its recent history policies.
For instance, more than a decade since Slobodan MIlosevic’s regime fell, Serbia is yet to bring to justice people responsible for mass killings in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.
A German human rights organisation Wednesday criticized the governments who are not sending envoys to the award ceremony, saying they were “human rights deniers”.
In addition to Serbia, the list of countries boycotting the event comprises Afghanistan, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Vietnam, Pakistan, Iran, Morocco and Sudan.
“These 19 are well known for not respecting human rights on their own soil, for watering down human rights at the United Nations and for trying to gag human rights organizations” Society for Endangered Peoples said.
