The much awaited and debated Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony got underway here on Friday in the absence of this year’s winner Liu Xiaobo, imprisoned Chinese activist. Liu won't be able to collect the prestigious $1.4 million award at the Oslo ceremony on Friday — the first time in 74 years that it has not been handed over. A chair, symbolic of his presence, was kept in the hall along with Liu’s picture.
“We regret that the laureate is not present. He is in isolation in northeast China…this alone shows that this award is appropriate and necessary,” the President of the Nobel Committee Thorbjoern Jagland said to a standing ovation. The applause lasted at least 4-5 minutes.
The ceremony began with a solo Operatic rendition in the presence of the King and Queen of Norway. At least 19 countries, including China. India is attending the ceremony.
China was infuriated when the prestigious prize was awarded to the 54-year-old literary critic, who is serving an 11-year prison sentence on subversion charges brought after he co-authored a bold call for sweeping changes to Beijing's one-party communist political system.
Beijing described the award as an attack on its political and legal system and has placed Liu's supporters, including his wife Liu Xia, under house arrest to prevent anyone from picking up his prize.
On Friday, uniformed and plainclothes officers guarded the entrance to the compound in central Beijing where Liu Xia has lived since the October announcement that her husband would receive the prize. China also tightened a wide-ranging clampdown on dissidents and blocked some news websites ahead of the awarding ceremony.
China has also pressured foreign diplomats to stay away from the Nobel ceremony. China and 17 other countries have declined to attend, including Russia, Pakistan, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. At least 46 of the 65 countries with embassies in Oslo have accepted invitations. Serbia, which had said it would stay away, announced Thursday that it had changed its mind and would now attend.
Lundestad said countries gave various reasons for not attending, but some were "obviously affected by China."
China warned that attending the ceremony would be seen as a sign of disrespect. "We hope those countries that have received the invitation can tell right from wrong, uphold justice," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said In Beijing.
Some 1,000 guests, including ambassadors, royalty and other VIPs took their seats in Oslo's modernist City Hall for the two-hour ceremony. Among the invited are U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Ambassador Barry White.
Also, about 100 Chinese dissidents in exile and some activists from Hong Kong attended.
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