VOA:百名知识分子盼刘晓波获诺贝尔和平奖

海内外许多中国知识分子、维权人士联名呼吁，将今年的诺贝尔和平奖授予《08宪章》发起人刘晓波。他们是响应前捷克总统哈维尔的相同呼吁而采取这一行动的。

*签署人逾百*

一百多名中国知识分子、维权人士9月22号给诺贝尔和平奖委员会发出公开信，呼吁将今年的诺贝尔和平奖，颁发给因言获罪正在坐牢的中国异议人士刘晓波。签署公开信的各界人士中有人权活动人士、律师、编辑、作家、基督徒、八九学运领袖、上访民众以及普通公民。他们说，用诺贝尔和平奖表彰刘晓波，表达了全世界都乐见中国和平转型、避免崩溃的希望。

*温克坚、滕彪：刘晓波若获奖实至名归*

中国浙江的自由作家温克坚，也在公开信中签了名，他对美国之音说：“我们认为，刘晓波先生这么多年为人权和自由所从事的活动是非常重要的努力，值得世界对他有更多的认识。我们希望，起码我们要把这个信号传递出去，传到更广泛的受众当中。”

北京政法大学教师滕彪也支持刘晓波获得诺贝尔和平奖，他同时呼吁诺贝尔和平奖评审委员会以及国际社会，更加关注中国的民主进程。他对美国之音说：“中国政治转型进入非常关键的阶段，如果有更多的国际力量关注中国的转型，将会影响全世界的和平局势。作为世界最有影响的奖项之一，诺贝尔和平奖应该有更长远的眼光，更有魄力，不要受到不正当的干涉。”

*寄望温家宝*

前不久，中国总理温家宝也谈到中国要进行政治改革。此时呼吁刘晓波获诺贝尔奖，是否具有现实意义呢?

温克坚说：“我觉得有它的现实意义。一方面，温家宝先生的这些努力，我们也看到了。它活跃了国内的政治氛围，起码给人以更多的想象空间。另外，国内民间这么多年的努力，如果说它的代表人物得到国际社会例如诺贝尔和平奖的认可，将表明国内民间道义力量的成熟。同时也有利于当局，起码(我们和)当局双方有了一个讨论的对手，这是非常重要的信号。”

*徐友渔：和平解决社会矛盾*

另外，前中国社会科学院哲学所研究员徐友渔，9月24号向诺贝尔和平奖评选委员会发出呼吁，将本年度的这个奖项授予《08宪章》发起人刘晓波。

他说，中国社会矛盾目前很突出，使用暴力太厉害，社会不公正日渐严重，公众中存在报复心理。通过宣扬刘晓波以和平方式推动中国社会民主和自由的主张，将对改变中国社会现状，避免暴力和“冤冤相报”有利而无害，而且中国也有这种潜在可能性。

**哈维尔也呼吁授奖刘晓波**

9月21日，30年前曾签署《七七宪章》的三名捷克知名人士哈维尔、尼姆科瓦和哈马里，第二次致信诺贝尔和平奖委员会，呼吁把2010年的和平奖发给入狱21个月的刘晓波。

他们在纽约时报上发表的文章中说，没有想到，当年他们那篇短短的《七七宪章》，30年后能够在中国引起反响，导致中国《08宪章》的诞生。文章还说，中国在某些方面脱离了传统的共产主义，在年轻人、城里人、白领工人眼里，更像一个后共产主义国家。但是有些界限还是不可逾越，刘晓波则大胆挑战中共的政治集权，并且将中国社会贪污腐化、乱象丛生、环境恶化等归咎于政改不利。

诺贝尔和平奖是诺贝尔五大奖项之一，每年12月10号诺贝尔逝世纪念日时颁奖。2009年获得该奖项提名者有205人，最终得奖人是美国总统奥巴马。

BBC:百人公开信促颁诺贝尔和平奖予刘晓波

一百多名中国学者、律师和维权人士发表联署公开信，敦促诺贝尔和平奖委员会，将2010年和平奖颁给中国的“良心犯”刘晓波。

刘晓波因参与起草倡导中国政治改革的《零八宪章》而被中国当局判监。他是中国知名的异见人士和维权人士。

公开信说，刘晓波参与起草和发表《零八宪章》，呼吁中国政府尊重人权、实行宪政与自由民主，却被当局重判11年监禁，引起国际社会的震惊和抗议。

去年底，中国当局以“煽动颠覆国家政权罪”判处刘晓波11年监禁，目前已入狱21个月。

在海外华人网站上发表的这封公开信，呼吁诺贝尔和平奖委员会用和平奖这样的荣誉奖励刘晓波，表达全世界都乐见中国和平转型、避免崩溃的希望。

这封有超过130人签署的公开信说：“这样做，诺贝尔奖将对刘晓波和中国政府两者都发出一个信号，那就是中国和世界上许多人都跟他站在一起，跟他所坚定不移地争取13亿中国人的自由和人权和理想站在一起。”

刘晓波被判刑后受到国际社会的普遍关注，美国《时代》周刊将他列为本年度 “百位全球最具影响力人物”的候选人。

去年，一批诺贝尔奖获奖人提名刘晓波为诺贝尔和平奖候选人。

捷克斯洛伐克《七七宪章》的三位起草人哈维尔、尼姆科娃和哈马里，9月21日在《国际先驱论坛报》上撰文，呼吁将2010年诺贝尔和平奖颁给刘晓波。

NY times: Petition Urges Nobel for Jailed Chinese Writer

BEIJING — In a move sure to irk the Chinese government, a group of 300 scholars, lawyers, factory workers and retired government officials have signed a petition calling on the Nobel Peace Prize committee to award this year’s prize to Liu Xiaobo, an imprisoned writer who has spent much of his life calling for democratic reform in China.

Last December Mr. Liu, 54, an essayist and a former literature professor, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for writings that the government said were intended to subvert state power. But his greatest crime was thought to be his role in drafting Charter 08, a petition that called on the Chinese Communist Party to end its authoritarian ways by embracing human rights, an independent judiciary and multiparty elections.

Modeled on Charter 77, the manifesto drafted by Czechoslovakian rights advocates three decades earlier, Charter 08 eventually garnered some 10,000 signatures before government censors pulled it from the Internet. Prior to his conviction in December, Mr. Liu spent three years in labor camp for his pro-democracy appeals.

The latest petition, which began circulating Friday, comes just days after Vaclav Havel, Dana Nemcova and Vaclav Maly, leaders of Czechoslovakia’s so-called Velvet Revolution, published an open letter in The International Herald Tribune backing Mr. Liu’s candidacy.

“We ask the Nobel Committee to honor Liu Xiaobo’s more than two decades of unflinching and peaceful advocacy for reform, and to make him the first Chinese recipient of that prestigious award,” they wrote. “In doing so, the Nobel Committee would signal both to Liu and to the Chinese government that many inside China and around the world stand in solidarity with him, and his unwavering vision of freedom and human rights for the 1. 3 billion people of China.”

In addition to endorsing the letter, the Chinese petition repeated some pointed criticisms of the Chinese government referred to, including government corruption and social injustice. The petition suggested that by choosing Mr. Liu, the prize committee could influence political change in a country that shows no signs of abandoning single-party rule.

Zhang Zuhua, an outspoken political theorist who signed the latest petition, described it as a spontaneous response to the Havel letter. Because the government has effectively blocked it from the Internet in China, he said, the petition has been circulating via Twitter, which is accessible only by those with software that circumvents the so-called Great Firewall.

“For obvious reasons, it’s not convenient for me to disclose its author,” said Mr. Zhang, whose involvement with Charter 08 led to round-the-clock police surveillance. “But I hope the Nobel Peace Prize committee can focus more attention on China, which desperately needs it right now.”

Chinese rights advocates have had their hopes raised and dashed before. In 2008 Hu Jia, another dissident who is serving a three-and-a-half-year sentence, was said to be on the short list. That year, however, the award went to Martti Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland.

AP: Group urges Nobel award for Chinese dissident

BEIJING — A group of scholars, writers and lawyers in China is urging that this year's Nobel Peace Prize be awarded to a Chinese dissident jailed for drafting a major call for political reform.

Liu Xiaobo, one of China's most prominent political activists, wrote Charter 08, a daring appeal for expanded political freedom, stronger civil rights and an end to Communist Party political dominance.

He was convicted last December of inciting to subvert state power, a vaguely worded charge routinely used to jail dissidents in China. Liu, a former professor, was sentenced to 11 years in prison, the harshest penalty handed down for that charge since it was introduced, human rights groups say.

In an open letter posted Friday on Boxun, an overseas Chinese website, the group cited Liu's "unswerving efforts to initiate China's transformation" toward democracy and urged the Nobel Committee to send a strong message to Beijing.

"By doing this, the Nobel Committee will send a signal to Liu Xiaobo and the Chinese government. Many people in China and in the world are on his side and standing beside his ideals of striving for freedom and human rights for 1.3 billion Chinese people," said the letter, signed by more than 120 intellectuals in China.

Last year, a group of Nobel laureates wrote in support of Liu's nomination. Liu has reportedly been on the shortlist of finalists in previous years. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced in October.

This past week, Czech democracy leader Vaclav Havel added his voice to the growing support for Liu, writing a public endorsement published in the International Herald Tribune.

Liu modeled the political document he wrote in 2008 after Havel's Charter 77, a political declaration that helped pave the way for the 1989 Velvet Revolution that swept the Communist regime out of the former Czechoslovakia. Some 10,000 people have signed Charter 08 online in the past year, though a news blackout and Internet censorship have left most Chinese unaware that it exists.

Liu previously spent 20 months in jail for joining the 1989 student-led protests in Tiananmen Square, which ended when the government called in the military — killing hundreds, perhaps thousands.