Ahmad Shah Massoud and the Nobel Prize

Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud was officially proclaimed the national hero of Afghanistan on April 25, 2002. A special committee has been collecting signatures since January of the current year to award the Nobel Prize to Ahmad Massoud posthumously. Well-known politicians and public figures of the world are among those people, who signed the letter, for example Czech President Vaclav Havel, American writer Elie Wiesel, deputies of the Europarliament, and many others.

There is no point to dwell on Massoud’s significance, his actions and thoughts speak for him. Here is what he used to say: “We fight for freedom. The last thing I want is to live in slavery. You can have everything: food, clothes, a place where to live, but all those things do not have any value, if you have no freedom, pride, independence.”

He has always been like that: proud and independent, he was devoted to his Fatherland and dreamed to see it free sometime. He was fighting against the USSR in the Afghan war, and then – against the Taliban. He is the combination of a warrior and a politician, his authority was acknowledged in the West, and no one can say what you could see in Afghanistan at present moment, if he was alive. Maybe he could unite Afghan tribes and establish law and order in the country. Maybe.

The committee for support of Massoud was set up in January of 2001 on the initiative from the international community. The petition on the site of the committee, was signed by over 2000 citizens from the whole world within two weeks, which made it possible to officially present Massoud’s candidacy to the Nobel committee. The Nobel committee in Oslo will awards its prizes this October, and the information about the candidacies is not to be exposed. However, it has been recently reported (unofficially) that American President George Bush, British Premier Tony Blair, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, former Afghan King Zahir Shah are on the list of the would-be Nobel Prize winners. Won’t there be a place for Ahmad Massoud?

Dmitry Chirkin PRAVDA.Ru

Committee of support to Ahmad Shah Massoud

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov