From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
Subject: Menchu: Nobel a prize for all indigenous peoples
Date: 20 Dec 92 03:41:24 GMT
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Organization: PACH
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu

/** gen.nativenet: 409.0 **/
** Topic: NOBEL PRIZE: A prize for all indige **
** Written  6:19 pm  Dec 13, 1992 by cscheiner in cdp:gen.nativenet **
From: Charles Scheiner <cscheiner>
Subject: NOBEL PRIZE: A prize for all indige

/* Written 12:04 am  Dec 13, 1992 by newsdesk@igc.apc.org in igc:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "NOBEL PRIZE: A prize for all indige" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Title: NOBEL PRIZE: A prize for all indigenous peoples

oslo, dec 10 (ips/per-aslak ertresvaag) -- to 1992 nobel peace
prize winner rigoberta menchu the honour she received thursday
goes not to her -- but to indigenous peoples everywhere.

''i consider this prize, not as an award to me personally, but
rather as one of the greatest conquests in the struggle for peace,
human rights and for the rights of the indigenous people who,
along all these 500 years, have been split, fragmented, as well as
been the victims of genocide, repression and discrimination.''

with these words the 1992 nobel peace prize winner, the 33- year
old guatamalan maya indian campaigner opened her speech to a
gathering of dignitaries at oslo city hall today. also present,
the laureate's only surviving family, her sister and brother, rosa
and nicolas menchu, and other guatemalan indians and friends.

menchu said she felt ''a deep emotion and pride'' for the honour
of having been awarded the prize and a ''deep personal feeling and
pride for my country and its very ancient culture''.

she added that the award of the peace prize reinforces and
encourages continued denunciation of human rights violations,
committed against the people in guatemala and worldwide.

in his introduction, dr francis sejersted, chairman of the  nobel
peace prize committee, welcomed the laureate to ''a winter country
in the far north, so far from your own country and your own world.

''the distance, both geographically and culturally is vast, but
the occasion of this award, in particular, should prompt us to
think nearness.'' for wherever they take place, conflicts are the
world's concern. ''even at this distance we feel threatened by a
local conflict in guatemala,'' he said, ''because it affects the
world's future''.

menchu described her country and the civilization of the mayas,
pioneers in the field of mathematics, astronomy, agriculture,
architecture and engineering, great artists in the field of
sculpture, painting, weaving and carving.

neither did she hide the sufferings, the sacrifices, the
suppression and the atrocities endured in 500 years of european
presence in america. but the indians' own spiritual vision had
given them the strength to withstand it, to the point that today,
finally, they can see ''some promising aspects,'' she said.

''i would describe the nobel peace price, in the first place  as
a tribute to the indian people who have been sacrificed and have
disappeared because they aimed at a more dignified and just life
with fraternity and understanding among human beings''.
(end/ips/hr/pae/rj/92)

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