WEI FOR NOBEL PEACE PRIZE 1997.
APPEAL TO NOBEL PRIZE LAUREATES, MEMBERS OF NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS AND GOVERNMENTS, TO UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS OF LAW, PHILOSOPHY, HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE.
M. WEI Jingsheng is among the most prominent founders of the movement for human rights and democracy in China. During the "Democracy wall" movement in 1978 and 1979, WEI Jingsheng published the non-official magazine "Exploration" (Tansuo). With an essay of great strength, "The fifth modernization", WEI maintains that the four sectors of modernization proposed by Deng (agriculture, industry, science and defence) would be incomplete without a fifth one: democracy.
Arrested on 29 March 1979 for "having disclosed secrets of State" to a foreigner, WEI was sentenced to five years in jail for "counter-revolutionary crimes". In 1992, from the prison where he was detained, WEI addressed a long letter to Deng over the question of Tibet, asking him to start negotiations with the Dalai Lama. In 1993 he was released by the authorities who were concerned about public opinion in obtaining the designation of Beijing as the host city of the 2000 Olympic games. Freed, WEI continued in overtly denouncing human rights violations in China; he helped the families of the victims of the repression of Tien An Men on the 4 June 1989 and actively pursued the fight for freedom.
He was arrested, or rather abducted, again on 1 April 1994, WEI Jingsheng was detained for 20 months at a secret location without being neither charged nor tried. Later, on 21 November 1995, the Chinese authorities opened a trial, a new parody of justice, accusing him of having "attempted to overthrow the government". At 45, WEI Jingsheng faces the risk of death penalty.
Chinese authorities know too well that WEI Jingsheng is very popular. Backing WEI's nomination for the Nobel Prize means support for democracy for China. It means also support for the negotiations between China and Tibet. It means instilling a new force into the struggle for human rights and democracy throughout the People's Republic of China, which represents one fifth of humanity.
I declare to endorse the candidacy of Mr. WEI Jingsheng to the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.
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Please note:
1. If you wish to support this initiative, we ask you to please send as soon as possible, the coupon for the candidacy to the following fax number: +39-6-6880.5396.
2. According to Regulations, qualified individuals for supporting a Nobel Peace Prize nomination are: past Nobel Prize winners, Parliamentarians, members of governments, university professors of Law, History and Political Science.
3. The objective is that of collecting 3,000 adhesions among Nobel Prizes, parliamentarians and university professors by the 15 January 1997.
