In December 1989 the Fourteenth Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Having been awarded to terrorists and war- makers before, the Nobel Peace Prize is no stranger to controversy – even Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin are among previous nominees for the prize!343 In his presentation speech to the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Egil Aarvik said:
‘This year’s Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded … first and foremost for his consistent resistance to the use of violence in his people’s struggle to regain their liberty. …
‘This is by no means the first community of exiles in the world, but it is assuredly the first and only one that has not set up any militant liberation movement.’344
Was he unaware that the Dalai Lama had spoken since 1961 of the Tibetan guerrillas who were waging war on the People’s Liberation Army?345 Had he not read any of the accounts of the Tibetan guerrilla war that were in wide circulation, such as Jamyang Norbu’s Warriors of Tibet – a book commissioned by the Tibetan exile government itself?346
Given that Tibetan ‘non-violence’ is merely a facade, why was the Dalai Lama awarded the prize? Tom Grunfeld says:
‘Everything having to do with Tibet is subject to mythologizing. That the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on behalf of Tibetan independence is one of these myths.’347
According to the New York Times, the prize was awarded to the Dalai Lama ‘largely because of the brutal suppression of the democracy movement in China and the international outrage that followed.’348 A source close to the Norwegian Nobel Committee revealed:
‘… the choice of the Dalai Lama, was an attempt both to influence events in China and to recognize the efforts of student leaders of the [Chinese] democracy movement, which was crushed by Chinese troops in June.’349
In addition to criticising the Chinese by implication, awarding the prize to the Dalai Lama was an explicit attempt by the committee to atone for what is widely considered to be its greatest embarrassment: failing to award Mahatma Gandhi the Nobel Peace Prize, despite his having been nominated five times!350 As Egil Aarvik said in the presentation speech:
‘The Dalai Lama likes to consider himself one of Gandhi’s successors. People have occasionally wondered why Gandhi himself was never awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and the present Nobel Committee can with impunity share this surprise, while regarding this year’s award of the prize as in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi.’351
The Nobel Peace Prize is considered by some to be the easiest Nobel Prize to win because no actual achievement needs to be demonstrated. What the Dalai Lama has clearly achieved, though, is to deceive the world utterly as to his real nature and intentions. By awarding him the Peace Prize the Nobel Committee has helped him to continue to dupe the world.