Vanunu and Aung San Suu Kyi - Maguire Provides a Link

international | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Saturday January 01, 2005 14:50 by Justin Morahan - Peace People

Peace Prize passed on by Nobel Laureate

Summary: Mairead Corrigan has passed on her Amsterdam peace prize to the two captives

The same Peace prize awaits both Mordechai Vanunu an Aung San Suu Kyi as each of them steps alternatively to freedom.

The prize was awarded to Mairead Maguire on 27 December 2004 in Amsterdam by the Amsterdam-based ChildRight organization for her work for children and peace throughout the world.

But Maguire who had recently visited the Israeli whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu in Israel asked that the prize be kept instead for his release and presented to him. When Aung San Suu Kyi achieves freedom in Burma, Vanunu will pass on the prize to her.

The Nobel Laureate has requested that meanwhile the prize will be held on display in Amsterdam with the stories of Vanunu and Aung San Suu Kyi displayed underneath, and that children will become involved, perhaps by the ringing of a bell, so that when Vanunu comes to receive the prize they will be able to thank him for the work he has done for world peace.

Vanunu is at present restricted from leaving Israel where he has already served an 18 year sentence and Aung San Suu Kyi, herself a Nobel Peace Laureate, has been under house arrest for 10 years in Burma.

Speaking at a recent press Conference in Jerusalem, attended by Mairead Maguire, Vanunu expressed concern for Ms Aung San Suu Kyi.

Mrs Maguire said that each day at noon, Vanunu rings the bell in St. George's Cathedral, in east Jerusalem, to remind the World that he is still in captivity and not allowed to leave Israel to go to his friends in Britain, Ireland, USA, and so many other places around the world.

She proposed that people around the World ring a bell each day at noon, "in solidarity with our friends, Mordechai and Suu".