20 June 2008, 15:29
European parliamentarians nominate "Memorial" Society to Nobel Peace Award
A group of European parliamentarians has offered to nominate the International Society "Memorial", which deals, among other things, with investigations of human rights violations in Northern Caucasus, to the Nobel Peace Award.
"The "Memorial" doesn't pursue any political aims, but strives for truth, knowing that the truth is a precondition of democratic policy," said today Bronislaw Heremek, a deputy of the European Parliament from Poland, emphasizing the efforts undertaken by the "Memorial" in establishing historical truth.
The initiators of nomination were also Joseph Pinior, a Polish Deputy-Socialist, and Milan Horacek, representing the German Green Party. "I think that the "Memorial" has good chances, at least because the international strength of Russia increases. Russia is playing a more and more important role in forming the global environment, therefore, everything that happens there is of crucial importance," Mr Pinior said in his interview to "Gazeta Vyborcha".
Among the twenty Europeans MPs who have nominated the Society to the Nobel Prize, there are deputies from all the major factions of the European Parliament from different countries, in particular, Daniel Kon-Bendit and Elmar Brok from Germany, Hans Svoboda from Austria, Christopher Bezly from Great Britain and Vitautas Landsbergis from Lithuania. Apart from Pinior, polish signatories of the nomination letter were Bronislaw Heremek and Yanush Onyshkevic, the "Polit.ru" reports.