Press Releases

12/03/2019

Nobel Prize for Literature

Human rights organization thanks expert Sundström for leaving the Nobel Committee for Literature (Press Release)

The author had announced her resignation on Monday, stating that one of the reasons was that Handke had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2019. The writer Kristoffer Leandoer left the panel as well. In his opinion, the Swedish Academy did not react to the scandal year 2018 fast and consistently enough. Picture: S. Hermann & F. Richter via pixabay

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) has welcomes the fact that writer Gun-Britt Sundström has left the Nobel Committee for Literature. "With this decision, she paid tribute to the genocide victims of Srebrenica, who have been so deeply hurt by this year's award winner Peter Handke. We thank Mrs. Sundström for her decision and for publicly demonstrating her moral integrity," the human rights organization stated in Göttingen on Tuesday. The author had announced her resignation on Monday, stating that one of the reasons was that Handke had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature 2019. The writer Kristoffer Leandoer left the panel as well. In his opinion, the Swedish Academy did not react to the scandal year 2018 fast and consistently enough. 

"The credibility of the Nobel Committee is deeply shaken," the STP concluded. "It was a bad decision to honor Peter Handke with the award. The committee should have anticipated that his literary work could be instrumentalized by right-wing extremists, ultranationalists, and neo-fascists." In the opinion of the STP, Handke's works are to be seen as an attack against the Bosnian victims, as the crimes of the Serbian soldiers and paramilitary units are denied or relativized. Thus, he had obstructed the search for truth – not only of the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, but also of eyewitnesses, experts, and journalists.

Together with various organizations of survivors of the crimes committed by the Serbian side during the Bosnian war, the STP had demanded the Austrian author to apologize to the genocide victims in Bosnia and to distance himself from the criminal regime of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. Not only is Handke denying the crimes of genocide: During the Bosnian war, he also visited the Serbian leader while he was imprisoned in The Hague and expressed understanding for his devastating policy.

Headerbild: S. Hermann & F. Richter via pixabay