Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Gorbachev

It is tragically ironic that the Nobel Peace Prize, which has honored in the past some of the greatest champions of justice and models of virtue, has fallen this year upon Gorbachev, the man who chose to use force to suppress the Lithuanian democratic uprising, one of Eastern Europe’s most peaceful revolutions of the last year.

Armed only with their national songs and tri-color flags, the Lithuanians took to the streets and polling booths to express their intentions of regaining their rightful independence which was stolen in 1940; yet Gorbachev responded by ordering Soviet tanks to roll through the streets of Vilnius. It was Gorbachev who insisted on strangling the nation by shutting off its gas lines and cutting off vital medical supplies. It was Gorbachev who allowed Red Army soldiers to storm Red Cross hospitals in Lithuania, seize Lithuanian youths who had fled their occupier’s army and beat them into submission. By choosing to overlook Gorbachev’s stomping of the human spirit and violations of human rights, the Nobel committee has greatly compromised the ideals which the prize represents.

The Nobel Prize committee should be honoring a noble people, the Lithuanians, instead of the man who continues their oppression.

AURIS JARASUNAS, Santa Monica