BRADLEY/CHELSEA MANNING
AWARDED INTERNATIONAL
PEACE PRIZE:
US whistleblower, Bradley/Chelsea Manning has been awarded the Sean McBride
Peace Prize by the International Peace Bureau in Stockholm, Sweden:
International Peace Bureau awards the Sean MacBride Peace Prize 2013 to
US whistleblower BRADLEY MANNING
19 JULY 2013, GENEVA.
The International Peace Bureau is delighted to announce that this year’s Sean
MacBride Peace Prize is to be awarded to Bradley Manning, the US whistleblower whose case has attracted worldwide attention,
for his courageous actions in revealing information about US war
crimes. His trial is likely to be concluded in
the coming
days.
Manning was arrested in May 2010 after allegedly
leaking more than 250,000
U.S. diplomatic cables, 400,000 U.S. Army reports about Iraq and another 90,000 about
Afghanistan, as well as the material used in the “Collateral Murder” video produced by WikiLeaks: videos of the July 12, 2007 Baghdad airstrike and the 2009 Garani airstrike in Afghanistan. At the time, it constituted the largest set of restricted documents ever leaked to the public. Much of it was published by WikiLeaks or its media partners
between
April and November 2010.
Manning has so far been detained for three years — first in Kuwait, then in solitary
confinement at the Marine Corps Brig in Quantico,
Va., and finally at a medium-‐security military prison at Fort Leavenworth,
Kan. — before being charged with 22 offenses, including communicating national defense information to an unauthorized source and aiding the enemy. He pleaded guilty
in February 2013 to 10 of the 22 charges,
which could carry a sentence of
up to 20 years. A full life
sentence is
now also
possible.
IPB's Co-‐President Tomas Magnusson comments: “IPB believes that among the very
highest moral
duties of a citizen is to make known
war
crimes and crimes
against humanity. This is within the broad meaning of the Nuremberg
Principles enunciated at the end of the Second World War. When Manning revealed
to the world the crimes being
committed by the US military
he did so as an act of obedience
to this high moral duty”. It is
for this reason too that Manning has also been nominated
for the Nobel Peace Prize. In
more general terms it is well known that war operations,
and especially illegal ones, are frequently conducted under the cover of secrecy. To penetrate
this wall of secrecy by revealing information that should
be accessible to all is an important
contribution to the struggle against war, and acts as a challenge
to the military system which
dominates both the economy
and society in today’s world.
IPB believes that whistleblowers are vital in upholding democracies -‐ especially in the area of defense and security.
A heavy sentence for Manning
would
not
only
be
unjust
but
would
also have
very negative effects on
the right to
freedom of expression which
the US
claims
to uphold.
About the
MacBride Prize
The prize has been awarded each year since 1992 by the International
Peace Bureau (IPB), founded
in 1892. Previous winners include: Lina Ben Mhenni (Tunisian
blogger) and Nawal El-‐Sadaawi
(Egyptian author)
-‐
2012, Jackie Cabasso (USA, 2008), Jayantha Dhanapala (Sri Lanka, 2007) and the Mayors of Hiroshima
and Nagasaki (2006). It is
named after Sean MacBride, a distinguished Irish statesman who shared
the 1974 Nobel Peace Prize, and is given to individuals or organisations for their outstanding work for
peace, disarmament and human rights.
The (non-‐monetary) Prize consists of a medal made in ‘Peace
Bronze’, a material
derived from recycled nuclear
weapons components*. It will be formally awarded
on Sept. 14 in
Stockholm, at a special evening on Whistleblowing, which forms part
of the triennial gathering of the International Peace Bureau.
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