Sydney, May 29, 2004
NRI human rights activist Arundhati
Roy has been awarded the 2004 Sydney Peace Prize for her work
in social campaigns and advocacy of non-violence. This is the
only international peace prize awarded in Australia, was announced
by the Sydney Peace Foundation 's chairman Alan Cameron on Friday
night.
The jury's citation read, "Arundhati
Roy has been recognised for her courage in campaigns for human
rights and for her advocacy of non-violence, as expressed in
her demands for justice for the poor, for the victims of communal
violence, for the millions displaced by the Narmada dam projects
and for her opposition to nuclear weapons"
"Arundhati Roy is a distinguished
world citizen. She is an outstanding communicator who writes
with great clarity and grace. At a time of terrible disregard
for human life, we need to hear from citizens like Arundhati
Roy," director of the Sydney Peace Foundation Professor
Stuart Rees said.
Each year the prize is awarded
to an organisation or individual who has made significant contributions
to global peace, including improvements in personal security
and steps towards eradicating poverty and other forms of structural
violence.
Roy rose to prominence as the author
of The God of Small Things, which won the 1997 Booker Prize,
but is just as well known today for her clashes with authority.
She described her relationship with authority as "genetically
adversarial".
Roy said, "Today, in a world
convulsed by violence and unbelievable brutality the lines between
'us' and 'the terrorists' have been completely blurred. We don't
have to choose between imperialism and terrorism; we have to
choose what form of resistance will rid us of both."
Roy is often accused of anti-Americanism,
but replies: "My writing is not really about nations and
histories, it's about power. About the paranoia and ruthlessness
of power."
She predicts: "Soviet-style
communism failed, not because it was intrinsically evil, but
because it was flawed. It allowed too few people to usurp too
much power. Twenty-first century market capitalism, American-style,
will fail for the same reasons. Both are edifices constructed
by human intelligence, undone by human nature."
She has argued that Osama bin Laden
is "America's family secret", the monstrous offspring
of its support for the mujahideen after the Soviet invasion
of Afghanistan. "He has been sculpted from the spare rib
of a world laid waste by America's foreign policy."
The bombs raining down, she says,
are "blowing up whole warehouses of suppressed fury"
and will inevitably spawn more terrorism.