Nobel Peace Prize Is Awarded to National Dialogue Quartet in Tunisia
By SEWELL CHAN

LONDON — A coalition of labor union leaders, businesspeople, lawyers and human rights activists won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for what the Nobel committee called “its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.”

The prize to the coalition, known as the National Dialogue Quartet, comes nearly five years after an unemployed street vendor set himself on fire, touching off a political earthquake that toppled Tunisia’s longtime authoritarian president and proceeded to reverberate throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

Among the disappointments of what has become known as the Arab Spring — collapsed states in Libya, Syria and Yemen; the return of rule by a military strongman in Egypt; and the rise of the Islamic State in the sectarian caldron of Syria and Iraq — the relative success of Tunisia’s transition to democracy has been a wisp of hope.

The quartet comprises four organizations: the Tunisian General Labor Union; the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts; the Tunisian Human Rights League; and the Tunisian Order of Lawyers. But the Norwegian Nobel Committee emphasized that the prize “is awarded to this quartet, not to the four individual organizations as such.”

“The Arab Spring originated in Tunisia in 2010 and 2011, but it quickly spread to other countries in North Africa and the Middle East,” said Kaci Kullmann Five, the chairwoman of the committee, who announced the prize in Oslo. “In many of these countries, the struggle for democracy and human rights has come to a standstill or suffered setbacks. Tunisia, however, has seen a democratic transition based on a vibrant civil society, with demands for respect for basic human rights.”

In Tunisia, the winners rejoiced. “Congratulations to Tunisia, to the quartet and to all parties that facilitated the mission of the quartet,” the labor union’s secretary general, Houcine Abassi, told Radio Mosaïque FM. “This prize came at the right time, because our country is still threatened by different security challenges.”

The president of the Human Rights League, Abdessattar Ben Moussa, told the radio station, “It proves that dialogue is the only way to solve a crisis and not weapons.”

In a Facebook video, President Beji Caid Essebsi called the award a triumph of negotiation over violence. “Tunisia has no other solution but dialogue,” he said. “We are facing a war against terrorism, and we can’t win unless we stay together.”

Tunisia, a former French colony that achieved independence in 1956, has been the crucible of momentous change since the street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire on Dec. 17, 2010, spurring massive demonstrations.

An Islamist party, Ennahda, won the most votes the next year in Tunisia’s first free parliamentary elections, but its proposal for a new constitution that would weaken women’s status as equal to men, among other changes, drew widespread protests. The assassination of two opposition politicians in 2013 led to calls for the Ennahda-led government to step down, and by the end of the year it had agreed to a timetable for a democratic transition, becoming the only Islamist-led government created during the Arab Spring to cede power willingly.

The quartet was successful because it represented a credible third party that could guarantee the agreement. Having seen the Muslim Brotherhood government deposed in Egypt, Tunisia’s Islamists feared a similar fate. Although the Islamists did not trust their political opponents, they reportedly did trust Mr. Abassi, the union leader.

Participants have commented that Tunisia was lucky in that no single group in the country was strong enough to consider enforcing its own hegemony. Unlike in Egypt, the Tunisian Army — always kept weak under Mr. Ben Ali’s dictatorship — was not in a position to take power. Nor could members of the former government, or its more democratic opponents, overthrow the Islamist-led government.

On Friday, the Ennahda Party congratulated the quartet on the prize. “It honors the efforts of the quartet, and it also honors Tunisia, which, thanks to God and the efforts of Tunisia’s children, succeeded in preventing the killing and fighting for power that are happening in neighboring countries,” the party’s leader, Rached Ghannouchi, wrote in a Facebook post.

In Oslo, Ms. Five said that the 2013 achievement was decisive in the Nobel committee’s thinking. “The quartet paved the way for a peaceful dialogue between the citizens, the political parties and the authorities, and helped to find consensus-based solutions to a wide range of the challenges across political and religious divides,” she said.

However, the current peace in Tunisia — overseen by an alliance of secular liberals, trade unionists and some officials from the former Ben Ali era — is still fragile. In March, Islamist extremists stormed the National Bardo Museum in Tunis, killing 21 tourists and a police officer, and in June, an Islamist gunman killed 38 people at a beachside resort in Sousse. Most of the victims were tourists, and the attacks shattered what had been a pillar of the economy. The government has moved to shut mosques thought to be associated with extremists.

At the Nobel announcement, officials deflected questions from reporters about the Islamic State and other extremist groups, though Ms. Five acknowledged, “We want to prove that it is possible for Islamist and secular political movements to work together in the best interests of the people.”

諾貝爾和平獎 黑馬突尼西亞對話組織出線

梅克爾讚「了不起的決定」

挪威諾貝爾委員會九日宣布，今年和平獎得主為突尼西亞民間組織「全國對話四方集團」（National Dialogue Quartet），肯定其在2011年茉莉花革命推翻突尼西亞極權政府後打破政治僵局，致力促成各方對話、維護國家安定及建立多元民主的努力。名不見經傳的該團體爆冷出線，熱門人選之一的德國總理梅克爾隨即致賀，稱讚是「了不起的決定」。

「全國對話四方集團」由四個突國民間團體在2013年組成：突尼西亞全國總工會（Tunisian General Labor Union UGTT）、突尼西亞產業、貿易與手工業聯盟（Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts UTICA）、突尼西亞人權聯盟（Tunisian Human Rights League LDTH）以及突尼西亞律師公會（Tunisian Order of Lawyers），成員士農工商皆有，涵蓋各行各業。

諾貝爾委員會決定頒給「全國對話四方集團」，而非四個成員團體，盼突顯他們合作保護國家的向心力。今年得獎呼聲甚高者包括德國總理梅克爾、天主教教宗方濟各和日本護憲團體，「全國對話四方集團」從未被關注，此番以黑馬之姿獲獎，跌破各界眼鏡。

諾委會主席凱西．庫曼．費佛表示：「希望和平獎的頒發能對肯定突尼西亞維護民主有所貢獻，激勵中東、北非乃至世界各地追求和平與民主的國家，並鼓勵突國民眾繼續奮鬥。」

「獎獻當年罹難的年輕人」

組織之一的全國總工會秘書長阿巴希得知獲獎後說：「我很高興，很感動。這個獎是對我們兩年多來努力的肯定，對全國同胞來說是種榮耀，這個獎應該獻給當年罹難的年輕人。希望國人能團結面對挑戰，尤其是恐怖主義。」突國總統艾塞布西表示，這是對國家共識的肯定。

一名突尼西亞青年因水果攤被警察取締憤而自焚，一個月後的2011年1月引爆百姓對於政府貪腐和民不聊生的怒火。消息透過手機和社群網站快速傳播，醞釀成龐大抗議潮，讓極權統治突尼西亞23年的總統班阿里下台逃亡，稱為「茉莉花革命」。

茉莉花革命並未順利培育出民主果實。班阿里下台後，突國動亂不斷，處於內戰邊緣，四個民間團體於2013年組成「全國對話四方集團」。

該組織主張不同種族、宗教或黨派皆享有相同的基本權利，促成公民、政黨與政府和平而廣泛地對話，並力挺制憲議會與新憲法，使政權能和平轉移，去年12月舉行民主選舉選出新總統。

諾委會指出，雖然突尼西亞民眾仍面對政治、經濟及國家安全等諸多挑戰，但其表現彰顯對話的價值，重視國家的意識，以及公民團體在國家民主化的過程中可以擔當要角。

今年挪威諾委會共收到273件提名，包括205名個人和68個組織。獲獎者可得一紙證書、金質獎章及800萬瑞典克朗（約台幣3160萬元）獎金。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/10/world/europe/national-dialogue-quartet-tunisia-nobel-peace-prize.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/world/20151009/c09nobelpeace/zh-hant/

Video：The National Dialogue Quartet, made up of four organizations, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for aiding in the transition to democracy in the North African country.
http://www.nytimes.com/video/world/europe/100000003968325/tunisian-quartets-nobel-why-they-won.html

2015-10-10．聯合報．A16．國際．編譯李京倫