Tiananmen dead are real Nobel laureates, says dissident

THE imprisoned Chinese dissident who won this year's Nobel Peace Prize was allowed to meet his wife yesterday and told her in tears that he was dedicating the award to victims of the 1989 military crackdown on pro- democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Liu Xia, the wife of democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo, said in a Twitter message that his jailers had informed him a day earlier of his prize.

"Brothers, I have returned," Ms Liu wrote. "Seen Xiaobo. The prison told him the news about his award on the night of the 9th." The Twitter message was verified by a close friend and dissident Wang Jinbo.

In naming him on Friday, the Norwegian-based Nobel committee honored Mr Liu's more than two decades of advocacy of human rights and peaceful democratic change - from the 1989 demonstrations to a manifesto for political reform that he co-authored in 2008 and which led to his latest jail term.

Mr Wang said Mr Liu told his wife during the visit that the prize "goes first" to those who died in the 4 June, 1989, military crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen. "Xiaobo was in tears," he wrote.

While the announcement cheered many in the dissident community and brought calls from the United States, Germany and others for Mr Liu's release, Beijing reacted angrily. It warned Norway's government that relations would suffer, even though the Nobel committee is an independent organisation.

Mr Liu, 54, a literary critic, is in the second year of an 11-year prison term. News of the prize has been largely kept out of China's state-controlled media. Regulations allow prisoners one family visit a month, and Ms Liu previously said police prohibited her from talking about the Nobel nomination.

In her message, Ms Liu said she was put under house arrest on Friday and was no longer able to receive calls on her mobile phone.

Meanwhile, Chinese authorities continued to step up pressure on activists and Mr Liu's supporters. The son of Beijing-based activist Wang Lihong said police told him Mr Wang was being detained for eight days after taking part in a brief demonstration on Friday at a park following the news that Mr Liu had been awarded the peace prize.